Making Progress

October 26, 2020

Ahoy, readers!

Now that it's been over a month with a newborn (2nd kiddo born 9/15), I have an updated daily routine.

Clearly I was being ambitious before. Interrupted sleep makes it difficult to get up at 4:45AM... 😂

Here's my current routine:

There are aspects of this routine I don't love.

My preference would be to work on my app in the quiet of the morning before everyone wakes up. I could then relax in the evenings.

But it's hard enough to get out of bed at 6:00AM right now.

Once we're sleeping through the night again, I'll likely adjust the routine. At least I'm finding some time to put toward my side project.

I also don't like how much TV we're watching right now. Right now though, we like to chill at the end of the day 😛

Progress details

Despite adjusting to 2 kids instead of 1, I've been able to make progress.

I am much more comfortable working with the Vue Framework now. This is what I am using to build my web application.

Vue 3 was recently released so I'm using the most updated version of the framework.

I've finished a few critical steps before developing the app:

• Market research
• Defined the initial features
• Sketched the app layout
• Learned the tools to build the app (Vue, Firebase, CSS, HTML, other web technologies...)

At this point I think there is a market simply because so many people are in debt. (Granted, I don't know if they'll pay for my solution)

Worst case scenario: I learn to build an app that functions and helps me pay back my debts.

Best case scenario: People love the product, pay for it, and I can pay down my debt even faster with some of the profits while helping others!

App development

I've been able to work on the app since I did some prep work.

• I've improved the payoff data calculation
• I've added data management to the app
• The chart visual is almost fully implemented

Next up, I'm planning to make it possible to add accounts 👍

When it's released, it will be a small application. But it will hopefully be simple, loveable, and complete. ✔️

Monetizing

I'm nervous about charging money for it. I don't know if anyone will be willing to pay for it.

But I DO NOT want a bunch of free accounts to support with $0 coming in.

Ideally I'll charge $10/month to use this service.

It's going to provide a personalized plan for paying back debt quickly. Other features are in the pipeline.

I want my customers to succeed in paying off their debts. Primary focus will be on student loans, but the system will work for any debt.

Paying debt off with the snowball or avalanche method can save thousands of dollars and years of time. That must be worth the price to some people, right?

Many people pay about $10/month for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and other services that don't help you get ahead financially.

It might be a matter of presenting the value in the right way. I'll figure that out, but first I need to build the app 😉

Onward!

Thanks for reading! Shoot me an email with your thoughts or just to say hello.