I turned a Neo Financial limitation into an advantage.

Back in the years when I used Mint (RIP 🪦), one of the things I enjoyed most was being able to see all of my money in one place.

Back then that wasn't particularly difficult. I think I only had my TD account, maybe a savings account, and a credit card that my parents had helped me open when I was younger.

Even throughout most of my 20s I primarily stuck with TD. That is until I started exploring some of the newer banking options available in Canada such as EQ Bank, Tangerine, and eventually Neo Financial.

Among those was Neo. A simple and user-friendly banking app that I thought was worth trying out. While it never became my main spending account, I did end up liking it enough to keep it around. There was just one thing that annoyed me though. It wouldn't connect to Monarch Money.

Or at least not reliably..

Meanwhile, my TD accounts, EQ accounts, credit cards, and most of my other financial accounts all synced perfectly. For the longest time that bothered me because I wanted everything connected. I wanted my net worth to be accurate, all my transactions in one place, and all my spending reports to be complete.

But over the last little while, I've accidentally discovered that Neo works better for me because it isn't connected. See, I've developed a budgeting system that I've been really enjoying lately.

A lot of it stems from things I've learned from Ramit Sethi and the idea of intentionally deciding where my money should go before I spend it.

Today, Neo has essentially become what I consider my guilt-free spending account.

Every month, I have automated transfers (from my main account with EQ Bank) funding a variety of spending categories such as Fast Food, Date Night, Gifts, Health, Tech, Travel and a few others, since Neo allows you to have up to 10 accounts.

The important part is that all of those amounts are decided ahead of time and automatd to recurr. By the time the money reaches Neo, the budgeting has already happened. Each category gets a predetermined amount and if one of them runs out, that's it! I wait until next month. No topping it up, no borrowing from another category, and no convincing myself that "it's only another twenty bucks."

What eventually clicked for me was realizing that Monarch doesn't actually need to see every transaction happening inside the Neo guilt-free spending umbrella.

Because the EQ Bank account that funds Neo is the one connected to Monarch, indicating the amounts.

The only thing it doesn't know is whether that money eventually became sushi, a birthday gift, a new gadget, a movie ticket, or a burger on the way home.

And honestly, I don't think I need it to. :)

Instead of cluttering Monarch with dozens of small discretionary purchases, Monarch gets the bigger picture while Neo handles the details. Monarch still gives me an accurate view of my finances, while Neo acts as the place where I actually spend the money I've intentionally set aside for fun, without worry.

Ironically, the thing that originally frustrated me about Neo has become one of my favourite parts of my current budgeting system. :D

Do I still hope Monarch and Neo improve their integration one day? Absolutely.

But I'm no longer in a rush.

Sometimes the best systems aren't the ones that track absolutely everything. Sometimes they're the ones that help us focus on the things that actually matter.

You can use any of the links I shared in this blog as you'd like. Some are affiliated and will go a small but long way to help support the blog! :)