Budgeting prototype

[Matthew Vanecek]

On Thu, 2003-09-04 at 18:44, Matthew Vanecek wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-09-04 at 09:28, David Ayers wrote:
> > Are we not confusing budgeting as commonly understood with financial
> > simulation? I submit that potential purchases do not affect a budget.

I *do* see a need for profiling possible scenarios, and how a future
purchase will affect my budgetary needs.  For example, when considering
a new house purchase, I need to know 1) what is a reasonable goal for
saving a down payment, 2) How will my budget need to change to reach
that goal (because, well, my income sure ain't going up!), and 3) how
will the projected future house payments (and cessation of saving for
DP) affect my financial expactations?  These are all valid reasons for
how potential purchases affect your budget, and why you need a way to
profile the different scenarios.

An operating budget, however, like you say below, should experience
minimal changes (well, unless your income source changes
catastrophically or dramatically).

>  A
> > budget that is put into place at the beginning of an accounting period
> > should almost never be changed, else you will find yourself shooting at
> > a moving target. I want to know at the end of the year how my actual
> > financial condition compares with what I envisioned at the beginning of
> > the year. That's how I learn to modify my financial behavior in
> > subsequent periods. Otherwise budgeting becomes a game without any real
> > impact.
> > 
> 
> YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!! My point exactly!!  The above is
> *precisely* what we need out of a budgeting tool!!!
-- 
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...