Tracking Money in Savings Account

[Mike Leone]

On 12/16/2010 12:20 PM, Wayne Bird wrote:

> Yes, I definitely need to track how much Inheritance I have left!
> This
is where I get confused; I would think everyone who keeps track of their
finances would want to be able to account for where all there income is
or has gone. Why wouldn't you keep track of how much of your Inheritance
is left?

Perhaps for the same reason I don't bother putting in any tax deductions
from my gross pay - all those balances are tracked by my employer, and
current totals print on each paycheck. I have direct deposit, so that
transaction comes in when I import transactions from my bank. However,
that is net pay (the amount deposited). I would have to manually go make
entries for all the deductions ... effectively doing double work, since
I have those balances available to me with every paycheck. And similar
comments for retirement deductions from paycheck.

I use GNUCash to track income and expenses that aren't tracked with
other methods, such as those described above.

> THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!! I'm also in discussion with Michael trying
to understand how to use "standard" accounting without the use of all
these subaccounts. However, as you noted (unless you are specifically
budgeting for future expenses), I'm not sure I can do it.

Well ... I use subaccounts to save for various GNUCash budgeting
reasons. (Me, I refer to them as "Reserve accounts", since I am
reserving cash for specific needs. Same thing, really). For example,
every week I put certain money aside for annual real estate taxes, and
semi-annual house insurance payments. I could use a GNUCash budget to do
that, but - for me - it's only 3 amounts I need to have (2 insurance
payments, and 1 tax). And since I know (or closely suspect) how much
each will be, and when I have to pay them, I don't bother with a budget.
I'm lucky, in that I only really need to account for those 2
subaccounts. No loans, no mortgage, no other periodic obligations to
reserve for, besides those 2.

I make other subaccounts, tho, for saving for specific reasons. I have
one for a new computer, one for a new camera lens, etc. I don't budget
those, because I don't know exactly how much they will be (haven't
decided on the model, or will buy a model that is not yet out and
priced). So all I do is accumulate money in the subaccount, until I
decide to use it.

I also have subaccounts for just general savings. I have 3 subaccounts,
one for each of a close relative that I want to leave money to, when I
die. So the subaccounts help me keep track of the ongoing balance, but
since there's no need to budget for them (as there is not set amount
that I *must* have  in there, at a specific point in time).

So, sure, you could use subaccounts. They have uses, beyond budgeting.
But you don't *have* to ...