Lifetime planner results showing 2 special expenses that do not show in editing page

Question

I have two special expenses showing in my Lifetime Planner results that I want to delete.  When I go to edit special expenses in the assumptions window, it says "you do not have any special expenses."  I cannot figure out where they are coming from.  It is clear that I entered them at sometime in the past, but I don't see where.  In the alternative, is there a way to delete all info in the Lifetime Planner and start over?

Scooterlam · Answer

Odd problem!  I've not seen this before.  My first reaction is some sort of table corruption in the data file.  But, lets dig into it...

?   What Quicken revision are you using?  Click on...Help>About Quicken.

?   When did you first notice this issue?

Just checking....I assume you are seeing these 2 mystery "special expenses" in the Plan Summary table, for a given year(s)?  See image.  If so, can you describe the type of special expenses you see?  Are they listed under the Special Expense line as shown in the image?

Special Expenses, as listed in the above Summary Table, could be entered in any or all of the following Change Assumption categories:  Current homes and assets, Future homes and assets, College expenses and, of course, directly into the Special expenses category. Note: For Current and Future homes and assets, click on the Expense button in the Asset or Home to see/verify.

Despite what the Special Expenses assumption windows says (that you have no special expenses), a first step, I would do would be to walk through these various assumption categories and see if there happens to be "orphaned" expense entries.   If so, then exclude or delete them then see if they continue to show up in the Plan Summary Table (image).

For sure, you should see, edit, delete or exclude all of these expense categories in the Special Expenses window, you mentioned. Image.  Since you don't see any special expenses in it's assumptions window, I might suspect some sort of data problem.

A few additional things I would try....

* Perform a file validate to see if there if a repair is possible.  First, back-up your current data file.  Then click File>Validate and Repair File, then check "Validate file" and click okay.  After validation, inspect the log file for any clues followed by a Quicken restart.    Did that fix the issue?

* Restore older backups to see if the problem goes away with an older data file.  Be sure not to overwrite your most current file with the restored file.

* Update Quicken to the latest version.

* Do a clean uninstall and reinstall of Quicken from your account at Quicken.com

NOTE regarding last 2 bullets.... Users have been reporting an issue with displaying the assumptions window in the last several Quicken versions.   I have recently (today) updated to the latest version, R39.23 from R38.25 and have not experienced this issue. There is a workaround, fortunately.

As far as your other question:  Resetting Lifetime Planner data, currently there is no such functionality.    There are a few Idea Posts that asks Quicken product team to add this functionality.   Read about them and vote to let Quicken know you want that feature.   See links below.

CREATE, SAVE AND RESET MULTIPLE PLAN WHAT-IF SCENARIOS - updated 11.06.21* IDEA:   Allow Reset of Lifetime Planner Data and Save Multiple "What If" Plan Scenarios

* IDEA:   How to reset lifetime planner

* IDEA:   Delete Existing Lifetime Planner