Earmarking funds

[caudron]

Another useful feature would be the ability to earmark funds in an account for a specific purpose or goal.

Use case:
Let's say I want to set up a "virtual account" to deposit 5% of each paycheck as a personal spending fund. Using this feature, I could click on "Earmarked Funds", select the account from which I'd be earmarking the funds, then enter an amount and a description. I'd have a simple interface to see the currently earmarked funds and adjust the extant earmarks as needed.

This would allow me to:
- save money for a big purchase and track my progress
- plan for future expenses to better predict future account balances
- create virtual accounts for things like kid's allowance and personal spending

Tom

[Damon]

Cool idea. Thanks!

[themdg]

I also need a feature like this. It's the main feature that's keeping me from using Mint as my only financial software.

When my paycheck comes in, I need to be able to earmark funds for certain purposes. Say $75 for the Cell Phone Bill, $50 for the Gas Bill etc etc.

I like to have a "view" of my checking account that has all of my expected expenses already transferred to a temporary account within my financial software. Then, once I pay the cell phone bill, I remove the entry from the temp account, and it's reconciled.

See? Useful.

[rbar]

Is there any financial software that supports this?

I have been using the budget features in quicken/mint instead. Budgeting is useful, but I would prefer to earmark my funds as previously described.

[ItsRossTime]

I'd like Mint to support this as well. It would be nice if when I come in under budget, I could transfer the amount saved to my high yield savings account and mark it down for a "new car fund" or something. Then I could run a report and see how much I've saved for that(those) purposes.

[stormparade]

i agree -- this would be amazing

[mburdsall]

MS Money has a feature like this were the users can establish saving goals and apply extra savings from month towards those goals. This would be helpful for me as well.

[exquicken]

Is there any financial software that supports this?

I have been using the budget features in quicken/mint instead. Budgeting is useful, but I would prefer to earmark my funds as previously described.

This is the same feature that everyone is asking for related to yearly budgets. You do this in quicken by creating a monthly budget (you can set it differently for each month. You can then look at the accumulated year to date.

The way you would implement it in quicken is as follows. Let's say I have property taxes of 12K at the end of the year, I would budget 1K for each month. The category would show as 1K in jan, 2K in feb etc. I could see the money accumulating. When the expenditure hits in Dec the account goes to zero.

For things like car repairs, I might average about 100/month, but it is typically 1200 all at once. So lets say I accumulate 600 through june, I will show +600. Then I spend 1200, now I am negative. However I still have 100/month allocations so by the end of the year I am caught up.

I do the same for christmas etc.

As long as your budget is balanced you will end up correct. Also, your accumulation of money yet to be spent becomes the cash cushion for categories where you spend before you have accumulated all the money. This is a mandatory feature for budgeting.

[exquicken]

I also need a feature like this. It's the main feature that's keeping me from using Mint as my only financial software.

When my paycheck comes in, I need to be able to earmark funds for certain purposes. Say $75 for the Cell Phone Bill, $50 for the Gas Bill etc etc.

I like to have a "view" of my checking account that has all of my expected expenses already transferred to a temporary account within my financial software. Then, once I pay the cell phone bill, I remove the entry from the temp account, and it's reconciled.

See? Useful.


The way you would do this in quicken would be to setup a budget with your average monthly income. When your paycheck comes in, it doesnt matter as you are no longer living close to the wire and you have enough float from your yearly expenditure categories to cover the 3/2 paychecks in a month issue. This type of budgeting means you are no longer living paycheck to paycheck.

[mwhite]

Quicken also has a feature that allows you to create 'savings goals' which are just virtual accounts. You can transfer money to and from these accounts. It naturally doesn't leave the bank account you have the money in, but it's a nice way to see what money you have allocated towards what goals. This is really useful for multi-year goals. This is the show stopper that is keeping me from ditching Quicken for Mint.