Tracking Money in Savings Account

[John Layman]

Good grief!   That's not unlike arguing that the bench vise does support
nail driving on the grounds that you can contrive to do so. 

I regret chiming in.  I'd like to continue this discussion, have to unplug
in about an hour and will be out of touch through the holidays.


-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Atkins [mailto:warlord at MIT.EDU] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 11:04 AM
To: john.layman at laymanandlayman.com
Cc: stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com; 'Phil Longstaff'; 'Gnucash User'
Subject: Re: Tracking Money in Savings Account

John,

"John Layman" <john.layman at laymanandlayman.com> writes:

> This thread has confirmed a timeless verity" "When your only tool is a 
> hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
>
> The cautionary corollary, of course, warns that if you're comfortable 
> wielding your hammer, you'd better watch that you don't keep hammering 
> away when you have some other tool in hand.
>
> As a former Microsoft Money user, I know that force fitting the 
> envelope concept onto its accounts-and-categories data model would be like
driving
> nails with a bench vise.   GnuCash has a more flexible data model, but it
> would require bending and twisting the software completely out of 
> shape to force fit envelopes onto it.  The issue here is not merely 
> one of failing to understand the proper use of the tool, it's a 
> failure to clearly think through the problem to be solved.  If you 
> insist on viewing a problem only through the lens of a pre-conceived 
> solution, you're unlikely ever to really understand (or solve) the
problem.

Just for the record, GnuCash does have some features that encourage
envelope-based budgeting.  In particular, the reconciliation process
includes a "Include Subaccounts" switch, and there's also the "Open
Subaccounts" menu option to open a register subtree.

So to make it clear, you don't have to bend and twist GnuCash too hard.

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available