Using Savings Goals in the Budget

Question

On December 31st, I created Savings Goals and filled them with "leftover" money from our savings accounts.  On January 1, I created our new budget for 2022.  I've struggled with how to handle Savings Goals with our budget.

After a lot of reading today, I now know that I can show the Savings Goals within the Budget screen.  I then backtracked to January to see how it might work, as I had withdrawn money from one of our Savings Goals to cover a transaction that was spent.

When I looked at the Budget, our Vacation Savings Goal bar was green with -$268 allocated budget.  The budget category that was spent ("Vacation") was red with $268 spent/over & $0 budgeted.  What I am wondering is if I understand/did this correctly - since the Savings Goal was green -$268, I simply added $268 to the Vacation budget.  I hid all the other categories and now the budget bar at the top is gray with zero spending and a green check mark.  Was that the right approach?

TIA!

Quicken Jared · Answer

@karensc7,

I see, that is helpful; thanks for explaining further.

If you click on the Planning tab, and then click on the Savings Goals subtab, you should be able to see the goals you have created; do you see the Withdraw option beneath Vacation Fun, denoted by the '-' symbol? If I am following along, you should be able to move funds from here into your Travel: Expenses.

I want to mention that you would then have to click on the Contribute option beneath Travel: Expenses in the Planning tab, denoted by the '+' icon to move the funds over.

Hopefully that makes sense, and let me know if something appears wrong with any of the menu options I referred to a moment ago.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared

karensc7 · Answer

What I was trying to figure out is if the surplus in Vacation Fun savings goal can be "taken" from the goal (allocating -$268 to its budget) and then using it to budget $268 to our Travel: Vacation category.  Clear as mud?  :)

Quicken Jared · Answer

Hello @karensc7,

Thank you for bringing up the subject of Savings Goals for discussion. I am sorry for any confusion you may have experienced.

If I am understanding correctly that your Vacation Savings goal was intended to indicate a surplus from your savings accounts, then the 'green' highlighting of the associated graph seems appropriate. Were you expecting the bar to appear 'red' and indicate a budget deficit? Perhaps I have misunderstood.

I look forward to hearing back from you and appreciate your interest in this Quicken feature.

Thanks,

Quicken Jared