Tracking Money in Savings Account

Thu Dec 16 18:05:29 EST 2010

James,

Good question!

> So, my question (more curiosity than anything else)
> 
>
 Lets say you got $2000 in your net pay, and you got a $2000 gift from 
someone, and then you went and got a big screen TV that cost you $2000, 

> does it matter which $2000 you spent on the TV, or simply that you got a
 $2000 gift, you got $2000 in salary, and you spend $2000 on the TV?

Yes, it matters.  My salary is used for necessities and savings for emergencies, retirement, and luxuries if I set aside money (save for a particular purpose like a big screen TV).  At this point you must understand (I am willing to learn and change) that I allocate my paycheck to different categories, subaccounts, or envelopes (whatever we want to call them) so I really don't see $2000 to spend on anything.  Does that make sense?  Now let's say I've been wanting a big screen TV, but just haven't saved up enough.  I won't buy it.  But now I get this $2000 gift.  I'll allocate this to "gifts" and go out and buy the TV with the money that's been allocated to "gifts."  Now, let's say some time goes by and for some reason I need to look hard at my finances and figure out where it all went.  One of my questions may be, how did I ever have money for a big screen TV?  I can easily go back and see, oh! that was a gift from so and so, I didn't purchase it with my hard earned money.

Wow, am I narrow minded and crazy or what:)  This exercise is an eye-opener for me.  I totally understand what you're getting at, but my mind doesn't go there.  Am I a hopeless cause here?  I do want to grasp and even implement what everyone has been saying, just so I can get a handle on this -- I do like to learn, as difficult as it is for me:)  This has been a great learning process.  

My problem I'm trying to overcome is twofold: 1) understanding how the "standard" accounting system addresses this issue; just because my bank account has a balance of $10,000 in it, I really don't have that much to spend on anything because I need it for future expenses; and 2) There are certain amounts of money in my savings that I do need to track separately but they're still in the same physical bank account, for example, as stated before, monies given to my wife for her use and not mine.  So I have to track those.  When she buys something special for herself from the money she received as a gift, I need to subtract that expense from the gift.  Now, if she spent the entire gift at one time it would be very easy to track, but it's a little here and a little there, then she'll ask me how much she has left.  Does this make any sense to you?  It does to me, but I've already established I'm crazy.  How would do handle something like this?

>
 If it matters where it came from, for how long does it matter? Do you 
restrict yourself to paying for certain things with certain sources of 
income?

Until I saved up enough.
Yes.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.  Please continue asking questions, this has been helping me understand better.

Wayne

> Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:00:43 -0800
> From: fireflys_98 at yahoo.com
> Subject: RE: Tracking Money in Savings Account
> To: derek at ihtfp.com; wrbird at hotmail.com
> CC: warlord at mit.edu; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> 
> > From: Wayne Bird <wrbird at hotmail.com>
> > I guess it's because I'm anal about everything.  I
> > want to know exactly where my paycheck went.  If I get
> > a $5000 bonus for work, I want to know exactly how I spent
> > that specific money.  Let's say my wife receives
> > $10,000 inheritance, I need to account for each cent that
> > was spent and where it was spent.  My wife receives
> > money from relatives, gifts and such, I can't just lump that
> > money in our savings account and call it our savings (I
> > would like to because I'm the spender in the family). 
> > Does this help in seeing my perspective?  Maybe I have
> > to use the subaccounts for everything.
> 
> So, my question (more curiosity than anything else)
> 
> Lets say you got $2000 in your net pay, and you got a $2000 gift from someone, and then you went and got a big screen TV that cost you $2000, does it matter which $2000 you spent on the TV, or simply that you got a $2000 gift, you got $2000 in salary, and you spend $2000 on the TV?
> 
> If it matters where it came from, for how long does it matter? Do you restrict yourself to paying for certain things with certain sources of income?
> 
> - James Duerr
> 
> E-mail: FireFlys_98 at yahoo.com
> ---------------------
> Discover a lost art - play Marbles. May 2004
> www.marillion.com
> 
> 
> --- On Thu, 12/16/10, Wayne Bird <wrbird at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Subject: RE: Tracking Money in Savings Account
> > To: derek at ihtfp.com
> > Cc: warlord at mit.edu, "Gnucash User" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > Date: Thursday, December 16, 2010, 9:52 AM
> > 
> > Derek,
> > 
> > Great questions!  This is helping me see things from
> > your, and obviously others, perspective.
> > 
> > > Let me rephrase this question..  Why is the
> > savings you got from your
> > > Inheritence any more important than the savings you
> > get from, say, your
> > > Salary?  Why do you need to know "I spent $5236
> > of my $10000 Inheritence"
> > > versus "I spent $5236 of my Savings"?
> > 
> 
> > 
> > > > Yes, definitely need to track inheritance
> > balance.
> > > 
> > > Why?
> > 
> > See above.
> > 
> > Wayne
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:30:02 -0500
> > > Subject: RE: Tracking Money in Savings Account
> > > From: derek at ihtfp.com
> > > To: wrbird at hotmail.com
> > > CC: warlord at mit.edu;
> > derek at ihtfp.com;
> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > 
> > > On Thu, December 16, 2010 12:20 pm, Wayne Bird wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> >   * Assets:Bank:Savings
> > > >> >   *
> > Assets:Bank:Savings:Inheritance
> > > >>
> > > >> You don't need this account unless you're
> > trying to track how much of
> > > >> your Inheritance you have left.
> > > >
> > > > Yes, I definitely need to track how much
> > Inheritance I have left!  This is
> > > > where I get confused; I would think everyone who
> > keeps track of their
> > > > finances would want to be able to account for
> > where all there income is or
> > > > has gone.  Why wouldn't you keep track of
> > how much of your Inheritance is
> > > > left?
> > > 
> > > Let me rephrase this question..  Why is the
> > savings you got from your
> > > Inheritence any more important than the savings you
> > get from, say, your
> > > Salary?  Why do you need to know "I spent $5236
> > of my $10000 Inheritence"
> > > versus "I spent $5236 of my Savings"?
> > > 
> > > >> This can just be I:Inheritance ->
> > A:B:Savings (unless you're trying to
> > > >> track your inheritance balance).
> > > >
> > > > Yes, definitely need to track inheritance
> > balance.
> > > 
> > > Why?
> > > 
> > > -derek
> > > 
> >     
> >         
> >           
> >   
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