Budgeting - Let's decide what we want!

[Matthew Vanecek]

On Mon, 2003-09-01 at 09:06, Stewart V. Wright wrote:
> > amounts, etc.  Not the only way to do it, of course, just a suggestion
> > and what I thought would be easiest to implement.  I certainly am
> > interested in seeing what you have, though, and I'm *certain* we'll all
> > appreciate any working implementation!! ;)
> > 
> > I know I will!
> > (Thank God someone is actually going to spew forth code on this)
> 
> 
> I don't want to put a dampener on this, but I think a clearer focus on
> what is to be done is a better approach than for someone to go out and
> start coding what they would like to see.
> 
> Code is a "Good Thing(TM)" but there are still two different camps at
> least.  Those who want to plan for 'X' dollars to buy a new truck and
> those who want to be able to say "OK, 10% of this months income goes
> into the Truck Purchasing section of my budget".  I put myself in the
> last category.  Then of course there is the "I get 'Y' dollars per
> year so I am going to plan my budget for 12 months" camp (which is a
> splinter of the last group).
> 

I fail to understand the difference.  In each case, you are planning to
spend X dollars on a future puchase.  Darin's direction allows you to go
into a budget period and change the amount you are allocating to that
future expense for that period.  That gives you what you want, I think.

Me, I get Y dollars per year, divided into 26 disbursements.  I spend
money based on individual disbursements, not based on my yearly salary
(like I really should). I allocate my lunch and gasoline money on a
paycheck-by-paycheck method.  Each paycheck, $same goes to lunch and
gas.  (The rare) Excess gets moved to savings at the end of the pay
period (when I get my next check).  Darin's method doesn't prevent me
from budgeting that--it actually makes it a bit easier.  I know during
the next 12 months my lunch and gas needs will remain relatively stable.

And in the end, don't you want to plan a specific amount to pay for a
major purchase?  Consider a new house.  I know I need a $30,000 down
payment for the type of house I want.  I know my wife has a two year
timeline for buying that new house.  Therefore, I know how much money I
have to accumulate between now and then ($30,000--I know how much, but
now how!!), so I can effectively divide that into monthly savings goals
that fit nicely into a budget.  Darin's method would, of course, allow
me to adjust the periodic goals as needed (say, if I worked hourly and
couldn't put in the same amount each paycheck, his table lets me change
the amount for a given paycheck/period--this, I think, may help with
your percentages requirement--perhaps a field could be
percentage-calculated based on planned income for the period).

I just don't see the differences in our end goals--I still plan
weekly/bi-weekly expenses based on my paycheck, and I still plan
long-term goals based on how much I need to meet them.  Same as you want
to do, I think.  I think the direction Darin seems to be taking is the
best of both worlds.  A clean separation of budget vs. accounts,
editable amounts for budgetary periods, cumulative periods for an
overall timeframe, definitive relationships between budget categories
and accounts...all we'll need is someone to revive the SWIG bindings to
write some Perl reports (no bias there at all, certainly not, not like
Perl is the greatest scripting language around--even if it is! ;-P)...

In any case, since he's the only one stepping up to the plate to do the
grunt work, we should give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he
has to offer.  It's not stone tablets we're talking here--it's
electronic signals and magnetic bits that are very malleable...

BTW, the % of income per period would be a nice feature, I agree, but
most cash flows won't be based on percentages.  My $#!#% electric bill
doesn't care how much my paycheck is!!!

In thinking about this, it seems what you are looking for is something
to tell you on a paycheck-by-paycheck basis what you have available to
spend on X items, after you get your paycheck (i.e., you get your
paycheck, you divide it into various cash flow paths, 10% to savings,
$100 to electric, etc.), perhaps because you don't get the same amount
each payday.  I'm not sure why there couldn't be room for both, but I
think Darin's method could satisfy even this requirement w/o affecting
the rest of the codebase.  Just change the budget amounts in the table
each paycheck...

Hmm, well, seem to have spewed forth enough dialog.  I think both the
main ideas proposed are very useful, but I think the separate budget
idea should be able to handle the needs of both camps.  Just depends on
how cleanly it is implemented.
-- 
Matthew Vanecek
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
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For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow except me.
I'm always getting in the way of something...