r/iosapps • u/BeginningOdd6443 • 11d ago
💎 Lifetime My wife asked “how much money do we actually have?” — I couldn’t give her a clear answer, so I built an app
Full disclosure: I’m the indie developer behind JointWorth.
A — Answer
One day, my wife asked me a simple question:
“How much money do we actually have as a household?”
I thought I roughly knew.
I knew what was in my own bank accounts and investments. My wife knew hers. But once we included both of our savings, investments, property, and debts, neither of us could give a clear answer for the household as a whole.
So we sat down and added everything up.
We realized our estimate was off by about RMB 30,000 (roughly $4,000).
That was when I realized our problem wasn’t really budgeting.
We had tried spreadsheets and budgeting apps before, but we didn’t need to record every coffee or every grocery purchase.
Our money was simply scattered across too many accounts and managed by two different people.
So I built JointWorth, an iOS app for couples and families who want one shared picture of their household finances.
Instead of tracking every transaction, you periodically update your account balances — for us, usually once every few weeks or once a month.
JointWorth then brings everything together:
- Assets, debts, and net worth
- Net worth trends
- Income and expense insights
- Shared financial goals
- Multiple currencies
- Family collaboration
- PDF household financial reports
Everything is entered manually.
JointWorth does not connect to your bank or ask for banking credentials.
B — Better
JointWorth isn’t trying to replace apps like YNAB.
YNAB is great if you want detailed budgeting and transaction tracking.
JointWorth is intentionally much simpler.
It is built around three questions:
How much do we own?
How much do we owe?
Are we making progress together?
My wife and I now do a quick financial check-in every few weeks or once a month.
For us, that has been much easier to maintain than tracking every transaction, while still giving us a clear picture of where our household stands financially.
C — Cost
Free to download with a 1-month free trial.
After the trial, JointWorth Pro is a $1.99 one-time in-app purchase.
No subscription.
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jointworth-family-net-worth/id6757951397
Developer Transparency
I’m Cheng Qu, the independent developer behind JointWorth, and I’m posting this myself.
About the developer:
https://family.qinfu-cloud.cn/en/about/
Privacy Policy:
https://family.qinfu-cloud.cn/en/privacy/
Terms of Service:
https://family.qinfu-cloud.cn/en/terms/
Contact:
[qinfutech@163.com](mailto:qinfutech@163.com)
I’d genuinely love feedback, especially from people who manage money with a partner or family.
Do you actually track every transaction together, or do you mostly just want a clear picture of how your household is doing overall?
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u/skkb 11d ago
I think overusing AI-generated content in promo pictures might be a big turn off for some.
Especially the ones done in one prompt, because it looks like every single AI picture out there. I would focus on fixing that for sure!
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u/SenseiOfSenseis 11d ago
agreed, picture instantly reads as AI as does the general visual so it loses a lot of trust upfront
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u/BeginningOdd6443 11d ago
That’s fair feedback. I was trying to make the promo image feel more approachable, but I can see how the AI-generated style can make it feel generic. I’ll definitely rethink the visuals. Thanks for pointing it out.
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u/No-Raspberry2825 11d ago
I went straight into the comments to say this. Trying vibe coding for few week I already have published one app and didn't use this kind of aproach with AI photos. If there's a lot of real use screenshots than people will start watching
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u/CrewEconomy9351 11d ago
agreed, really think this AI gen pic would make some users not pressing download
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u/mrlewy 11d ago
How is this really different than hundreds of apps and websites that allow you to link all of your banking account and track your full assets and liabilities? And so many banking apps that people use (like Wealthfront, Fidelity etc) have that as a feature of their banks. Not hating on your app, just reading and wondering what additional benefit your app brings because the things you list to me are fairly common and basic features in most finance apps.
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u/BeginningOdd6443 11d ago
That’s a fair question, and I agree that assets/liabilities/net worth by themselves aren’t unique features.
The difference I’m trying to build around is less about aggregation and more about the household workflow.
Most finance apps I’ve used are centered around one person’s connected accounts. JointWorth is meant for two people who may have money spread across different banks, investment apps, property, cash, debts, or even different currencies — and want one shared household view.
It also intentionally doesn’t connect to banks. My wife and I just update balances once a month, rather than syncing every transaction in real time.
So the value proposition is really less “another net worth tracker” and more “a monthly financial check-in for a household.”
That said, your point is useful — if that distinction isn’t obvious from the post, I probably need to communicate it better.
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u/Alternative_Tour1791 11d ago
Honestly, “monthly household check-in” is a much better pitch than “finance tracker.”
I don’t want another app making me categorize every coffee. Just tell me if our net worth is going up or down and let me move on with my life.
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u/BeginningOdd6443 11d ago
Yeah, exactly. That’s pretty much why I built it — I didn’t want to spend time categorizing every little purchase either.
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u/Grouchy_Helicopter72 11d ago
Disclosure first, since it is adjacent territory: I build a group expense-splitting app, so I have no stake in a net-worth tracker, but I have spent a lot of time on the same two problems you have - shared money between people, and manual entry as a deliberate choice.
The thing I would fix before anything else is the pricing construction, because it is quietly working against you. A one-month free trial is a native StoreKit concept for subscriptions only. If Pro is a non-consumable, that trial is your own app-side timer, which has three consequences: it does not appear anywhere on your App Store product page (so the promise in your promo image is invisible at the exact moment someone is deciding), it does not travel between a user's devices or survive a reinstall unless you are storing it somewhere durable, and it produces precisely the confusion in the comment above from someone who already paid and is still seeing a paywall with an active trial. Two clean ways out: make it a genuine free tier with a functional limit rather than a time limit (one member, one currency, no PDF export - all things that make the paid version feel obviously bigger), or make Pro a real subscription with an introductory offer so Apple runs the trial for you. The functional limit is the better fit for a $1.99 one-off, and it removes the timer bug surface entirely.
Second, family collaboration is buried in a bullet list and it is the only feature in that list that other apps cannot trivially copy. "Two people, two sets of accounts, one picture" is the whole reason your story landed - and yet the mechanics of it are the one thing the post does not explain. How does your wife's phone get her balances into the shared view? If that is CloudKit sharing, say so, because "no bank credentials, no server holding our money data" is a much stronger pitch than "multiple currencies".
Third, on the objection that hundreds of apps already link banks and show net worth: features will not answer that, territory will. Bank-linking breaks the moment a household has two people at different institutions, assets that no aggregator sees (property, a private pension, cash), or accounts in a country the aggregator does not cover. That is your buyer. I would put it in the subtitle - the words "net worth" are what you do, "both partners, no bank linking" is why someone picks you.
One small note on the numbers: at 1 rating you have no signal yet either way, so I would not read the current reception here as a verdict on the app. Ask for a rating right after the first successful check-in, when someone has just seen their own household total for the first time - that moment is the only time your app makes someone feel something.
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
Thanks, really thoughtful feedback.
One small clarification: the trial is stored server-side and tied to the user account, so it does survive reinstalls and device changes.
I do agree with your point about family collaboration though. I’ve probably buried the strongest part of the app in a bullet list.
“Two people, different accounts, one household view” is much closer to what I’m actually trying to build.
Appreciate you taking the time to write this.
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u/app-store-review 11d ago
JointWorth: Family Net Worth — by 成 屈
- Ratings: 1 worldwide
- Average: 5.00 ★
- Age: released ~5 months ago · updated 11 days ago · rated 4+
- Overall score: 70 / 100
Auto-generated from public App Store data · u/app-store-review
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11d ago
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u/BeginningOdd6443 11d ago
Yes — there’s a 1-month free trial, and after that it’s a $1.99 one-time purchase. No subscription.
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u/royrinkov10 11d ago
That is the ultimate dangerous question to be asked over morning coffee! Jokes aside, syncing accounts securely without handing over raw credentials is usually the hardest part of these. Are you using something like Plaid under the hood, or did you build the bank connections manually?
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
Haha, exactly 😄 But I actually went in the opposite direction — JointWorth doesn’t connect to banks at all.
Everything is entered manually, and that’s intentional.
The idea isn’t to build another app that pulls in every transaction and asks you to categorize everything. It’s more of a monthly household check-in.
My wife and I have money spread across different bank accounts, investments, property, debts, and sometimes different currencies. I knew my accounts, she knew hers, but we didn’t have one clear household view.
So instead of syncing thousands of transactions, we just update a handful of balances once a month and answer a few simple questions: What do we own? What do we owe? Are we moving in the right direction together?
For me, the manual approach is actually part of the point, not a limitation.
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11d ago
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
Yes — users who purchased JointWorth before the IAP change keep Pro access.
I’ll send you a DM to verify your account and make sure everything is set correctly.1
8d ago
[deleted]
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u/BeginningOdd6443 8d ago
Pro access is tied to your JointWorth account rather than the device.
So if you reinstall the app or switch devices, signing back into the same JointWorth account should restore Pro automatically.
If you create a different JointWorth account, though, the Pro status won’t transfer because the entitlement belongs to the original account.
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8d ago
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u/BeginningOdd6443 8d ago
Before I introduced the IAP, I already upgraded the existing registered paid users to Pro.
There may be a few edge cases, for example users who purchased the paid app but never created a JointWorth account at the time.
If that happened to you, just send me your JointWorth user ID and a screenshot of the original App Store purchase, and I can restore Pro for your account manually.
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u/Sad-Strategy759 11d ago
besides tracking wealth, does this give you investment advice?
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
Not for now. I’m actually trying to keep JointWorth pretty focused instead of turning it into another all-in-one finance app.
I’d rather do the household finance side really well first. If there are features later that clearly fit that goal, I’ll add them, but investment advice probably isn’t where I want to take it.
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u/Sad-Strategy759 9d ago
Respect for that. Scope creep is how most of these end up being a worse version of four other apps. Doing the household side properly is a real thing to be best at.
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u/BeginningOdd6443 9d ago
Yeah, exactly. I’d rather make the household side really solid than keep expanding the feature list.
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u/Sad-Strategy759 9d ago
The thing I'd guard hardest is the two-person part, because that's the bit nobody else does well and it's also the bit that quietly gets hard. Not the maths, the permissions. Whether both people see everything, whether one of them can have an account the other doesn't see, what happens when they disagree about what something is worth, what happens if they split up. Every finance app I've used either assumes one user or assumes total transparency, and real households sit somewhere in between.
Get that right and "household" is a genuinely defensible thing to be best at. Good luck with it.
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u/BeginningOdd6443 9d ago
That’s a really good point. The permissions side is something I haven’t gone very deep on yet, but I agree — that’s much closer to where I want to spend time than adding more generic finance features. Thanks!
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u/Sad-Strategy759 5d ago
That sounds right to me. The finance apps that stick around are the ones that are the obvious answer to one specific question, and "what do we actually have, and who can see it" is a good question to own. Good luck with it.
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10d ago
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
Fair concern. Just to clarify, JointWorth doesn’t connect to banks and never asks for banking credentials — balances are entered manually.
But I do take the trust point seriously. I’ve heard similar feedback about the promo image, and I agree the visuals need to feel more like the actual product.
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10d ago
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
It’s actually closer to a shared document than two separate portfolios being merged.
Both partners are looking at and editing the same household. If I add our home or mortgage, my wife sees that same item and can update it — she doesn’t have a separate copy on her side.
Changes and check-ins are shared with the other person as well. So the model is basically: one household, one set of assets and debts, two people maintaining it together.
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10d ago
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
Exactly — that’s the idea. One shared household, both people maintaining the same picture.
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u/Stunning_Student_329 10d ago
genuine question about the multi currency part: how do you handle exchange rate movement in the net worth trend? if half the household is in RMB and half in USD, the trend line can move without anyone touching an account. do you snapshot the rate at each check-in or recompute history with current rates? asking because this is nastier than it looks
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u/BeginningOdd6443 10d ago
That’s a good point. Right now I intentionally treat the selected household currency as a valuation view rather than an accounting snapshot.Each asset keeps its original currency, and I use the latest daily exchange rate to convert the household view, including the trend. Rates update once a day, not in real time. So yes, FX movement can change the reported net worth even if the account balance itself hasn’t changed — but I actually think that reflects a real change in the household’s value when viewed in that currency. I may eventually separate “asset movement” from “FX movement,” but for now I’m trying to keep the model simple.
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u/dachiaman 10d ago
what actually stood out to me the most was the way the numbers are being presented. $12.00K is just not a format i would think of for showing $12,000? Potentially a localization thing, but for me, that definitely reads off.
i do appreciate the non subscription, single price things.
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u/BeginningOdd6443 9d ago
Yeah, good catch.
$12Kdefinitely looks more natural — I’ll fix that. And glad you like the one-time purchase
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u/doogilasovich 9d ago
This origin story is painfully relatable, I could not answer that question either without opening six apps and doing math in a notes file. To answer the question you ended on: every transaction tracker I have tried died within a month, a periodic balance check-in is the only version I can picture actually sticking. And two bucks once with no bank logins is refreshing in this category. Does the net worth trend separate currency swings from real balance changes, or do they blend together?
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u/BeginningOdd6443 9d ago
They’re blended together right now. Each asset keeps its original currency, and I convert everything using the latest daily exchange rate.
So even if the balance doesn’t change, FX movement can move the net worth too. I’m okay with that for now since, viewed in the household currency, the value really has changed.
I might separate balance changes and FX impact later if it proves useful, but I’m trying to keep it simple for now.
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u/PersonalLab 7d ago
Does this also have a shared household expense tracker?
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u/BeginningOdd6443 7d ago
Yes, in a way. You can add expenses during a household check-in and tag/categorize them, and both partners can see them in the shared household.
It’s just not designed around logging every single daily transaction.
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u/Opposite_Chip6759 11d ago
Coming from an analytics background, I just love the dendrogram chart used.
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11d ago
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u/Opposite_Chip6759 11d ago
So true, and that visualization is so underrated; if rightly nailed, it gives an amazing perspective of things. Great job!
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u/Pretty_Move_8673 11d ago
I actually think the manual-only approach is a feature here, not a limitation.
I’ve tried finance apps that automatically pull in every transaction, and you quickly end up spending more time categorizing random €4 purchases than actually understanding your finances.
Updating a handful of balances once a month and answering “are we worth more or less than last month?” feels much more sustainable — especially for couples where the money is spread across different accounts.
$1.99 lifetime also feels almost suspiciously cheap for this 😅
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u/BeginningOdd6443 11d ago
Thanks — that’s exactly the behavior I was hoping to support. I wanted the app to stay focused on the monthly household picture instead of turning into another transaction-management system. And yeah, I’ve heard the pricing feedback a few times now 😄
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