Budgeting - Let's decide what we want!

[David Ayers]

On 01 Sep 2003 21:39:10 -0400
Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:

> "Justin Kelly" <jkelly at bkrrosenbergs.com> writes:
> 
> > Stewart
> > 
> > Great proposal, but personally i think it would be much easier just
> > to have a feature that gives you an option to put a monthly budget
> > figure in for each expense/income account in the chart if accounts
> > and allow you to classify accounts into different groups(like your
> > proposal(required, living, fun, etc..)), and have a simple report of
> > actual total of the classified expense accounts versus budget.
> > Personally i find the idea of virtual accounts a bit unnecessary.
> 
> How would you fit "savings goals" into this model?  A savings goal
> isn't an expense (although I suppose you could consider it an income,
> but generally it's a portion of Income:Salary).
> 
> Also, what about using budgeting as a tool to figure out what would
> happen if you added a particual expense.  For example, "can I afford
> this new car if I have to pay $250/mo, and what would that do to my
> cash flow and savings goals?"
> 
> The problem (as I see it) is that if you tie budgetting specifically
> to income/expense accounts then you cannot perform either of these two
> functions.
> 
> -derek
> 

I've been following this thread with interest, as one who has fought the
budgeting battle through college, running a business, helping raise four
children and putting them through college, and now in retirement. I'm in
the process of moving from Quicken to GnuCash. It needs a budgeting
feature - on that we all agree.

Would it make sense to add budgeting in two phases: first, just add a
budget bucket for each expense/income account, then go to work on the
more flexible virtual accounts approach?

The simple approach would be a big step forward, and I'm not at all sure
I would ever need more. For me, a budget has been first and foremost a
tool to track how well (or how poorly) I am following a financial plan.
Simulations of financial scenarios seem to me be quite another thing -
nice, but not essential.

I'll be glad to help in any way I can (I have almost no programming
skills.)

Dave



-- 
David Ayers
Quincy, Illinois, USA
fogey at mindspring.com
http://www.dayers.net