lifetime planner: should I include mortgage payments in living expenses?

johnda888

My monthly house payment is split into (1)interest, (2)principal and (3)taxes. It shows up in 'current loans'. In 'living expenses' should I include any all of 1, 2 and 3?

Chris_QPW

If you go to the Living Expenses and select Edit in the Lifetime Planner it has pretty good short explanation and the help has even more:


In a nutshell, you aren't including your mortgage/taxes because they are included in different parts of the Lifetime Planner.  You should have the loan in the Loan section, and the property taxes should be an Expense in the House section.

Chris_QPW

P.S. I notice that the Living Expense Category Detail estimator which scans you last year of expenses to give you a start on what each category should be includes property taxes.  So, if you include it here make sure you don't include it as an expense in the House section.

Boatnmaniac

You should also know that when insurance escrow is included in the mortgage payment reminder it is not included in Lifetime Planner as part of the mortgage payment...because the mortgage payment includes principal and interest only.  So, if you have insurance escrow included in your mortgage payment reminder you will instead need to include that in your Yearly Living Expenses.