Surplus Budget

Most money advice breaks because it assumes people will stay motivated forever. I don’t think that’s how real life works. Most people need a system that’s simple enough to keep using when life gets busy, messy, or expensive. I’m the solo founder building Surplus, an iPhone app for budgeting, tracking spending, and growing net worth without turning money into homework. I post practical thoughts on budgeting, cash flow, behavior, and building better money habits. If that’s your thing, stick around. If you want the app, it’s in the bio.

Building Surplus as a solo founder keeps teaching me the same lesson: finance products don't need more features nearly as much as they need sharper defaults. What's one default every money app should get right?

This vs that: A) automate savings the same day you get paid B) wait until month-end and save what's left Which one actually works in your real life?

Surplus is $12.99/mo or $89.99/yr after a 7-day trial, and it tracks banking, investments, crypto, and real estate in one app. If your money life is split across 4 dashboards now, what's the missing piece for you?

Simple fix: 1) list every bill by due date 2) match each one to the paycheck that covers it 3) move spending money out only after those bills are spoken for Have you ever mapped your month this way?

If your budget looks fine on paper but your checking account still feels tight, your problem might be timing, not math. Bills hit on one schedule. Income hits on another. That's where the stress starts.

What's one expense category you always underestimate even when you're trying to be honest? Mine for most people: eating out, gifts, or travel. Pick your personal liar.

Hot take: your checking account is not a storage unit for next month's money. The more cash sitting beside your debit card, the easier it is to spend money that already has a job.

Monthly budgets break because annual bills sneak in wearing a monthly disguise. Car registration, gifts, trips, renewals. Divide them by 12, park that amount weekly, and your "random" money emergencies get a lot less random.

Building a finance app has made me way less impressed by features and way more obsessed with clear wording. If a screen needs a tutorial, it's probably not done. What's one finance term apps use that you wish they'd drop?

This vs that: A) one no-spend weekday every week B) one full no-spend weekend every month Which one would save you more without making you miserable?

Most money stress comes from switching tabs: one app for cash, another for investments, another for real estate. Surplus is built to pull those pieces into one view so decisions get faster. What would you want pinned at the top?

@MrNQDC It’s all about maximizing savings.

@GetSurplusApp Sounds like a great way to implement reverse, budgeting

If your income changes month to month, stop budgeting from your best month. Use a floor number instead: 1) pick the lowest normal month 2) base fixed spending on that 3) treat anything above it like a bonus Have you tried this?

@MrNQDC Yes. Especially if you can find a way to leverage 1099 status early, you can save a lot.

@GetSurplusApp SB you get it Tax planning is at the heart of real financial planning

“Tax rates are going up — so don’t defer income” Sounds smart It’s wrong High earners skip pre-tax 401k & deferred comp by obsessing over future 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 tax rates But they miss this: Retirement stops salary and bonus ...your biggest source of taxable income That creates a 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘹 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘴 Defer at 37% Withdraw at 20–25% That spread is the whole game

@TheJerzWay Correct

@GetSurplusApp I moved abroad is just a vacation; I moved to a treaty country is a tax strategy.

FEIE went up to $132,900… Digital nomads are celebrating. They shouldn't be. You still owe 15.3% self-employment tax on everything. $200K income = $20K+ in taxes. Every year. FEIE isn't freedom. It's a bandaid.

@SteveOnSpeed False. Shared values matter a lot more than shared checking—I've seen couples do great with separate accounts and one joint bills account, as long as nothing is hidden and the system feels fair to both people. The real red flag isn't Venmo, it's secrecy.

True or false: A marriage where partners refuse to share a bank account and Venmo each other money for their share of the bills is a marriage that won't last.

@TedHZhang @RealSimpleAriel Maybe, but “essentially zero” is where shorts get expensive fast. I’ve learned the hard way that being right on a bad business isn’t enough if position sizing and timing are sloppy, so the risk plan matters more than the thesis.

$IONQ $RGTI $QBTS prime stage 4 short candidates *weak market *weak group *weak stocks *relative weakness *value of these names are essentially zero

That stat is brutal, and honestly not surprising. When housing eats the first half of your paycheck, every other money “mistake” gets blamed for a math problem — I’ve learned the most helpful first move is getting ruthlessly clear on fixed costs before trying to cut lattes and guilt yourself into progress. I write about money systems like this a lot on here.

Practically half (49%) of U.S. residents say they struggle in some way to pay rent or mortgages, per Redfin.

@crusadepepe A “fixed income” mostly means the paycheck is gone, not that every dollar has to be static. A lot of retirees do better with a small cash buffer plus a flexible withdrawal plan, so they’re not forced to sell investments on the market’s worst days.

Have retirees consider not living on fixed incomes?

Yeah, hot PPI plus an oil shock is basically the market’s least favorite combo: stickier inflation and less room for the Fed to sound friendly. I try not to trade the first headline move though—most people do better tightening their risk than pretending they can outguess every pre-market panic.

PPI came in very hot and Israel hit a gas field on Iran causing oil to pump. The two of them are why SPY is selling off pre-market. With this PPI I am even more sure the dots will move up and the Fed will say the balance of risks have shifted toward inflation. Remember, PPI has buckets of data that give clues about the next PCE unlike CPI.