Income from Retirement Investments?

[Mark Johnson]

Dennis Craven wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I have a question about how to account for the increasing value of long term
>investments. I have a fund (a collection of mutual funds) that I'd like to
>account for as a single entity. It is a fund which was set up as a
>retirement contribution type fund with an employer that I am no longer with.
>Every six months, a statement is mailed to me from the investment company
>(Great West) with updated values. No more contributions will be made to this
>particular fund, and the funds are pretty much unreachable until my
>retirement date.
>
>I currently have this fund set up as Assets:Investments:RPP:Great West with
>a debit balance. The offset of it's single entry to date is to
>Equity:Opening Balances. Basically, I was thinking of making a single entry
>every six months when the statement arrives. The entry would debit
>(hopefully :)) the asset account representing the fund with an amount that
>would make the balance agree with the new statement, but I'm unsure where
>the credit entry would be most appropriate.
>
>For the time being, I've created an Income:RPP Income account to put the
>offset into, but it seems as though this will inflate my income and
>therefore skew my monthly Income Statements as this isn't *really* income
>given that the money is essentially useless to me until I reach 65 years of
>age.
>
>Something doesn't feel right about this current setup. Any tips out there?
>
>Cheers,
>~djc
>
>  
>
You may want to take a look in the Tutorial and Concepts Guide under the 
help menu.  If this is not available, you will need to install the 
gnucash-docs.  (There is probably something under the "contents" menu 
item as well.  I'd be more specific, but I am having trouble with yelp, 
and haven't had a chance to fix it.)

There is an example for capital gains based on a Degas painting.  It 
sounds correct to me that you are using an income account for the 
unrealized gains.

Now, on to the income statement.  Try opening your income statement, and 
click on options. You will then be able to select which income accounts 
to include.  Just exclude your long-term unrealized gains accounts.  
Then, you will get a more meaningful income statement.

Hope this helps,
Mark