Income from Retirement Investments?

[Cameron Thorne]

"Derek Atkins" writes:
> "Dennis Craven" <dcraven at gmail.com> writes:
>> And to make it *not* appear as income, but still track the continually
>> changing value of the fund:
>>
>> Assets:Investments:MyFund                   100.00
>> Assets:Investments:Unrealized Gain                      100.00
>
> Actually, in this case I think you'd want to use an Equity account
> and not an Asset account..   Because the Unrealize Gains asset account
> would go negative, which probably isn't what you want.

This is exactly what I do.  I have Assets:Retirement:401(k):MyFund
tracking actual shares.  I use Finance::Quote to automatically grab
prices.  Any other non-contribution increases (dividends) in the
number of shares come from Equity:Unrealized Gains.  Capital gains are
technically income as they happen, though they are unrealized, and
thus untaxed until you realize them.  Even though it seems like your
retirement is only income when you start taking distributions, the
distributions will technically just be transfers from one asset
account (401(k)) to another (your checking account), with no income
accounts involved.

It was nice to have a few other accounts in Equity since Opening
Balances was feeling a bit lonely. ;-)  I think I also put home
appreciation in Equity, since it is also unrealized until I sell.  I
update the value of my Assets:Home each year when I get my tax
assessment.

Now the part I struggle with: I am not 100% vested in my 401(k).
Currently I track only vested balances, though this makes quarterly
reconciliation a bear for the next few years since I just changed
jobs.  Does anyone have a good way of tracking unvested and vested
balances together in their account tree, that works well for
reconciliation?

-- Cameron