u/SignificanceNew8390

I feel I'm pretty comfortable with how credit cards work in ZeroSum (having come from YNAB), but I'm struggling to understand what happened in my budget.

On Sept 30, one of my credit cards had a balance of -$21.20. There was $21.20 in the credit card payment category. The statement date for this credit card is Oct 2, and I wanted to pay the card down to $0 on this date so that I wouldn't have a balance due on the next billing cycle.

However, I have 2 recurring subscription charges on that card on the 2nd of each month, totaling $7.98. Because of this, on Sept 30, I scheduled a credit card payment from my bank's app, totaling $29.18 ($21.20 + $7.98). The payment's expected arrival date was Oct 2, though in ZeroSum, I dated the payment on Sept 30. This meant my credit card payment category was short $7.98 (which I expected).

Oct 1 rolled around, and I assigned all of my money to my categories. My two subscription categories were fully funded in anticipation of the two charges.

On Oct 2, ZeroSum processed the two subscriptions, totaling $7.98. What I expected to happen was for ZeroSum to move the $7.98 from my subscription categories to my credit card payment category, zeroing everything out. Instead, my credit card payment category is still short $7.98, even though $7.98 left my two subscription categories. I'm not sure where the money from these categories went.

If I change the date of the credit card payment to today, my credit card payment category is zeroed out, but my Ready to Budget says I've overbudgeted by $7.98.

Did I undercover a bug, or am I not fully understanding how credit cards work in ZeroSum?

First off, I am so happy I found Zerosum! I didn't expect to find another piece of software like YNAB, where I'd find myself staring contently at my budget at random moments throughout the day. (I had tried AB for a bit, but the way it handles scheduled transactions and its lack of a UI for goals made budgeting so clunky and sad for me.)

The biggest pluses for Zerosum are the set-aside goal with a cap (this has got to be by far my favorite feature), the reports (so many!), and the "next month" built-in category (didn't know I needed this until I tried it). And of course, the lower price point is the cherry on top!

There are a few things I miss from YNAB though, and I'd love to see them in Zerosum:

1. New transactions aren't being marked for approval. In YNAB, I set up a TON of scheduled transactions (both for actual transactions and for random important to-do items), and when I check in daily, I look for the little white dot next to each account that has transactions I need to approve/review. Zerosum doesn't have this, and I almost overdrafted my checking account because I forgot to make a savings-to-checking transfer (YNAB caught it for me).
2. No pinned categories on mobile. In the YNAB mobile app, you can pin categories at the top of your budget. I love this for when I'm out shopping and getting gas, as I can check my most frequently-used on-the-go categories without needing to scroll through my budget.
3. Net worth chart feels too small and difficult to read. In YNAB, the net worth graph is so much easier to read (better color contrast), is larger (so it's easier to make out smaller changes month-over-month), and has both the asset and debt bars on the same side of the x-axis (so it's easier to see debt shrink relative to the net worth line). As much as I love Zerosum's plethora of reports and customizable dashboard, I truly miss how net worth is displayed in YNAB.
4. CSV export of transactions and plan data. In YNAB, I liked how I could export everything in CSV format and easily import it into AB or Excel. While I don't foresee myself suddenly wanting to leave Zerosum (or fleeing back to AB), I do feel a little worried that if something happened to Zerosum, I'd have no way of getting my data out in a usable form to use elsewhere.

Hopefully, some (or all!) of these features will be implemented by the time my YNAB membership is up in December, as I'd love for Zerosum to be my new budgeting forever-home. :)

EDIT: Just wanted to give a shoutout to u/austinmrs, really appreciate him accepting feedback and making changes so quickly to Zerosum! I was shocked to see that 3) above has already been addressed, and the net worth graph now more closely matches YNAB's (it's beautiful!). I also learned that 1) above is already in the works, 4) already partially exists (I didn't see that you can export a CSV of your transactions from either the All Transactions view or from an individual account), and a few folks in the comments said for 2) that they use a custom filter for their on-the-go categories (which I've already set up). Love the community here, thanks all!

I love seeing folks' progress posts on their journeys to FIRE, especially from those who don't have crazy high salaries or 7 figure networths in their 20s. So, I figured I'd share mine. 30F software engineer making a not-so-crazy salary of $118k (though I am still quite blessed to be making 6 figures). I've always been frugal, and I learned about FIRE in college, so you could say that's when my journey started. 😄

Before I jump into my numbers, I do want to make the following disclaimers about my own journey, as I fully acknowledge that I've been quite privileged:

• I have kind, generous, and financially savvy parents who contributed a significant amount into a 529 for me, allowing me to graduate debt-free from college. Because I chose an in-state school and received numerous scholarships, my 529 had a sizeable amount left over.
• My parents also helped me buy my first used car in cash, though I eventually worked to pay them back for a portion of the cost.
• When I moved to a HCOL area, I met my partner, and I was able to live with them and their family for a very reasonable monthly rent. I increased the amount I paid their family whenever I received meaningful increases in income.
• My parents continued their generosity by allowing me to use the 529 funds for more education in a different field (software engineering), for part of an eventual house downpayment (yes, I got a hefty tax bill, and yes, I underestimated its magnitude 😖), and for Roth IRA rollovers.

With that out of the way, here is my earnings journey:

• 2014-2018: $9–$9.50/hr (part-time work in college)
• 2018–2021: $12–$15/hr, with a brief bump of $18/hr during COVID (part-time retail work while going back to school)
• 2021–2025: $60k–$99k (first salaried job!)
• 2025–2026: $118k (current job)

And here's how my assets have grown. The table starts in 2018 because that's when I started becoming more independent from my parents; aside from assistance in the form of the 529 mentioned above, I reached parental independence in mid-2019. The last table row is current as of 04/30/2026.

Year	Retirement	Cash	Home Equity	Total NW
2018	$7,704	$3,052	$0	$10,756
2019	$15,446	$1,983	$0	$17,429
2020	$21,116	$11,299	$0	$32,415
2021	$30,854	$5,546	$0	$36,400
2022	$56,385	$14,287	$0	$70,673
2023	$108,866	$51,194	$0	$160,060
2024	$163,188	$47,130	$47,844	$258,162
2025	$212,350	$32,347	$42,840	$287,537
2026	$242,702	$32,883	$52,746	$328,331

The retirement portion above includes all of my tax advantaged accounts (401(k)s, IRAs/Roth IRAs, and HSAs) as well as a couple taxable brokerages. All of my investments are in broad market ETFs and mutual funds. My current allocation is roughly 70% US stocks (VTI/VVIAX), 14% international (VXUS/VEMIX), 8% real estate (VNQ/VGSNX) and 8% bonds (BND).

The cash portion listed above is the difference between total cash and credit card debt (I pay my cards off in full each month) and is a mix of I Bonds, Treasuries, CDs, and cash in HYCAs and HYSAs, plus my escrow account with my mortgage lender. The home equity portion is the difference between my home's estimated value and my mortgage.

My desired FIRE budget is $6k monthly/$72k yearly. I'm targeting a SWR of 3.25%, so I'll need roughly $2.2m to retire. I'm currently investing about $2.3k per month, which includes employer contributions to my 401(k) and HSA, as well as 529 to Roth IRA rollovers. The goal is to get there by my 50th birthday, which I think will be challenging but doable.