Investments

[Dennis Powless]

Yes, I have essentially set it up the same.  The income goes into the
bank and then to the fund cash account.  I then move the money from
the cash account to buy shares in the fund.

I have an account at the same level called wealthRUs.  The parent
company that all my funds are housed.

The dividends operate the same way...  they are all handled in the
fund account, that shows income in the income account. However, I will
move it to the asset level.
I don't really use gnucash to track taxes and all that so I don't
really need it.

I really want to track the investments etc.....

Thanks for making it simple, too bad I figured it out before (with the
help of others).



One other thing... the asset cash account will continue to get smaller
if I use it for the dividends.  eg reinvest the dividends in the fund
account.  It shows a transfer of money to the asset:cash account.  How
do I off set this decrease in funds (the opposing transaction)?  I
can't zero out an asset account at the end of the year.  With the
purchase of shares and transfer of money the opposing transaction is
the income account.


Dennis



On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 1:16 AM, FireFly <fireflys_98 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've tried to keep up with where you are, so my 2 cents, for what it's worth.
>
> 1. You need an "cash" account that money gets transferred into before buying any funds. In my setup that account is an asset account, that gets money from my paychecks (income) or any dividends (also income)
> 2. Personally I have an asset account at the same level to hold all the funds, it's tagged as a placeholder (it doesn't have any transactions in it)
> 3. Each fund that you purchase will be an account (for me under that placeholder account mentioned in 2) account type on that one is Mutual Fund (could be stock I would assume)
> 4. Flow of money is
>
> Income account -> Cash Account -> Fund account (to buy funds)
>
> For dividends it's in essence the same
>
> Income account -> Cash Account -> Fund account
>
> Why the cash account for dividends? Because otherwise you'll find the advanced portfolio giving you some screwy numbers, it doesn't like you buying things straight out of income accounts.
>
> Dividends are income, whether they are/need to be reported to the tax-man is a separate question, but they are income. Perhaps have a high level placeholder account on income called taxable and another called non-taxable, or, flag each account as such. I don't use the tax features of GNUCash so can't comment on how easy this is to do, depending on who is the user of the data depends on how much you need to worry about this.
>
> Dividends will get bigger, same as interest, or any other income, through the year(s) you "gain" interest/dividends/pay (etc). Personally I zero those accounts at year end to equity, re-aligning my base equity (using the close-books feature), you choice on whether you do this or not.
>
> - James Duerr
>
> E-mail: FireFlys_98 at yahoo.com
> ---------------------
> Discover a lost art - play Marbles. May 2004
> www.marillion.com
>
>
>
>