syncing my recurring investment purchases with my checking account

Question

I would like help syncing a recurring monthly investment purchase (always the same amount) with the account it is being drawn from. Currently I am entering the transaction in both my checking/savings registers from my monthly bills list, and downloading them in my portfolio from my brokerage website. After a few of these transactions, I go back and deposit the "total cash invested" as misc income in order to balance the amount held in my investment account. I would assume there is an easier way to automatically have the cash withdrawn from my target account when the investment purchase has been made.

Any help with this?

Quicken Classic for Windows

Tom Young · Answer

I'm confused here.

I understand you as saying that you (or Quicken) make recurring entries for transfers of cash out of your checking or savings Accounts to your investment Account.  Properly done, those entries should show up in the investment Account.  But then you say "AND downloading them" into the investment Account, and that's where the confusion starts.

IF you're properly making your initial Transfer entry THEN the act of downloading from the investment Account should result in a "Match", confirming that the cash has indeed been deposited into the investment Account.

BUT, if the cash IS in the investment Account AND you're downloading transactions into your investment Account, why isn't the "Buy" transaction also showing up, using the cash that's been deposited into it?

It seems like you should be done at that point.

Adding to the confusion you state "After a few of these transactions, I go back and deposit the "total cash invested" as misc income in order to balance the amount held in my investment account."  Where are you doing this, in what Account?  It seems like the transferred cash should be consumed by the downloads of BUY transactions and, in any case a transfer of cash from one Account to another Account is NEVER an "income" event.

Maybe you could add some details here to clarify the situation?

[Deleted User] · Answer

@schweitz6357 why not set up a recurring transfer from checking or savings to your investment account?  That will deposit the cash to your investment account needed for the investment purchase.  Then when you download the purchase from your brokerage website it will use the cash that you transferred from your checking or savings account.