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Budgeting savings

I want to become disciplined in saving every month. On my budget, I have a savings category. Now, when I transfer the money every month, how can I track it in my budget if it records income and expense with each transfer? It always puts me at zero because income = expense. And if I use a transfer category, Quicken doesn't track those at all! Is there anyone that has done this successfully? How have you tracked your monthly savings in your budget? I use Quicken for Mac 2017

Comments

  • RickORickO SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2017
    This is why we need Quicken to treat transactions with both a transfer and a non-"Transfer" category to be treated as both a transfer and an expense or income. 

    Please go to THIS THREAD and follow & mark helpful & me too; and maybe comment on your need to have this changed.

    I myself don't use the budgeting features, so I won't be any help with a workaround, but perhaps some who does will be able to suggest something. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • John_in_NCJohn_in_NC SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    It is great you wish to become disciplined in saving!

    I use the budget. Currently, there is no way to account for transfers in one as they are neutral cash flows and they will zero out as you have found out. You basically are moving money from one pocket to another-no spending or receiving money is occurring.

    While there are use cases where seeing a transfer as an expense makes sense, I am more concerned about your "savings" category. Categories are not accounts; you won't be moving money in and out of them. Your account (checking, savings, credit card) will reflect your real world balances, and the categories are more notions as to how you spent/received said $. I can't see how you are entering transactions to reflect this savings unless you are moving the $ to another account.
  • Unknown Member
    edited October 2018
    Hi guys. I have the same issue/question as the original poster, and I don't think it's a matter of confusing Categories with Accounts.

    Example:

    I recently paid off my car and know that I'll likely be shopping for a new car in a year or two. So, I want to be sure of two things:
    1) I have a downpayment ready when the time comes.
    2) I stay in the habit of setting aside $XXX per month for a car payment so that I don't have to find the money in my budget two years from now.
    One solution that meets both ends is to set up a savings account and deposit $XXX every month. In two years, I'll have a down payment ready and I'll be in the habit of making a payment.

    This is something I'd want to build into my Budget much the same as an actual Car Payment--in fact, I may decide to categorize those monthly deposits as "Car Payment" since that's the spirit of what they are. In the current Quicken for Mac I can create a linked transfer and give it the "Car Payment" category, but it gets recorded as money from one account and amoney into the other account. And my Budget status for the month remains $0.00 for "Car Payment."

    My workaround currently is to simply not link that particular savings account to Quicken so it only gets recorded as money out. That's fine and all, but it's a bit of a bummer not to have ALL of my accounts linked to Quicken so I have a complete picture of my financial world.
  • galojahgalojah Member ✭✭
    edited July 2018
    Definitely, need a way to budget savings.  Until this is possible, the budget tool is useless for me.
  • Quicken_TykaQuicken_Tyka Moderator mod
    edited October 2018
    galojah said:

    Definitely, need a way to budget savings.  Until this is possible, the budget tool is useless for me.

    Hey galojah,

    Thank you for taking the time to visit the community.

    I would take a moment and add your vote to https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/add-ability-to-include-or-exclude-transfers-on-b....

    -Thank you!
    -Quicken Tyka
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