For a long time, I was under the impression of the old mantra, “If you build it, they will come.” But after 15 years in engineering, I can say I was wrong. It’s quite the opposite — the creator should come to the user. Build trust and relationships. Software products are not a set of features. They are a form of relationship between creators and users.
This framework goes even further. Advice and investment are forms of a relationship. Open source is a form of relationship, too.
In my opinion, to build a healthy relationship, one must be:
These core principles shaped the way I built and work on HandsOnMoney.
Here are some cornerstones that resulted from these principles.
You, the user, have hands on your data, not the app. It’s your choice where to store it, how secure that storage is, and how to back it up.
Security is a tough topic to solve. It is a separate profession that requires a lot of expertise.
I know this because my job involves building security systems. The core question in security is not if a system is going to be hacked, but how to mitigate risks and contain the fallout.
Being honest means I cannot tell you that HandsOnMoney has “bank-grade security.” It’s simply impossible without a dedicated team working in this area. And banks are also hacked.
HandsOnMoney is built like good old software. No servers. Just code running on a supercomputer in your pocket.
I chose a free model because I built something that I need, and I believe I can afford to give it back to the world for free.
I genuinely want to make the world a better place.
HandsOnMoney has very low maintenance costs. It does not have any systems to support. The only recurring cost is the Apple Developer subscription. If HandsOnMoney ever needs paid services to exist, they will be optional and tied to real costs — not access to your own data.
Software dies; data should not.
Personal finance is not like a photo snapshot. It’s more like a movie that tells a story of getting out of debt and of good and bad things happening in life. Some people love being able to take a quick peek back.
While I can’t guarantee that HandsOnMoney will be there for you for the next five decades, I can guarantee that durability is built into the system from the very first version.
Your data is accessible through:
HandsOnMoney is not backed by investor money.
At the moment, I’m building trust with my users, and I do not want to introduce additional parties into that relationship.
For example, if seed money is provided by a person aligned with these values, that can work. But if we are misaligned, users might be hurt. Finding the right cofounder or investor is very much like marriage. It introduces a lot of complexity at the very beginning — complexity I would rather avoid so I can focus on building trust with users.
I am financially stable myself and do not need external funding or to extract value from HandsOnMoney.
There is no AI in HandsOnMoney at the moment.
Let’s split AI into two categories to avoid confusion:
I do not see a problem that can be solved with LLMs at this moment, though I am open to changing my mind if there is a real need.
However, simple algorithms that reduce friction during statement imports are one of the problems I’m planning to solve.
In either case, the introduction of LLMs or statistical models would:
HandsOnMoney is not open source.
I do not know whether open-sourcing it would help HandsOnMoney succeed or kill it early. However, some independent parts will be published in 2026 (MoneyKit and SwiftGnuCash).
I have spent 18 months building HandsOnMoney. I am also cognizant of the risks inherent in indie apps, and I have a plan.
Humans are mortal and prone to changing their minds. I’m human too, and I do not want to put my users at risk.