This is neatSHIFT

It started with a simple frustration. As it usually does.

After inputting all my accounts, categorizing transactions, and trying to make sense of the colourful charts, I found myself staring at yet another financial app that wasn’t capable of showing me what I wanted to see → do I live above or beyond my means during periods of time which are relevant to me.

I design complex mechanical systems for a living. I shouldn't need a finance degree to understand where my money goes!

That pretty much sums the feeling of that day. And that was the crack into the insight that financial complexity isn't a bug in the system, it's there with a purpose.

When an engineer meets financial chaos

I became a mechanical engineer seeking clarity and precision in unambiguousness of laws of mechanics. Literally every day, I redesign something with the sole purpose of creating better, simpler and more efficient solutions which are at the same time safe for those who are going to use them. For my entire professional life, I kept this analytical, engineering thinking separate from my personal finances, they simply run on auto-pilot.

At some point I started to pay more attention, tried to stick to a budget, downloaded most of the budget apps that are out there searching for the one that will magically do the trick, saved what’s left for the month, if anything. Things weren’t adding up. The mortgage I ended up taking to buy an apartment certainly didn’t help my case here.

This disconnect hit me hard. I had been literally spending hours of my life making the designs more efficient, simpler to make and easier to maintain without compromising functionality and safety. Financial "tools" on the other hand seemed designed to be the exact opposite.

So I did what engineers do: not without hesitation though (because, let’s be honest, who isn’t dreaded by spreadsheets) but I started building my own solution, a comprehensive Google Sheet finance tracker with everything I missed everywhere else. I refused to accept that understanding my own money had to be so damn complicated and I never turned back.

What I soon started noticing challenged how I'd been thinking about money.

Patterns hidden in plain sight

As I tracked my cash flow over those first two years, I began seeing patterns I'd missed before:

• My mortgage wasn't just an expense,  it was structured to maximize interest payments in the early years, keeping me tied to the bank as long as possible

• My car down-payment loan included some hidden fees and financing charges that only kept adding to the debt regardless of my repayments

• My credit card was strategically designed to encourage spending while making minimum payments seem reasonable

These patterns might sound quite obvious as bullet points, but when you see them quantified in the terms of your own costs over the period of time they are terrifying. As I suspected, this wasn't just poor financial management on my part or a lifestyle thing. The entire system was engineered for dependency: to keep me working, consuming, and paying into a system that benefited everyone except me. I’m not sure whether I felt frustrated or pissed off at that time, but I did feel hopeful because once you start seeing the design flaws, you can begin working around them. 

From personal frustration to public shift

For the past 2,5 years I've been refining my tracking system and trying to apply engineering principles to my finances: simplifying where I can, questioning assumptions, and designing for outcomes that actually matter to me.

This shift in my financial thinking started affecting other areas too so I began questioning what I actually wanted from life. What are the odds of me being the only person on this planet feeling like this?

At some point I started to realise this wasn't just a personal solution, it was the beginning of something bigger. A shift away from conventional "wisdom". Call it a “mission” to apply engineering principles to personal finances and life design.

Neatsheet was born.

Why this blog, why now?

I'm launching neatSHIFT because I believe we're at a critical moment. More people than ever are questioning conventional paths and definitions of success. The traditional financial system is showing its true colours. Technology has made independent living more accessible, yet most of us still feel trapped.

What's missing isn't more financial advice, there's plenty of that. What's missing is a framework that combines critical thinking with mindset transformation. An approach that empowers rather than confuses. Tools designed for clarity instead of dependency.

That's what I'm working toward with Neatsheet.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be sharing the foundation of this approach through a three-part manifesto:

1. Why financial complexity is killing your freedom - How overcomplicated systems keep us trapped and what to do about it

2. Mindset shift that changes perception - New perspective that unlocks new possibilities 

3. Building systems for sustainable financial growth - Practical frameworks for designing your financial independence

If you've ever felt that the financial game is rigged, that there must be a clearer way forward, or that you want to design a life aligned with what truly matters to you, not what society expects, you're in the right place.

Welcome to neatSHIFT.