Launching today
Pluto Budgeting
Manage your money the way you've always wanted to
2 followers
Manage your money the way you've always wanted to
2 followers
Pluto is a budgeting app built around your cash flow, not last month's receipts. It automatically detects recurring bills, forecasts your balance day by day, and flags the moments you'll be tight so you can fix them early. Clean transaction data, clear runway, and space to save for what's next. Budgeting that looks forward.
This started 14 years ago when Mint was the king. Monthly budgets based on category never worked for me. I knew what my bills were and when they were paid. I just really only ever wanted to know how much of my account balance could be spent on day-to-day expenses, that's where it all started. Living by that Safe to Spend amount on my checking account is what lets me save up for things I no longer worry about and avoid overspending.
The game changer came when I applied the idea of saving up by pay period to recurring bills. What if I only ever had to set up the schedules for my various bills once, and for each that is less frequent, like quarterly or annually, tell the system to just save up for it so I had enough set aside for when the bill hit? That's scheduled savings and it's like freeing yourself from the anxiety of making sure you're thinking about all of your bills all the time.
After building out that foundation, I was able to add something I always wanted - virtual accounts - a simple way to segment the money in my account that wasn't earmarked for bills. And since I knew what my income schedule was, I could have it automatically add to the virtual account balances on pay day so I never felt the pain, because it never showed up as an amount I could spend.
This platform allowed me to address all of the things I hated about managing my money and the way all of the apps handled budgeting:
Know exactly what I can spend before my next pay day and still have money for all of the bills
Stop worrying about my quarterly trash bill and annual subscription renewals, and make my mortgage payment come out of more than one paycheck. I even took it to the next level and set up recurring expenses for each of my kids birthdays, car registrations, oil changes every 6 months, and many other bills I wanted to forget about
Budget with my wife
Reserve a little of my safe to spend for an upcoming dinner out by creating a one-off planned transaction, reserving $100
Run simulations of what the next 2 years would look like if I bought a new car
Be able to set my gas and electric bills to "Seasonal" so the system learns seasonal trends and predicts accurate monthly bill amounts so my budget stays realistic
Borrow from myself if an unexpected expense came out of nowhere
Never see another overdraft fee because scheduled savings builds a cushion in your account that gives you room to breathe if you miss something
Not be out of luck when a bank connection is down, you can manually intervene and not fall behind
Everyone starts with a 30 day free trial of Premium features at sign-up, no annoying credit card or subscription needed up front. If it doesn't help you manage your money, there is no obligation or need to do anything than stop using it. I never liked pushy apps asking for everything up front.
And if you have any questions, you can submit support tickets right inside the app.