Boatnmaniac said: ...Another way of getting a picture of future property taxes liability is to not enter anything in the property tax field at all and instead set up a new Asset Expense item for the house (call it "Property Tax") for a specific dollar amount with a percentage annual change entered for it. Since it is not tied to the value of the house, this Asset Expense would show projected tax dollars for each year that are not linked to the value of the house asset. But this method has a major drawback if you live in an area where housing values are increasing faster than the rate of inflation because this method will not take that into account when projecting your property tax liabilities.
Boatnmaniac said: @gtamm - You are very welcome. I agree, LP is a great and very useful long-term planning tool. I've used it extensively for many years and it really helped me to understand when and how I could retire comfortably. There are many other similar online tools available but most of them are not as detailed in the assumptions, data and life event changes that can be entered and tracked which in my mind makes them less reliable and useful. For me, this has been the 3rd most valuable function of Quicken right behind Spending and Investments tracking.
Scooterlam said: Boatnmaniac said: ...Another way of getting a picture of future property taxes liability is to not enter anything in the property tax field at all and instead set up a new Asset Expense item for the house (call it "Property Tax") for a specific dollar amount with a percentage annual change entered for it. Since it is not tied to the value of the house, this Asset Expense would show projected tax dollars for each year that are not linked to the value of the house asset. But this method has a major drawback if you live in an area where housing values are increasing faster than the rate of inflation because this method will not take that into account when projecting your property tax liabilities. If I understand you correctly, the major drawback you described can be addressed if you set the Asset Expense inflation rate (eg. Property Taxes) equal to the Asset Account return. Doing so, you effectively tie the growth of the property tax expense to the asset value.I tested this both ways and the portfolio ending balances were nearly the same. I can't explain why they are not exactly the same however. But, I'm not not concerned over a 0.023% difference. A good exercise though.I've been reconfiguring my LTP expenses recently and have put both the property tax and property insurance costs in the home asset account under asset expenses as you described. I've been doing this to keep consistent how my other planning tools are configured (RightCapital and OnTrajectory).
(Edited: Edits in italics.)
Yes, that is what I was trying to say but I believe the Asset Expenses are not tied to the annual property value change so if you want to account for annual increases/decreases with these you need to enter an annual percentage change for them individually. The property tax entered above the Asset Expenses is linked to the property value changes so it will go up/down based upon how the house value changes.
No matter where you enter the property tax amount (either in the property tax field or as a associated asset expense) it will not be perfect but at least it’s accounted for. The relatively small changes that occur each year with property taxes are mostly noise in the short-term. Simply update the plan each year to reflect the real cost to keep the long-term projection reasonably accurate. And be sure to build that annual special expense or living expense adjustment bucket into the plan so you are covered for the “what-ifs” that life hits us with.
Scooterlam said: Boatnmaniac said: @gtamm - You are very welcome. I agree, LP is a great and very useful long-term planning tool. I've used it extensively for many years and it really helped me to understand when and how I could retire comfortably. There are many other similar online tools available but most of them are not as detailed in the assumptions, data and life event changes that can be entered and tracked which in my mind makes them less reliable and useful. For me, this has been the 3rd most valuable function of Quicken right behind Spending and Investments tracking. Couldn't agree more @Boatnmaniac et al.! Please have a look here and vote, if you haven't already done so: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7713110/lifetime-planner-bug-and-idea-list-make-yourself-heard#latestThe more I use LTP, the deeper I dig, the more I appreciate the prior effort by the product team. I wish there is more focus on fixing bugs and improvements, not to mention keeping up with (being in front of...) tax changes (eg. Secure Act).
I voted for the idea. However, it does seem that Quicken has been implementing some improvements over the years but it’s been done quietly in the background instead of being listed in the changes when Quicken releases new revisions.
One of the issues that used to bother me is that LP would not properly calculate my wife’s SS based upon her spousal benefit (50% of mine). I haven’t seen that as a problem for a couple of years, now.
Another recent improvement has to do with planned assets linked loans. Previously, if I were to make a date change to the planned purchase of a car the linked loan would not automatically update to reflect that date change so I’d also have to remember to manually update that linked loan, too. It does that now automatically although I first had to delete the old entry for the linked loan and then create a new one. Once that new linked loan was set up it updates automatically when the car purchase date change is made.
One issue that really bugs me though is that if I have a planned asset, expense, income or event and I forget to updated it to a new date, once that a planned date has been passed I cannot simply edit that expired plan and put in a new date. Instead I have to create a new plan for it.
Another thing that I need to always keep in mind is that LP often calculates things correctly but the logic for that is not always intuitive so it appears that it made a mistake. Usually, after digging into it more I find that all is good or that I’d made a mistake in how I initially entered the data. A good example of this has to do with inflation. If a general inflation rate is entered and you don’t also enter annual percentage or dollar value changes everywhere else that it can be entered the plan loses credibility. It would be better to not enter inflation percentages and annual dollar value changes anywhere than to only do it partially.
mshiggins said: I know what LTP stands for - Lifetime Planner. What is LP?
