Budgeting prototype

[David Ayers]

On 03 Sep 2003 20:38:20 -0400
Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:

> Phil <sublime78ska at comcast.net> writes:
> 
> > > True often you
> > > budget at some roll up higher than where you spend, but why budget
> > > for somewhere you can't spend.
> > 
> > Why indeed!
> 
> Because perhaps you want to see how a potential purchase would affect
> your budget?  For example, I might not yet have purchased that truck,
> so I dont have an account for Liabilities:Loans:Truck...
> 
> Also, sometimes it's useful to have different "views" of your budget
> depending on what exactly you're looking for...  (In a similar vein it
> would be nice to have different views of the account hierarchy, but
> that might be more challenging to implement).
> 
> -derek

Are we not confusing budgeting as commonly understood with financial
simulation? I submit that potential purchases do not affect a budget. 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.

It appears that "budgeting" means different things to different people.
Let's keep kicking it around, and maybe a common base will evolve.

Dave

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