Hello Ghostfolio 👋

In this article I would like to introduce my new open source project in more detail: Ghostfolio, a web-based personal finance management software.

What problem does Ghostfolio solve?

Due to rising inflation and negative interest rates, I have been looking for some time at how I can invest my assets in the most diversified way possible. Specifically, I follow a buy and hold strategy with investments in different asset classes spread across different platforms. Therefore, I was looking for an app that would holistically aggregate my portfolio. During my research on the internet and in app stores, I have tried several solutions, but none of them has convinced me completely: too complicated, too cluttered, not optimized for smartphones or not comprehensive enough.

The vision

It is particularly important to me that I get an overview of all my assets in real time. Previously, I only had the prepared figures available once a year, when I had completed my annual tax declaration. In addition to the cash balance in the savings account, the overall picture also includes country-specific traits such as the voluntary pension plan (pillar 3a) in Switzerland.

In the meantime, I have talked to many colleagues who have been investing for a longer time. Quite a few have created complex spreadsheets from the same considerations. I think that should be better in 2021.

Ghostfolio is supposed to be a simple wealth management software. It presents the current assets at any time and supports the decision making of future investments. Whether rebalancing the portfolio in asset classes (stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, etc.) or financing an apartment, Ghostfolio offers solid, data-driven decision support.

As I value privacy, data protection is an integral part of Ghostfolio. As open source software (OSS), Ghostfolio can be used completely anonymously, without the greedy eyes of big banks or big tech.

From idea to implementation

With this background I have started the ambitious project and programmed with small steps a software that I could quickly use for myself. As a stack, I chose modern web technologies that are personally of particular interest or that I would like to learn and deepen. These include Docker, Nx for the management of the monorepo, NestJS for the backend and PostgreSQL as a database. The code of the frontend and backend is written in TypeScript.

Since I have shortly reached my limits with some calculations, I have looked into different possibilities to get valuable support. Hoping that other people could also benefit from the solution and contribute with improvements if interested, I have released the existing code as open source software. Very soon, other developers contributed to Ghostfolio with great enhancements.

How can I support the project?

Are you also obsessed with a maximally diversified investment strategy? I'm happy for everyone who tries Ghostfolio. Are you convinced of its potential? Any support for Ghostfolio is welcome. Be it with a Ghostfolio Premium Subscription to finance the hosting, a positive rating in the Google Play Store, a star on GitHub, feedback, bug reports, feature requests and of course contributions!

You can reach me by e-mail at hi@ghostfol.io or on Twitter @ghostfolio_.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Thomas from Ghostfolio

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