Tracking A CD

Jloqkn

Hello everyone, I created an account to track all my CD's as if they were securities. What is the best way to track the interest received. Depending on this answer, what report would I run to review the interest to date on that cd. I have seen to scenarios using Reinvesting Income feature and using Income feature to record interest payment.

Tom Young

"...as if they were securities."

You certainly buy and sell CDs through many brokerages, so are these really securities in that sense, or are you simply trying to have the normal bank-issued CDs you buy at the bank appear in the Investing area of the Account Bar?

You use the terms "interest received" and "interest payment(s)" so I assume that you're focusing on interest paid in cash and not interest that might be "accrued" with the passage of time.  If that's the case then the most direct approach is to "buy" the CD for $X, record the interest paid (recorded) as IntInc, and when the CD matures you "sell" the CD for $X (no gain or loss) and (presumably) transfer the accumulated cash to checking. 

As far as "reporting" goes you could use several different reports; Investing Activity, Investment Income and Investment Activity reports would all work, customized the include only the CD you're interested in.  I'd probably use the Investment Income report and if I wanted to see the activity behind the Interest Income reported I'd simply "click through" on that dollar amount to see that detail.

Jim_Harman

To build on what @Tom Young says, if these are "bank" CDs and you want to track each one individually, you would set each up as a separate security. You can buy X "shares" at $1.00 each.  Normally the interest adds to the value of the CD and in a taxable account, it is taxed as it is earned. You would record it as reinvested interest.

Tom Young

As far as the work required to enter information using IntInc vs. ReinvInt actions I'd probably go with IntInc, generally. 

With IntInc you select IntInc as the action, tell Quicken the "security", and enter the dollar amount.  And when you go to "sell" the security (CD matures) you simply sell it for the purchase price which is  an amount you can see in the transaction list.

With ReinvInt you select ReinvInt as the action, tell Quicken the "security, and enter the dollar amount plus the number of "shares" that income is buying.  And when you go to "sell" the CD you sell it for the market value/cost basis which isn't available in the transaction list so you have to look that up in the "Holdings" view.

Frankly the difference in effort isn't all that much so either approach should work; you decide which method makes the most sense to you.

[Deleted User]

Brokered CDs have a CUSIP number and should be treated as securities.  The Buys, Sells (maturity), Interest, and Daily Prices are posted to Quicken via the update file from your financial institution.  They should be set up in a brokerage account in Quicken.  The key to getting them to work on Quicken is to use the correct CUSIP number.

Bank CDs should not be treated as securities.  They have no CUSIP associated with them.  The information for these CDs from your financial institution gets updated to Quicken as if it was a savings account.  For these types of CDs you would need to set up a savings account on Quicken and the Deposits, Withdrawals (maturity) and Interest Income are posted to Quicken via the update file as bank transactions.

Tom Young

I think that different people look at things differently.  ("Everyday People" by Sly and the Family Stone plays softly...)

Many things that people consider "investments" don't have CUSIPs.  Quicken is flexible enough to accommodate those idiosyncrasies.

[Deleted User]

@Tom Young  I have had many CDs both bank and brokered.  Bank CDs are set up at the FI as savings accounts and transactions get automatically updated in Quicken via the OSU as a savings account.  If you set up a bank CD as an investment, it doesn't get updated automatically and all transactions would need to be updated manually.

I totally agree with you statement that people look at things differently.  I was just trying to point out the differences between the two types of CDs.

You can certainly set up a Bank CD as an investment in Quicken, but I was just trying to point out that if you do so, you would not be able to update transactions automatically.