Notifications
Clear all

Popular Financial Youtuber Rob Berger reviewed Pralana Online

16 Posts
9 Users
2 Likes
551 Views
(@lmolino)
Eminent Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 27
Topic starter  

See Rob Berger's review at the link below. He raises some valid points about the UI. I think some of his comments related to mode 2 and Roth Optimization are a bit off the mark. It would be nice if some of the expert users could respond to his assessment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLr9IADxIU&t=2059s


   
ReplyQuote
(@doyle553)
Active Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 9
 

Out of curiosity I did a free trial of Boldin. A few comments:

Pralana has more fidelity and features and detail. A few examples:

  • I have a windfall payment coming in the future which will be taxed as OI. Pralana handles the taxation, I didn't see a way for Boldin to do this
  • I have some tax loss carry forwards, I didn't see a way in Boldin to enter and track these (to be fair, I didn't look hard but it was not obvious)
  • I didn't see a way in Boldin to review tabular results by year (balance sheet, cash flow, etc.). Huge negative. One of the best feature of Pralana
  • Boldin has MC analysis but no history analysis. And Pralana MC seems more substantial
  • I didn't check everything, the YouTube review is a good comparison. After I saw some major features (for me) missing, I stopped my trial

Where Boldin is better is the user interface and graphics, it is more 'modern' looking. Functionality if more important but as Pralana grows (or wants to grow) it's user base then better UI will help. A few suggestions:

  • Use a vertical side bar like Boldin for the 4 main sections. And make the collapsible. I realize this gives up some real estate but I think could be worth the trade-off
  • Pralana charts look like excel charts vs a more modern design like Boldin
  • Same with fonts and overall look, Pralana looks like a port from Excel (which of course it is), vs a more modern web app

Again, these are form vs function comments. I am a big fan of Pralana but in a future release it could use a UI update.


   
ReplyQuote
(@lmolino)
Eminent Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 27
Topic starter  

@doyle553 I agree with your assessment. But you are singing to the choir in this forum. I think I may have confused people with my request for comments. The goal of my post was to have experts provide comments to the Youtube video on Youtube itself, not so much here. I think this will give a broader audience benefit of real expert user experience.


   
ReplyQuote
(@cstone)
Site Admin Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 49
 

@lmolino I watched the video last night and think Rob did a really good job. I am reluctant to reply on YouTube, but I hear his and your messages loud and clear regarding the user interface.

To date, as you noted, we have focused on replicating the functionality of PRC Excel and adding some additional supporting features like the tax forms and the various Metric MRIs to allow users to see the underlying calcs, which was not possible in PRC Excel. I can see the Excel formulas and am amazed at what Stuart was able to do.

Going forward will be a mix of:

  • adding user requested features (there are LOTS of feature requests and usabilty improvements) like enhancing Scheduled Withdrawals to morph it into Scheduled Transfers with source and destination account (including an 'out-of-plan' option).
  • addressing the 'beautification' and modernization of the user interface which, I agree, gets a 'needs improvement'.

Charlie, Pralana

ps...Interestingly, an early Pralana prototype had a collapsible sidebar menu....


   
ReplyQuote
(@portolmy)
Active Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 5
 

@cstone Charlie we all appreciate the efforts and hard work you and Stuart have put into it so far. I thought Rob did a very fair assessment with his first video. Looking forward to seeing more videos from Rob on Pralana.


   
ReplyQuote
(@doyle553)
Active Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 9
 

@cstone Charlie this is great to see your roadmap....and I really like the functionality and usability of online Pralana vs excel.....I think it is an excellent initial release


   
ReplyQuote
(@tcbarney)
Eminent Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 16
 

Posted by: @portolmy

<snip> Looking forward to seeing more videos from Rob on Pralana.

He's done an input/output comparison now, against Boldin and Projection Lab.

https://youtu.be/dPQNF-r_5jw?si=Zaf_ilmdlTYX2RKx


   
ReplyQuote
(@erlddavis)
New Member Customer
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 2
 

I thought his input/output comparison video of Pralana, ProjectionLab, and Boldin was excellent. I look forward to hearing the responses he gets from the three developers and hope that he does more videos comparing these tools.


   
ReplyQuote
(@mgarbm)
Eminent Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 19
 

I just subscribed to Boldin along with my Pralana online subscription. Looking forward to Rob's future videos as I'm running my own comparisons.

This post was modified 2 months ago by Bob M

   
ReplyQuote
(@tloretirenow)
New Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 4
 

@cstone Thanks for sharing some of your roadmap. I got online to ask if there was a way to model a spouse death with parts of the assets going to other beneficiaries. Sounds like that could be done with the 'out of plan' scheduled withdrawals that you mention in your Dec 3 post above.

Is there a more comprehensive roadmap that could be shared with the user base? It's great to see what is in the development pipeline. That's something ProjectionLab has done a nice job of - they allow users to upvote requested features to set priorities for the roadmap.

The comments about the UI remind me of when I sold enterprise billing software about 25 years ago. The company prided itself on its billing engine - you could model all sorts of complicated billing structures for telecoms, cable companies, utilities... - but the UI had been neglected, which turned off a lot of potential customers.

I think we all agree Pralana has the most robust calculational engine, and your adds just keep making it more robust. I personally think ProjectionLab has the slickest UI of the competitors, but I can understand others may think Boldin is better looking. It's a very subjective thing.


   
ReplyQuote
(@cstone)
Site Admin Admin
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 49
 

The first two sections in More > PRC Excel vs Online outline some of the upcoming changes. They have not been updated in a while and should probably be moved into a new menu item: Roadmap or similar.

There are currently 200+ usability improvements and feature requests in the feedback. We are working on getting help with curating the feedback list, editing it down to the top N items, and perhaps allow subscribers to upvote them as you say ProjectionLab does.

Regarding assets going out of plan, I think that would be best handled with the enhancements to morph Scheduled Withdrawals into Scheduled Transfers and include an out-of-plan option (as well as a entire-balance, option).

Currently, I am working on combining the various New and Existing Loans into a single tab for Personal, Investment, Property and Rental Property loans. For Property and Rental Property, in the short term there may still likely be separate tabs for HEL's vs HELOCs.


   
ReplyQuote
(@tloretirenow)
New Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 4
 

@cstone Thanks for the response. I had overlooked that menu item. Looks like you have plenty on your plate for the foreseeable future!


   
ReplyQuote
(@mgarbm)
Eminent Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 19
 

@tloretirenow

During my Projection Lab trial the Discord mentioned modeling inherited IRA’s in 2022 but appears it didn’t get implemented so I ceased trial. Projection Lab may be more suitable for a younger generation and I agree does have a slicker interface, but Pralana and recently subscribed Boldin are my preferred tools for now. Boldin interface wins, Pralana data digging wins. STEM users for Pralana, the masses for Boldin.


   
ReplyQuote
 JLee
(@jlee)
Active Member
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 16
 

Posted by: @mgarbm

STEM users for Pralana, the masses for Boldin.

I just cancelled my paid Boldin subscription and signed up for Pralana Online instead. While the interface is indeed fantastic, the recommendations especially surrounding Roth conversions may be downright dangerous to one's financial health. In general, there is an issue of the benefits of conversion being overstated, but I also experienced strange anomalies in the output that Boldin support could never explain. For example, if I changed my retirement date by 1 month (from Nov to Dec), the Roth conversion recommendations swung by hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I don't recommend Boldin anymore. Too bad because my visually-oriented partner related to the slick data viz.


   
ReplyQuote
(@mgarbm)
Eminent Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 19
 

@jlee

This past October after using Pralana for 1-1/2 years(Gold and now online) I decided I wanted to validate the program and started with ProjectionLab, shortly after cancelling trial for not having the inherited IRA account option. Next I gave Boldin the 2 week trial and was able to compare outputs with Pralana with OK results, needed more time past trial so I took them up on their $96 annual subscription for life. After spending a considerable amount of time tweaking inputs(yes Pralana has more) I was able to achieve networths reasonably close across all years of my 28year projection. On to Roth conversions(note: to & from accounts require same ROR) and those outputs behave pretty much to my liking considering 2 different tools! I plan on investing more time in both tools as both have their +/-‘s and being proficient with both allows me to verify anomalies/questionable outputs. Maybe I’ll stick with both of them, drop one, or find another!


   
ReplyQuote
Page 1 / 2
Share: