Section 1.1: Connecting to Financial Institutions with Plaid

Plaid is a widely-used service that aggregates financial data, allowing you to access information from various institutions through a straightforward API. To begin, create a Plaid account and install the Python library by executing the following command:

pip install plaid-python

After obtaining your Plaid API keys, you can access your financial data as shown below:

from plaid import Client

# Substitute with your Plaid API keys

client_id = "your_client_id"

secret = "your_secret_key"

client = Client(client_id=client_id, secret=secret, environment="sandbox")

# Retrieve information about the first five financial institutions

client.Institutions.get(5)

To link your bank accounts and acquire access tokens, refer to Plaid’s documentation.

Section 1.2: Organizing Financial Data with Tiller

Tiller is a service that imports your financial data directly into Google Sheets, simplifying management and analysis. To use Tiller with Python, install the gspread library:

pip install gspread

Follow Tiller’s instructions to link your Google Sheets to your Tiller account. Once your financial data is in Google Sheets, you can manipulate it using the gspread library as follows:

import gspread

from google.oauth2 import service_account

# Specify the path to your Google API key JSON file

google_key_file = "path/to/google_key.json"

# Authenticate with the Google API

credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(

)

# Connect to the Google Sheets API

gc = gspread.authorize(credentials)

# Open the Tiller-generated Google Sheet

sheet = gc.open("Your Tiller Sheet Title").sheet1

# Read data from the Google Sheet

data = sheet.get_all_records()

# Calculate total expenses for a specific category

total_expenses = sum(row["Amount"] for row in data if row["Category"] == "Groceries")

Creating Custom Budgeting Tools

Python empowers you to build personalized budgeting tools that align with your financial goals. For instance, you can establish a monthly budget for each expense category and monitor your progress throughout the month:

# Define your monthly budget for each category

budget = {

"Groceries": 400,

"Entertainment": 200,

"Utilities": 100,

"Transportation": 150,

}

# Calculate remaining budget for each category

remaining_budget = {}

for category, amount in budget.items():

if category in monthly_expenses.index.get_level_values("Category"):

remaining_budget[category] = amount - monthly_expenses.loc[pd.IndexSlice[:, category], "Amount"].iloc[-1]

else:

remaining_budget[category] = amount

# Display remaining budget

print("Remaining Budget for Each Category:")

for category, amount in remaining_budget.items():

print(f"{category}: ${amount:.2f}")

This snippet calculates the remaining budget for each category based on your monthly expenses, allowing you to adjust budget values as needed.

Tracking Savings and Investments

In addition to managing expenses, Python can aid you in monitoring your savings and investments. By using Plaid’s investment and balance endpoints, you can retrieve information about your investment accounts and track their performance:

# Replace with your Plaid access token

access_token = "your_access_token"

# Retrieve investment account balances

investment_accounts = client.Accounts.get(access_token, account_types=["investment"])

total_investment_balance = sum(account["balances"]["current"] for account in investment_accounts["accounts"])

print(f"Total Investment Balance: ${total_investment_balance:.2f}")

# Get investment holdings

holdings_response = client.Holdings.get(access_token)

holdings = holdings_response["holdings"]

# Display investment holdings

print("Investment Holdings:")

for holding in holdings:

print(f"{holding['security']['name']} ({holding['security']['ticker']}): {holding['quantity']} shares")

By integrating these code snippets into your personal finance management routine, you can effectively track and optimize your savings and investments.