I’ve been meaning to write my success story for a while so here goes! It’s not super dramatic, and I know I’ve had it a lot easier than some, but it’s been a big change for me personally.
I was fortunate in that I didn’t really have to budget when I was younger. I got a good job right out of college and my savings were going up so I figured I was doing ok. After my wife and I got married, she was the driving force that got us started looking for a good way to budget. Nothing we tried really stuck though, it was either too much work and we didn’t keep it up, or we had the data but didn’t feel like we could actually visualize it in a way that was helpful.
The real catalyst was when we bought our house. In retrospect it feels like such a foolish move, buying a house when we didn’t even have a real budget. We knew we’d be able to afford the mortgage, but it was 50% more than the rent we had been paying, plus the HOA dues and all the other home expenses. What we weren’t able to accurately predict was whether we’d have to change our lifestyle to be able to afford the house. Yikes.
So we bought the house and suddenly our savings weren’t going up like they used to. We weren’t going to run out of money, but it was enough of a change to be unsettling. Luckily, around that time we found Tiller. My wife and I are both total spreadsheet nerds, and Tiller immediately felt familiar, approachable, and very very customizable. It felt like we could finally see our financial data in a way that was useful and actionable. It helped us see where our money was actually going, and tweak our spending so that we were still saving enough without making any major lifestyle changes.
Over the years we’ve been using Tiller the way we budget has changed, but the biggest change for me has been in my confidence regarding our financial decisions. When we had our first kid we were able to accurately predict how much it would cost us to take the parental leave that we wanted. When my wife lost her job, we were able to look at our budget and realistically project how long until money got tight, and that allowed her to be more selective when searching for a new job. When my hours at work were reduced (thanks COVID), it was the same situation. We could look at our budget and see if and where we wanted to reduce our spending, and how long until we’d be in trouble. Luckily, and thanks to Tiller, things worked out for us and we are in a better financial position now than we’ve ever been.
I know this is getting long, I’m almost done! My final bit of praise for Tiller is in the responsiveness of the support staff, and the continual development of the platform. Even before Tiller Community existed I was pleased with the customer support, and I was very excited when this community launched. You can tell I was one of the first to sign up because I got the username “matt”, I’ve never gotten that anywhere else! As the community has grown it has only gotten more and more useful, and lately it’s been really fun to help new users get started with Tiller.
In case it wasn’t clear already, I’m a huge fan of Tiller and I recommend it to everyone I know. A big thanks from us to everyone on the Tiller staff! It’s been a huge help for my wife and me, and given us a ton of financial confidence that we didn’t have before.