Lifetime Planner - Savings and Investment Balances

Question

I am a new user to Lifetime planner - can anybody tell me why the imported account balances for savings and investment accounts in the planner defaults to approximately 70% of the actual balances?

Scooterlam · Answer

No, you cant make them equal, if I understand your question correctly.

The figure shown in LTP Income and Expense Summary table is an end of year or projected (forecasted) value based on your current  investment balance. As your current (real) balance changes, so does the forecasted, future value.   Every subsequent year,  LTP uses the investment balance from the prior year to forecast a new value for new year.  For what reason would you want to make them equal?  To make sure we are on the same page with our references,  see image.

Here is a very useful help topic on LTP:  https://help.quicken.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3216821

meredith_1 · Answer

Thanks - so can I change it so that the summary of current savings and investments reflect the real figure?

Scooterlam · Answer

It's likely due to LTP prorating "rate of return" setting based on month of the year (what's left to grow for the remaining year).  In other words, your current investment balance takes into account a prorated "rate of return" setting to calculate your projected investment balance, as shown in the 2022 Plan Summary table.

Your projected investment balances in LTP, for the current year, are always based on the current investment balance as shown in your account bar.

Generally, you will see LTP make these sorts of prorations on the income and expense side as well (living expenses and salary, for example).

<edit> when I have some time in the future, I will illustrate this more completely  :)