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Lifetime planner is not including my taxable accounts in calculations

wslaura

Hi, I am on Quicken version R60.15. About a week ago, my Lifetime planner started to omit my taxable accounts when showing and calculating how long my assets would last. I spent time today with the Quicken helpline going to previous versions of my datafile, but that did not work. Would appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you. Laura

P.S. Right before this problem, I did some scenario planning with budgeting for major renovations to my home and indicated which accounts I would use to pay for the renovations — which were taxable accounts. I have since deleted these "special expenses". Even so, my savings would last longer than indicated below.

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NotACPA

For those "taxable accounts" what category is used to record the income into those accounts? What Tax Line is associated with those categories?

It's via the Category Tax Lines that "taxable income" is determined in Q … not by the account itself.

wslaura

Thanks for replying. I haven't done anything to change those (categories), and it worked perfectly prior to last week. I think the problem must be something else.

NotACPA

Have you even bothered to check the settings that I referenced???

mshiggins

Hi Laura,

In the Lifetime Planner’s Plan Assumptions for Savings & Investments, are your taxable accounts selected?

wslaura

@NotACPA @mshiggins

If I look at the account info for my planner, I see that my taxable accounts are designated for general expenses, as opposed to retirement. I do not seem to be able to edit using the details option. the only drop-down I get is for general expenses.

I don't know where/how to find the category tax lines. That said, I think you're on to something, because I didn't have this problem until I tried budgeting for special expenses, and even though I deleted the scenario, the retirement calculations haven't adjusted.

NotACPA

For any "General Expense" accounts that you want to designate as Retirement, do TOOLS, Account List and click EDIT adjacent to those "General" account(s), then click the "Display Options" tab at the top of the dialog and set "Account Intent".

Also, on the "General" tab, set "Tax Deferred" to YES

mshiggins

Laura,

It is normal for taxable accounts to show as General Expenses. Assuming the current balance of your taxable accounts is similar to the balance of your tax deferred accounts, you should see some amount in the Plan Results chart showing the taxable account balance for 2024.

I recommend going carefully through the planner assumptions settings checking for any setting that seems off.

wslaura

Thanks very much for both of your suggestions, which helped me learn a lot more about Quicken.

As it turns out, Quicken thought that I had some big balloon payments coming up which would consume my taxable accounts. I discovered the balloon payment issue when I clicked on the December 2024 bar on the planning chart and accessed a spending report for the month. I couldn't find a way to fix that because I didn't see any record of such when I examined my accounts.

Thankfully, on January 1, the calculations were reset because I didn't have any balloon payments to settle, and now both my taxable and nontaxable accounts are incorporated. Strange, right?

mshiggins

@wslaura interesting finding on the balloon payments causing the issue. Glad to hear the change to the new year resolved the issue.