Is it not possible to create reminders for withdrawals from IRA accounts?

Bert Onstott

I transfer a fixed amount monthly from two Fidelity IRA accounts into my Fidelity checking account.

I tried creating a reminder for the transaction in the checking account, but Quicken insists on transferring it from the checking to the IRA account. Then, I tried setting a reminder for the transaction in the IRA register, but that isn't an option in the drop-down menu.

I want these to be used in the projected balance plot in Bills and Income. How do I do that?

I'm using Quicken Classic Premier, Version R54.15, build 27.1.54.16 on Windows 10.

Chris_QPW

How is the Fidelity checking account setup in Quicken?

Is it a normal checking account or one linked to the investment account?

Bert Onstott

it's linked to an investment account.

Chris_QPW

Let me make sure I have this correct. You should only be able to link a checking account to a brokerage account, and you are talking about dealing with IRA accounts. I was talking about this setting in the Account Details of the investment account:

I'm not talking about what is happening at the financial institution.

But let's say that checking account is linked to a different brokerage account, not the IRA account(s) (and I should have picked up on the "accounts", instead of "account")

OK, I tried this, and the reminders was blocked, and then I tried just entering a manually and got this:

A linked checking account isn't a "real account" in Quicken. It is a virtual account.

Investment transactions are always downloaded into the investment account, if there is a linked checking account, and the downloaded transaction is a "cash transaction" it is pushed to this virtual checking account and the same in the opposite direction.

The nature of this is this account is going to have "special rules" about what transactions can go to where, and that includes the brokerage account it is linked too. When you link a brokerage account to a checking account, they remove all the cash actions. You literally can't make a withdraw/deposit from that account. If you do a Buy/Sell it makes it a BuyX/SellX where the "X means transfer the money from/to the linked checking account". This brokerage account can no longer directly interact with another Quicken account.

Chris_QPW

Put a different way. Let's imagine that you have a linked cash account and match investment account.

If you are "transferring in money" that has to be from somewhere other than these two accounts, because it comes from the "outside".

If instead you are saying that you are "transferring between the checking account and the brokerage account" that doesn't make any sense.

The brokerage account can't hold cash, that is the purpose of the linked checking account. You get money "transferred" between the two accounts by either buying or selling a security. The needed funds are transferred in as and out as needed.

Bert Onstott

The way Fidelity does this always seems to cause trouble. The checking account is linked to an investment account, but it is all but invisible to the user. There is a “core” account where shares of a money market account are bought and sold to accomplish cash transactions in the checking account. The “cash” in the checking account is really shares in a money market account. But all that happens automatically and I never have to look at it. The core account does have a register where money market share buy and sell transactions show up, but all the “real” transactions, checks cashed, deposits, electronic fund transfers, etc., show up in a separate checking account register both in Quicken and on the Fidelity website.

In addition, my wife and I each have IRA accounts from which we take a distribution every month.

The distributions are set up to go from the IRA account to the checking account, and they appear in the checking account register.

I balance the checking account, not the core account.

As to whether the investment account is real or virtual I can't say. They show up as separate accounts in Quicken and it appears Fidelity treats them separately.

I don't think I ever said I was transferring to or from the brokerage account. I'm transferring from the two IRA accounts itto the checking account. The IRA accounts are not linked to any other accounts.

But the punchline is I can't create reminders for these transitions.

QuickUserPSP

@Bert Onstott have you tried setting it up as an Income Reminder in the checking account? In your original post, you didn't explicitly say if it was an Income or Payment reminder.

Otherwise, you can always set up two separate reminders, one in each account. A withdrawal in the Investment account, and a deposit in the checking account. It is not a linked transfer per se, but the result is the same.

Bert Onstott

i clicked the transaction (which was marked as a transfer) in the checking account and selected ‘create reminder’ from the drop down menu.

I don't need to create a reminder for the withdrawal from the IRA account. I only want to forecast the balance in the checking account.

QuickUserPSP

If you don't really want a transfer transaction but just the piece deposited to the checking account, then I think all you need to do is set up a reminder for the deposit to the checking account.

Click on the "Bills & Income" tab. Click on the "+" on the upper right. In the dropdown menu choose "Add income reminder". In the "To" field you would choose the checking account. The category should be a transfer back into the checking account. The frequency would be Monthly. The amount would be the amount of the transfers from the IRAs.

See if this is what you are looking for. I think there are different ways you can accommodate what you want to do.

Chris_QPW

OK, I got off track when you said it was a linked checking account, I meant in the Quicken not at the financial institution. So, the checking account isn't anything special to Quicken. I have a feeling I know what you ran into because I just tried the steps you just posted.

Say I have this transaction in the register:

Now I right click on it and select "Add reminder".

This is what pops up, notice the sign on the amount.

I select Done.

This is a "warning" and pretty much a dumb one since it was Quicken itself that put in the negative sign. In the case, of a transfer, it should be a positive number because it is the "From account" and "To account" that decides the direction of the transfer. Quicken should have selected the right direction instead of just changing the amount due sign.

So, after Quicken changed the sign, you need to also change the from/to account entries:

And then the reminder will go through.

mshiggins

"I tried setting a reminder for the transaction in the IRA register, but that isn't an option in the drop-down menu."

To my knowledge this has never been possible ... in any investment-type account.

"I tried creating a reminder for the transaction in the checking account, but Quicken insists on transferring it from the checking to the IRA account."

I didn't spend much time looking into that, but I see the same thing.  While I don't believe that Quicken is acting correctly there, I think you're arbitrarily limiting yourself by trying to create the reminder from existing transactions.

I have no problem creating a reminder for a transfer from an IRA investment account to a non-IRA checking account when I initiate the "Add" reminder process from Tools > Manage Bill & Income Reminders.

-JP

Bert Onstott

I did successfully add a reminder for a deposit to the checking account. And it shows up in the projected balance. So that workaround works. Thanks.

Bert Onstott

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20422965#Comment_20422965

Quicken does not allow the "From" field to be the IRA account.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20423258#Comment_20423258

Look at my screenshot, the from is an IRA account. I'm not sure why yours isn't being shown but Quicken definitely does allow it.

Shown again below it:

But like the other posts have suggested, probably the best thing to do is just select Ctrl+J and add it there.

Bert Onstott

Chris - I should have said "My Quicken doesn't allow the From field to be an IRA account. If I click on From, only non-investment accounts appear. If I click on To, only investment accounts appear. Why? No idea.

Chris_QPW

Try this Add → Bill → Manual Bill, Type in the Pay to: (like Transfer), next. Can you select an investment account from this "From account" (after selecting "Investments"? If that works you can put in a category of [Your Checking account].