Guides

Where your money actually goes each month

A method for finding the gap between what you think you spend and what you actually spend — and what to do once you can see it.

Setting up spending categories that match your life

Most category systems collapse because they have too many categories. Here's how to build a set you'll still be using in a year.

Fixed vs variable spending, and why the split matters

The most useful division in personal finance isn't by what you bought — it's by whether you could change it this month.

A five-minute weekly money review

The smallest routine that actually keeps you in control of your money — what to look at, what to ignore, and why weekly beats daily.

Reading a money-flow diagram of your finances

How to read a Sankey diagram of income and spending, what the shape of it tells you, and the three things to look at first.

Cutting fixed costs without changing how you live

A two-hour audit of the lines that leave every month — and keep leaving because nobody looks at them again.

Holiday and Christmas bonuses — what to do with the extra salary months

Fourteen months of salary against twelve months of spending. How to decide where the bonuses go before they arrive.

How to read your statement — card payments, instant transfers and direct debits

Why half the lines on a statement tell you nothing useful, what each type of entry means, and how to stop having to guess.

MB WAY, Multibanco and the lines they leave on your statement

Withdrawals, payment references, instant transfers between people, direct debits — what each Portuguese statement line actually means, and why the name next to it tells you so little.

The bank fees you are paying without noticing

Maintenance commissions, card annual fees, transfer charges. Where they hide on the statement, what the law already caps, and what switching is really worth.

How to track spending across several banks at once

Your money is split across a salary account, a digital bank and a savings account. Here's how to see the whole picture in one place.

Why transfers between your own accounts aren't spending

The most common reason budgeting tools produce numbers nobody believes — and how to tell whether yours is doing it.

Finding the subscriptions you forgot you were paying

How to audit every recurring charge across your accounts, spot the ones designed not to be noticed, and cancel without the usual friction.

Using Revolut next to your main bank

Most people end up with a digital bank beside the one their salary arrives in. It works well, and it quietly breaks every spending figure either app can show you.

How to actually cancel a recurring charge

Finding the subscription is the easy half. Here is what to do when the cancel button is hidden, the charge continues anyway, or you cannot work out who is billing you.

Reading your mortgage statement — why the payment keeps moving

Capital, interest, Euribor, spread, two insurances — what each line of the prestação actually is, and which numbers deserve your attention.

Paying down the mortgage early — when it beats saving

Amortising early is a guaranteed return at your loan's rate. Whether to do it is a comparison, not a conviction — here is the arithmetic.

What a house actually costs per month

IMI, condomínio, two insurances, and the repairs that arrive on their own schedule — the costs beyond the prestação, and how to stop them surprising you.

Effort rate — how much of your income can go to the mortgage

The number a Portuguese bank calculates before approving a mortgage, how to work it out yourself from your statement, and why the limit that matters is lower than the limit you will be approved for.

Using your bank statement to find the IRS deductions you missed

A bank statement is not a fatura and never will be. It is still the fastest way to find the invoices that never made it to e-Fatura with your NIF on them.

e-Fatura without the February panic

How the invoice system actually works, why deductions leak, and the ten-minute monthly routine that replaces the year-end weekend of receipts.

The Portuguese tax calendar, and the dates that decide your refund

Filing in April only reports what February confirmed. The dates of the Portuguese tax year in order, what each one asks of you, and why one of them is the only one that hurts.

Freelancing in Portugal — separating personal and professional spending

Self-employed with one bank account is the most common setup and the most confusing one. How to separate the two sides without opening a second account, and how much to set aside each month.

How much you should save each month — and why 50/30/20 fails

The 50/30/20 rule assumes housing costs that no longer exist. How to reach a realistic savings rate from your own numbers.

How big your emergency fund should be

"Six months of expenses" gets repeated without context. How to calculate the right number for your situation, and where to keep it.

How to work out your real net worth

What to count, what to leave out, and why the number matters more than your monthly spending — with a worked example.

Tracking Certificados de Aforro alongside your bank accounts

Portuguese savings certificates sit outside the banking system, which is why people lose track of them. How to keep them in the same picture.

Term deposits or savings certificates — where to put safe money

The two safe options most Portuguese households compare. How to decide without chasing whichever rate you saw this week.

How to see all your accounts in one place

Salary in one bank, card spending in another, savings somewhere else. What it takes to get one number instead of four apps, and what to check before you set it up.

Is it safe to connect your bank to an app?

What a regulated Open Banking connection can and cannot do, who is on the other end of it, and the questions actually worth asking before you approve one.

Why your bank's app can't show the whole picture

Bank apps have improved enormously and still cannot answer the question you have. The reason is structural, not a matter of the feature being missing.

The spending spreadsheet, and why it stops

Nearly everyone tries a spreadsheet first, and nearly everyone stops updating it around week five. The reason is not discipline, and it is worth understanding before you try again.

Choosing a personal finance app in Portugal

What the options actually are, which questions separate them, and where each one is genuinely weak — including this one.

Looking for a YNAB alternative in Europe

What people are usually trying to escape when they go looking, why bank connections are the sticking point outside North America, and what to replace it with.

What Revolut's spending breakdown can and can't tell you

Revolut's analytics are genuinely good, and they are also drawn from one account. Here is what that leaves out, and when it stops being enough.

Wallet, Spendee, Money Manager — when manual entry stops working

The manual expense apps are well built and most people stop using them within two months. The reason is the same one that kills the spreadsheet, and it decides which tool you should pick.

A spending tracker spreadsheet, and the month you stop filling it in

A free template you can import into Excel or Google Sheets, the four columns that decide whether it is useful, and an honest account of how long it will last.

Setting up rules so categorisation matches how you think

Bica sorts your transactions on its own and gets most of them right. Rules are for the ones where "right" depends on something only you know — and they win, permanently.

Adding what the banks can't see — property, loans, savings certificates

Connected accounts are the easy half of net worth. The half that decides the number — the house, the mortgage, the certificates — has to be told once, and then it stays told.