Forecasting bond interest income

Steve308@

Using Q 2011 Premier. After entering coupon rates, YTM, and maturity dates, is there a way to forecast bond interest payments? If not, is this available in a more current Q version? Thanks!

mshiggins

You can forecast pretty much any regularly occurring income or bill using reminders. Since reminders are used by the Tax Planner to forecast taxable income and expenses, they are quite useful.

Steve308@

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that Q would comb thru the bond positions and give me a report of expected interest income by month or quarter or whatever. Looks like I'd have to enter this info manually?

J_Mike

I believe you can get an estimate of annual income for your holdings.
For an individual security, open the Edit Security dialog.
Select Other Info.
Note the Est, Income field - enter the expected annual income per share.
Next, set up (customize) a Portfolio View and include the Estimated Income field.

mshiggins

JM said:

I believe you can get an estimate of annual income for your holdings.
For an individual security, open the Edit Security dialog.
Select Other Info.
Note the Est, Income field - enter the expected annual income per share.
Next, set up (customize) a Portfolio View and include the Estimated Income field.

Although you can see that income estimate in a Portfolio view, I'm not sure you can do anything else with it - like use it I a report or in the Tax Planner.

Steve308@

Thanks for the input. I think this is confirming I'd have to enter the info manually? Any idea why Q is unable to calculate future bond income automatically? I'd think that would be very useful to lots of folks...

Jim_Harman

I agree it would be convenient if Quicken would project future income from all securities (not just bonds) automatically rather than requiring you to enter it manually.

Note that for stocks and mutual funds this info is included in the quote data Quicken already gets from its server. This data seems reasonably accurate, but it's not clear how the provider computes this - based on just the most recent distribution or some longer term info.

While they are at it, it would be nice if the estimated income would accept entries of less than .01 per share. Currently it rounds whatever you enter to the nearest penny per share. With money market rates at less than 1% and a share price of $1.00, you are stuck with estimated income of 1% or zero.

Perhaps if we make this an Idea the developers will consider it...

Jim_Harman

Jim Harman said:

I agree it would be convenient if Quicken would project future income from all securities (not just bonds) automatically rather than requiring you to enter it manually.

Note that for stocks and mutual funds this info is included in the quote data Quicken already gets from its server. This data seems reasonably accurate, but it's not clear how the provider computes this - based on just the most recent distribution or some longer term info.

While they are at it, it would be nice if the estimated income would accept entries of less than .01 per share. Currently it rounds whatever you enter to the nearest penny per share. With money market rates at less than 1% and a share price of $1.00, you are stuck with estimated income of 1% or zero.

Perhaps if we make this an Idea the developers will consider it...

it looks like the "Ann Div/Shr" in the quote data is the most recent distribution per share x distributions per year. This is an OK forward looking estimate for stocks, but will be off of course if the dividend changes during the year.

For stock funds that make quarterly distributions, the year-end distribution is often larger than the others, so the annual estimate is not so good. It will be high during the first quarter and low for the rest of the year.

Perhaps this is why Quicken makes you enter the estimated income yourself, rather than just using the quote data.  

mshiggins

Jim Harman said:

I agree it would be convenient if Quicken would project future income from all securities (not just bonds) automatically rather than requiring you to enter it manually.

Note that for stocks and mutual funds this info is included in the quote data Quicken already gets from its server. This data seems reasonably accurate, but it's not clear how the provider computes this - based on just the most recent distribution or some longer term info.

While they are at it, it would be nice if the estimated income would accept entries of less than .01 per share. Currently it rounds whatever you enter to the nearest penny per share. With money market rates at less than 1% and a share price of $1.00, you are stuck with estimated income of 1% or zero.

Perhaps if we make this an Idea the developers will consider it...

Jim, I think you hit the nail on the head. You would need a distribution rule for each security.


The reminder method I use lets me update the amount as each dividend comes in. Still an estimate, but at least it's a bit more accurate than a once a year estimate. .

Steve308@

Jim Harman said:

I agree it would be convenient if Quicken would project future income from all securities (not just bonds) automatically rather than requiring you to enter it manually.

Note that for stocks and mutual funds this info is included in the quote data Quicken already gets from its server. This data seems reasonably accurate, but it's not clear how the provider computes this - based on just the most recent distribution or some longer term info.

While they are at it, it would be nice if the estimated income would accept entries of less than .01 per share. Currently it rounds whatever you enter to the nearest penny per share. With money market rates at less than 1% and a share price of $1.00, you are stuck with estimated income of 1% or zero.

Perhaps if we make this an Idea the developers will consider it...

Thanks Jim. Though I'm not sure this explains the lack of income projections on the fixed-income side. And even on the equity side, projections could come with some sorta warning about fluctuations.

Savvy Investor

Jim Harman said:

I agree it would be convenient if Quicken would project future income from all securities (not just bonds) automatically rather than requiring you to enter it manually.

Note that for stocks and mutual funds this info is included in the quote data Quicken already gets from its server. This data seems reasonably accurate, but it's not clear how the provider computes this - based on just the most recent distribution or some longer term info.

While they are at it, it would be nice if the estimated income would accept entries of less than .01 per share. Currently it rounds whatever you enter to the nearest penny per share. With money market rates at less than 1% and a share price of $1.00, you are stuck with estimated income of 1% or zero.

Perhaps if we make this an Idea the developers will consider it...

I agree with Steve. As an active investor with more than 100 stocks and bonds in my portfolio, it would be very helpful for my cash flow planning purposes if Q provided a report showing projected dividend and interest income for at least the next year based upon the current portfolio holdings and the current dividend rate.

I would envision this report in the form of a spreadsheet showing projected dividend and interest income by month for the next 12 months. Even a forecast by calendar quarter would be better than nothing.

I understand that dividend rates can change and furthermore I recognize that there is uncertainty when forecasting a year out as to the exact date a dividend will be distributed. Nonetheless, an investment income projection, even with the uncertainties involved, would be valuable.

Before converting to Quicken in 1998, I used Managing Your Money, and MYM provided such a report, although it required a manual entry of the dividend rate and distribution schedule for each security. That sounds terribly tedious, but in reality I entered the information when I purchased a security, and no further entry was needed until there was a change to the dividend rate or distribution schedule.

I believe that Q could provide the dividend rate and distribution schedule from its data sources.

The projection of income from fixed-income securities would appear to be very straightforward.