I posted my UK personal finance app on Reddit today. It did not go to plan.

I posted WealthR on Reddit this morning.

By lunchtime, someone had told me I wasn't reading the room.

Fair enough, honestly. Here's the reply in full:

They weren't being nasty. They were being honest. And they're not entirely wrong — that subreddit is absolutely inundated with half-finished apps nobody asked for.

But here's where I'd gently push back.

"Just use a spreadsheet" is the most repeated advice in personal finance

And it's not bad advice. Spreadsheets are powerful, free, and flexible.

The problem is that most people don't actually use them. Not because they're lazy — but because building a spreadsheet that forecasts your net worth, models your ISA and pension together, calculates your FIRE number, and adjusts everything for inflation requires either serious spreadsheet skills or a serious amount of free time.

Most people have neither.

So what actually happens? They open a blank sheet, add a few column headers, feel briefly productive, and close it. The spreadsheet stays empty. The uncertainty stays.

That's not a personal failing. That's just the gap between "a spreadsheet could do this" and "I actually have a working spreadsheet that does this."

The "crowded space" problem

The reply mentioned the space is crowded. And again — correct.

It's crowded with spending trackers. Apps that connect to your bank, categorise your transactions, and tell you that you spent £340 on food last month and £47 on coffee.

Useful, maybe. But that's looking backwards.

What most of these apps don't do — especially for UK users — is look forwards. They won't tell you:

• Whether you're on track to retire when you want to
• What your net worth will look like in 10 years at your current savings rate
• How your ISA, SIPP, and workplace pension interact
• What your FIRE number actually is, with your real numbers
• How close you are to your next milestone

That's the gap WealthR sits in. Not "another spending tracker." A forecasting tool built specifically for UK investors that shows you where you're going — not just where you've been.

The number nobody talks about: what your money is actually worth

Here's something most UK personal finance apps quietly ignore.

Say your forecast shows £180,000 in 20 years. Sounds great. But £180,000 in 20 years — assuming 2.5% inflation — is worth about £109,000 in today's money. That's a meaningful difference, especially if you're planning around a specific retirement income.

This is the gap between nominal returns (the big number) and real returns (what your money actually buys).

WealthR has an inflation-adjustment toggle built directly into the forecast. Flip it on, and every projected figure deflates to today's purchasing power. The default is 2.5% — close to the UK's long-run average — but you can edit it to whatever you think is realistic.

The insight below the chart tells you plainly: "you put in £X — compounding turns it into £Y. In today's purchasing power that's £Z." One sentence. No jargon.

What I'd tell someone who "just uses a spreadsheet"

Great. Genuinely. If it works, keep using it.

But if you've ever:

• Stared at your ISA balance and wondered if you're saving enough
• Looked at a projected figure and thought — but what will that actually buy me?
• Googled "how much do I need to retire" and got a number that felt made up
• Tried to model what happens if inflation runs at 4% instead of 2%
• Wanted to know whether your pension is actually on track

...then a spreadsheet could answer those questions. WealthR just already has.

No bank linking. No ads. No data selling. Free. Takes about five minutes to set up.

It won't fix the Reddit algorithm. But it might make your financial future a wee bit clearer — in real terms, not just nominal ones.

As for the Reddit post

I'll try a different sub.