As I thought about managing dividend income and cash flow, I began imagining two platforms: ONSEMO INVEST and FLOW.
INVEST would record and analyze investment holdings, including stocks and ETFs. FLOW would follow money arriving and leaving over time, from dividends and rent to loan interest and recurring expenses.
Their roles seemed clear.
But when I considered how I would actually use them, a question came to mind.
Why should I manage information about the same money in two different places?
Why I first imagined two platforms
When I began planning INVEST, my main concern was keeping accurate records of what I owned.
I wanted to know how many shares I held, what I had paid when buying or selling them, and how much I had received in dividends.
As dividend income grew, my interest naturally expanded to cash flow.
How much would arrive this week or next month? How much of my recurring expenses could that income cover?
That was the reason I first imagined FLOW as a separate platform.
At the time, separating investment holdings from everyday cash flow seemed sensible because they served different purposes.
But the data was connected
Buying additional shares in INVEST changes the number of shares I own.
That change can also affect my expected future dividends. Those dividends are the future cash flow I wanted to see in FLOW.
It would be inconvenient to enter transactions in INVEST and then repeat the same information in FLOW.
I could connect two separate platforms, but that would also mean developing and maintaining the platforms and their integration.
More importantly, what I wanted was not the experience of operating two services. I wanted an easier way to understand my assets and the money moving through my life.
Different purposes do not necessarily require separate platforms.
An idea that started with the Google Sheets I already use
There is another part of this story: Google Sheets, which I have used for a long time.
I still use spreadsheets to record and manage various kinds of data.
I like being able to add columns, write formulas and change the structure whenever I need to. Without dedicated software, I can build a tool that fits the way I work.
That made me wonder:
Aren't there quite a few people who use Google Sheets for household budgets or investment records, just as I do?
Some may keep a simple household budget. Others may track transactions or dividend income.
They may have started with a small table and gradually added formulas and fields until they had a system of their own.
Should these people have to move all their records into a new service just to use a better dashboard?
I would rather not.
What if I could keep using the spreadsheets I already know while extending them with the features I want from ONSEMO INVEST?
Adding features instead of replacing the spreadsheet
The greatest advantage of a spreadsheet is the freedom to work with data however I choose.
Still, managing that data often requires repetitive calculations and maintenance.
After recording trades, I may need to calculate shares held by ticker, total dividends by month, or expected future payments.
I can automate much of this in Sheets itself. But as my requirements grow, the formulas and tables I have to maintain can grow more complicated too.
What if ONSEMO INVEST could take on some of that work?
I could keep my transactions and assets in my existing spreadsheet, in a familiar format.
INVEST could then use those records to calculate portfolio values and returns and show dividends and cash flow in a clearer way.
Ideally, changes made in INVEST could also appear in the spreadsheet, and edits made in Sheets could be brought back into INVEST.
I would retain the spreadsheet's flexibility while gaining a purpose-built interface for the information I check most often.
Of course, connecting every existing spreadsheet without configuration would be difficult. Everyone structures their data differently.
I would also need to decide how to resolve changes made on both sides, validate incorrect entries and protect private information.
None of this has been implemented yet. These are problems I want to work through carefully.
The important principle is that people should not have to discard or re-enter years of records just to use another tool.
Add useful capabilities to the tools I already use.
Perhaps that should be the guiding idea for INVEST.
Connecting the search for investment opportunities
I had also imagined Dividend Radar as a core part of INVEST from the beginning.
It would help me compare prices, dividend yields and dividend-growth histories across dividend-growth stocks, dividend aristocrats, dividend kings and covered-call ETFs.
I would also like to use changes in an ETF's constituent stocks—additions, removals and changes in portfolio weights as signals for researching individual companies more closely.
A higher dividend yield alone should not decide whether I buy a stock. I want to understand why the yield has changed and what has happened to the underlying business.
Connecting that research with cash-flow management helped clarify what the platform could become.
I would keep my investment records in the spreadsheet I already use.
INVEST could use that information to display holdings, estimated dividends and amounts actually received.
Flow could show how dividends and other income relate to household expenses.
And Radar could help me research possible investments.
Instead of entering the same records in several places, I could use one set of records in different ways.
One platform, different functions
I eventually came back to the idea of making ONSEMO INVEST the central platform.
INVEST would handle holdings and transactions. Flow would show income and expenses over time. Radar would organize my research on investments and potential opportunities.
I would not have to abandon the name FLOW. It could become the name of the cash-flow feature inside INVEST rather than a separate website.
Cash flow, of course, is not limited to stock investing.
Rent, loan interest, insurance, taxes and deposit refunds are also important parts of a financial calendar.
I want the platform to support those events, but I do not want to create a general budgeting app that requires every small purchase to be recorded.
My spreadsheet can continue handling some of that work.
INVEST should help connect and analyze those records, making important recurring flows and changes in assets easier to understand.
I want to manage my own data
Part of the appeal of Google Sheets is the control it gives me over my records.
I prefer being able to inspect and edit my data rather than keeping it locked inside one service.
So even if I bring these functions together in ONSEMO INVEST, I do not want to collect users' financial records on ONSEMO's servers.
Where possible, I want to work with data stored on users' own devices and in storage they control through their Google accounts. Encryption and safe handling will need careful consideration.
Whether a Google Sheets integration can meet those goals is something I will have to verify as I build it.
Convenient synchronization matters, but people must also be able to keep and recover their records safely.
First, a service I will keep using
It is easy for the list of possible features to keep growing.
This time, though, I want to focus on building a small tool that I can use regularly before trying to deliver everything at once.
Record a purchase or sale once and see holdings and expected dividends update.
Confirm an actual dividend payment without recalculating everything at month-end.
Connect the spreadsheets I already use, keep what works, and automate the parts I find cumbersome.
I would like to build and test those basics first.
Even if very few people use the platform, being able to use it consistently and comfortably myself would be a meaningful first result.
As I use it, I may discover difficulties that others with similar spreadsheets have experienced too.
Everyone organizes their data differently, and not everyone will need the same features. Still, improving the tool through my own daily use might eventually make it useful to others.
I started out thinking of INVEST and FLOW as two independent platforms.
Over time, I realized that using their features together inside one platform might be more practical than connecting two separate services.
Thinking about the Google Sheets I already use has also made the purpose clearer.
Rather than replace something that works, I want to build on it, adding the functions I have been missing one by one.
That is the direction I currently see for ONSEMO INVEST.
The service is not finished. My thinking may change again as I build and use it.
I want to keep recording those changes on ONSEMO, too.