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Go to lifebudgets.com/signup, enter your name, email, and password, and choose your current life stage. You'll be taken to the setup wizard which walks you through connecting your first account and setting up a budget.

Life Budgets is built for four life stages: Single, Couple (Dating/Living Together), Married/Family, and Sandwich Generation (caring for both children and aging parents). You can update your life stage at any time in Settings — your full financial history carries forward automatically.

Yes. You can create accounts manually and add transactions by hand. Plaid bank sync is optional but recommended for the best experience — it saves you from manual entry and enables automatic transaction categorization.

Life Budgets is fully responsive and works on any device through your browser. The interface adapts to mobile, tablet, and desktop screens. A dedicated native app is on the roadmap.

Go to Accounts → Add Account → Connect with Plaid. Search for your institution, log in with your bank credentials, and select which accounts to link. Plaid uses read-only access — it cannot move money. Balances and transactions update automatically after each sync.

Life Budgets supports checking, savings, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts through Plaid. If your institution isn't available via Plaid, you can add a manual account and enter transactions by hand.

Transactions sync automatically when Plaid sends a webhook (typically within minutes of a transaction posting). You can also trigger a manual sync at any time using the Refresh button on the Transactions page.

If a connection expires or needs re-authentication, you'll see a warning on the Accounts page. Click Reconnect and re-enter your bank credentials to restore the sync. Existing transactions are preserved.

50/30/20 is automatic: every Plaid transaction is bucketed into Needs (50%), Wants (30%), or Savings (20%) based on its category. Zero-Based requires you to allocate every dollar to a named category each month, with rollover support. You can switch paradigms any time in Settings.

Yes. Go to Settings → Budgeting Paradigm to switch between 50/30/20 and Zero-Based. Your transaction history and account data are preserved. If you switch to Zero-Based, Life Budgets will auto-create your first month's budget by copying the previous month's allocations.

When you enable rollover on a budget category, any unspent allocation carries forward to the next month — increasing that category's budget. Negative rollover (if you overspent) reduces the next month's allocation. Toggle rollover per category in the budget view.

Go to Transactions → Add Transaction. Enter the description, amount, date, and optionally assign a category and account. Manual transactions appear alongside Plaid transactions in all reports.

Go to Household → Create Household (if you don't have one yet) → Invite Member. Enter their email address and they'll receive an invitation. They can accept or decline. Once they join, you can each set your privacy level.

Each household member can choose Full (all shared accounts and transactions visible), Partial (shared transactions visible, but not account balances), or Private (you're listed in the household but share no financial data). You can change your level any time in household settings.

IOU tracking lets you split any transaction among household members. When you split a transaction, Life Budgets records who owes who and maintains a running balance for each member pair. You can record a settlement (lump-sum payment) at any time to reset the balance. Great for splitting rent, groceries, and shared expenses.

Yes. Go to Household → Leave Household. If you're the owner and you leave, the household is archived and becomes read-only for all members. If you're a regular member, only your membership ends — the household continues for everyone else.

Go to Goals → New Goal. Enter a name, target amount, target date, and goal type (savings, debt payoff, or investment). Then link one or more accounts to track progress. The goal updates live as your account balances change.

A floor balance is a minimum threshold you set on a goal. If your linked account's balance drops below the floor — whether from a withdrawal or expense — Life Budgets sends an alert. This protects emergency funds even when a goal is in 'spend mode'.

Life Budgets includes: Spending (by category), Savings (trend and savings rate), Net Worth (assets vs. liabilities over time), and Income vs. Expenses (monthly comparison). All reports support preset and custom date ranges.

No. Personal reports are private to your account. Only data from accounts you've shared with the household is included in household-level views. Your individual spending and income reports are yours alone.

Life Budgets costs $9.99/month or $89.99/year (equivalent to $7.50/month, saving 25%). Your entire household is included at no extra charge. There is a 7-day free trial with no credit card required.

Go to Settings → Billing → Cancel Subscription. Your access continues until the end of your current billing period. Your data stays readable for 30 days after cancellation.

Yes. Life Budgets uses Supabase with row-level security so your data is only accessible to you and household members you've invited. Plaid tokens are encrypted at rest. We never sell your data to third parties.

Go to Settings → Account → Delete Account. This permanently removes all your data, including accounts, transactions, goals, and household memberships. This action cannot be undone.