Founded by Ben Miller in 2020, Colorado startup ChroniFI is a tool that aims to revolutionize the way you view your own money. For $9.99 a month, you'll have a powerful dashboard and tool that gives you all sorts of metrics and insights into how long it'll take for you to achieve financial independence. This ChroniFI review will run through exactly what ChroniFI is, who ChroniFI is for, and some pros and cons of the tool.
What Is Chronifi?
The creation of Ben Miller, ChroniFI aims to give individuals on the route to FI (financial independence) more clarity on their journey. Ben originally started his career in high finance and found that, though he was making lots of money, he was unsatisfied with the direction of his life. Also, though he was consistently saving, he didn't have a clear idea of just how long it would take for him to achieve financial freedom.
After countless early mornings, tons of calculations, and various tools, Ben figured out a way to clearly and accurately view his current personal financial situation in terms of the resource that mattered: time. Then, armed with this information, Ben gained the confidence needed to quit his job and start living more intentionally.
Ben invented ChroniFI to help others simplify their finances in terms of time as opposed to dollars. The personal finance software boils everything down to a few key numbers:
- How long it will take for you to achieve financial freedom
- How long you could live financially free based on your current savings and investments (your ChroniFI number)
All you need to do is input your current financial information into ChroniFI, then enter a snapshot twice a month, and you get a clear view of where things are now and how they are trending.
Who Is Chronifi For?
ChroniFI is for anybody interested in personal finance, financial freedom, and living life on their terms. For the most part, if you wish that you could better see your finances and take concrete action to reach your financial goals, ChroniFI is for you. However, ChroniFI could be especially suited for:
- Highly-paid professionals who make more than enough money but are craving a change in life
- People who are motivated and committed to achieving financial freedom
- Individuals working the 9-5 job who are burned out and want something more fulfilling out of life
For many people, the idea of FIRE (financial independence / retire early) is exceptionally appealing, but only near the beginning (when you first discover it) and the end (when you're close to pulling the trigger on retirement). The middle part can feel dull and monotonous when you're grinding away. ChroniFI aims to change that by providing you with critical insights into your finances so you can get clear on how long it will take for you to be financially independent and start enjoying the current life you're living.
Also, many high-earners on the path to FIRE tend to burn out. It's easy to feel lost when all of your money is going towards a distant future, and you don't get to enjoy any of it now. ChroniFI solves this issue by showing you what your money is worth in time. With ChroniFI, you'll be able to know the perfect amount to save/invest so that you can maximize both future and present enjoyment of your money.
Chronifi Features
Some of the features of the ChroniFI tool include:
- A straightforward setup module where you can input detailed information about your accounts, income, and expenses
- A slick dashboard that gives you all the key metrics you need without overwhelming you (includes a neat graph showing you how your years of ChroniFI change with time and metrics like your current years to FI and your net worth number)
- A sandbox tab that lets you choose a factor to solve for and input other variables to get it (for example, you could answer the question “how much annual income would I need if I wanted to renovate my living room for $50,000?”)
- A habit calculator to let you know what your coffee habit, streaming subscriptions, and weekly take-out orders are costing you (in terms of time through delayed FI, of course)
- An accurate wage calculator that lets you know how much an hour of your time earns you
- A tax and social security calculator to give you even more precise insights into the actual value of your time and money
Pros and Cons of Chronifi
With any tool or service, it's essential to understand the advantages and disadvantages of investing your resources into it. Here are the pros and cons of ChroniFI:
Pros
- Simple – ChroniFI offers software that is both user-friendly and informative. Even though ChroniFI has so many graphs, charts, and calculators, it has genuinely simplified personal finances to the level that anybody can easily understand it.
- Dynamic – By providing the “sandbox” option for users to play around with, ChroniFI has opened up the black box of factors that inform complicated decisions involving financial freedom. Like all the other features, the sandbox is also easy-to-use and intuitive.
- Secure – Unlike certain other budgeting apps or services, ChroniFI does not require you to link any financial account data or banking information. You can rest assured that your information will stay secure by using ChroniFI.
Cons
- Manual information Entering – Though ChroniFI is secure in that it won't require you to link your accounts, that also means that you need to manually input a financial snapshot twice a month to have ChroniFI's stats stay up to date.
Recap: Chronifi Review
Though the final destination can be motivating for many professional workers striving towards financial freedom, the actual process can be a slog.
It can be confusing to keep track of exactly how many years of FI you can currently afford and how much longer it will take to reach true FI.
ChroniFI provides a solution to this issue, allowing you to easily input your financial situation and see where you are (in terms of time to FI) and how much each monetary habit is costing you.
You can currently try out ChroniFI for free for a month (no credit card required). Check out some of their social profiles below:
Jeff is a current Harvard student and author of the blog Financial Pupil who is passionate about learning, living, and sharing all things personal finance-related. He has experience working in the financial industry and enjoys the pursuit of financial freedom. Outside of blogging, he loves to cook, read, and golf in his spare time.