Budgeting for Future Expenses - Can You Help This Reader?
Sunday September 9, 2007
A reader posted a question about choosing software that handles budgeting and tracking money allocated to future expenses and savings.
Do you have a method for setting up an account this way in your personal finance software, or do you use dedicated budgeting software to do the job?
Read the details of the question in the Financial Software Discussion Forum and post an answer in the forum or here in the blog comments.
Thanks for your help!
Budgeting Software: You Need A Budget Pro | Budget | Mvelopes
Comments
Quicken can handle the “set aside funds” issue with what used to be called “classes” and has become “tags” in Quicken 2008. In other words you can make a “class” item (a type of category) of any money you deposit and then generate a report of all such deposits. Thus, if you happen to have money set aside in more than one place for the special future use, the report will find all such deposits.
My answer, also posted in the discussion forum:
You could try software that works on the envelope budgeting software like Budget by Snowmint Creative Solutions LLC, which offers a free trial for Windows and Mac.
You could also try You Need A Budget or You Need A Budget Pro.
A new option would be Quicken 2008, with a new feature called My Spending Plan. This feature rolls unused budgeted funds forward for use in future months.