Most households run on one question, asked a little too late: so where are we, overall?
It comes up before a big purchase, when you are deciding whether the car can wait a year. It comes up after a bad month. It comes up when a parent mentions, almost in passing, an FD that nobody else knew existed. And it is surprisingly hard to answer.
Everyone has their own apps and their own numbers. One person knows the savings balance, the other knows the mutual funds. The EPF is a vague figure somebody checked last year. The home loan outstanding is in an email from the bank. The household total, the one number that actually matters for the decision in front of you, exists only in someone's head, or in a WhatsApp screenshot from three months ago.
We built Spaces so that number has a place to live.
What a Space is
A Space is one shared view of money, for the people you plan money with. A couple. You and your parents. Siblings who look after their parents' finances together.
You create a Space, add the people who should be in it, and each person chooses what to put in: bank balances, mutual funds, stocks, EPF, PPF, NPS, FDs, loans, cash. Fold adds it all up. Everyone in the Space sees the same combined total, the breakdown by type, how it has changed since last month, and who is contributing what. It updates on its own every day, as each person's Fold data refreshes.
That is the whole idea. One number, kept current, that everyone can see without asking.
What it is not
When we talked to people about sharing money, one worry came up more than any other, and it is a fair one. Nobody wants a partner, parent or sibling reading their transactions. Sharing a total is very different from sharing a statement.
So a Space is built to share totals and nothing else:
You choose what they see. Each person picks what goes into a Space, type by type, and for bank accounts, which accounts. For a bank account, the Space sees its balance. For mutual funds or stocks, the total portfolio value. For a loan, the amount outstanding. For an FD, its maturity amount.
Nobody sees your transactions. Not where you spent on Tuesday, not your individual holdings, not your account numbers. Those stay on your own Fold.
They choose what you see. Nothing of theirs appears in the Space until they accept the invite and pick what to share.
Anyone can leave, any time. When someone leaves, their numbers leave with them. Nothing is copied or kept. You can also change what you share whenever you like.
No passwords change hands. Every person links their own accounts on their own phone, through the same consent-based Account Aggregator flow they already use on Fold.
How people are using it
Over a thousand couples and families are already using Spaces this way, and most Spaces have exactly two people in them. The names people give their Spaces tell the story better than we can. The most common words are Family, Home and Our.
A few patterns we see often:
Couples planning together. Two salaries, two sets of accounts, one set of goals. A Space gives both partners the same picture of savings, investments and loans, without merging accounts or giving up any privacy.
Adult children and parents. Many of us end up helping our parents with money: renewing FDs, keeping track of pensions, checking that a balance has not run low. A Space lets parents share the totals they are comfortable sharing, so you can help without asking for their phone or their passwords.
A shared household goal. A down payment, a wedding, a parent's medical fund. When the total is visible to everyone, nobody has to keep a spreadsheet updated by hand.
Creating a Space
It takes about two minutes:
- Open the Family tab in Fold and create a Space.
- Give it a name.
- Choose which of your accounts and investments go in.
- Invite the other person with their phone number.
Everyone in a Space needs to be on Fold, since each person's numbers come from their own linked accounts. If the person you are inviting isn't on Fold yet, share the Fold link with them from the app, and once they have signed up the invite is a single tap.
Spaces are free for up to three people, including you. Fold Plus takes a Space up to eight, for larger families.
If you already have a Space with only you in it, consider this a gentle nudge. A Space with one person is just Fold.
Tell us who you added
Spaces started as something a few of us wanted for our own homes, and it has grown mostly because people told their partners and parents about it. We would love to hear how you use yours, and what would make it more useful. Write to us at [email protected].