Ah interesting. I guess I was planning to track the gain/loss via cost basis (hence the curlies) instead of adding accounts. I think your example makes total gains/losses more clear from reading the balance sheet, but I've got a number of these accounts, so if I want that broken down by account, I need, i.e. Expenses:TraditionalIRA:Fees, etc., and then going from that back to a rolled-up rate of returns involves some scripting.
All that to say it seems like if I want to track cost basis, returns on individual accounts, overall returns, I end up needing some combination of extra accounts as you propose and scripting. On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 9:58 PM psionl0 <[email protected]> wrote: > > When you say "pair" the accounts, is this just a convention? Or is there > some functionality to associate them? > > It is just a case of a gain in the value of an asset comes from income and > a loss of value of an asset is an expense. > > Your original transactions would be recorded as > 2021-01-04 * "Depreciation" > Assets:TraditionalIRA:Less Depreciation 5.00 USD > Expenses:Depreciation 5.00 USD > > 2021-01-04 * "Fee" > Assets:TraditionalIRA:Less Fees -1 TRADIRA @ 0.50 USD > Expenses:Fees 0.50 USD > > The first transaction records the loss in value of your shares without > affecting the number of shares you own while the second transaction records > the deduction of the share from your holdings (at the new price). > > On Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 4:54:16 AM UTC+8 Aaron Stacy wrote: > >> When you say "pair" the accounts, is this just a convention? Or is there >> some functionality to associate them? >> >> On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 3:45 PM psionl0 <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> It would be clearer to split the TraditionalIRA account into four >>> sub-accounts: >>> Assets:TraditionalIRA:Purchase Price >>> Assets:TraditionalIRA:Plus Appreciation >>> Assets:TraditionalIRA:Less Depreciation >>> Assets:TraditionalIRAl:Less Fees >>> >>> These would be paired with one of the following income/expense accounts: >>> Income:Appreciation >>> Expenses:Depreciation >>> Expenses:Fees >>> >>> A balance report would instantly give the net value of >>> Assets:TraditionalIRA after accounting for fees and depreciation. >>> On Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 12:11:50 AM UTC+8 Aaron Stacy wrote: >>> >>>> Ash makes sense thanks! >>>> >>>> On Mon, May 3, 2021 at 8:15 AM Ismael Bouya <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi, >>>>> There is a section about that in the manual ;) >>>>> >>>>> https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Buying-and-Selling-Stock >>>>> >>>>> In your case, that would be something like: >>>>> 2021-01-04 * "Fee" >>>>> Assets:TraditionalIRA -1 TRADIRA {1 USD} @ 0.50 >>>>> USD >>>>> Expenses:Fees 0.50 USD >>>>> Expenses:Capital losses 0.50 USD >>>>> >>>>> Here is how to see it: during that "fee", you’re actually "selling" one >>>>> action (TRADIRA) to pay that fee. >>>>> However that action is worth 0.50USD less than before, so had actually >>>>> two expenses: one for the fee (0.50 USD) and one for the loss of >>>>> capital >>>>> which gets activated at that time (0.50 USD) >>>>> >>>>> The capital loss expense didn’t appear so far because you didn’t >>>>> "spend" >>>>> them: as long as you keep them as TRADIRA, you don’t have any loss or >>>>> gain or capital, and the expense (or the reverse Income:Capital Gains) >>>>> only occurs when you actually do something of the action (in your case, >>>>> "pay something with it"). >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> (Sat, May 01, 2021 at 06:23:54PM -0700) Aaron Stacy : >>>>> > Hi everyone, I'm trying to book a 401k fee. I'm using beancount, but >>>>> > hopefully the syntax is similar enough: >>>>> > >>>>> > ; Assume the price for TraditionalIRA was $1/share when purchased >>>>> > 2021-01-03 balance Assets:TraditionalIRA 10 TRADIRA >>>>> > >>>>> > ; Now the broker wants to charge $0.50 in fees, and the price of >>>>> > TraditionalIRA >>>>> > ; has dropped to $0.50/share. For tax purposes, the cost basis is all >>>>> > ; essentially zero, so (presumably to keep things simple) they just >>>>> deduct >>>>> > ; (fee / share price) from the shares. >>>>> > 2021-01-04 * "Fee" >>>>> > Assets:TraditionalIRA -1 TRADIRA @ 0.50 USD >>>>> > Expenses:Fees 0.50 USD >>>>> > >>>>> > 2021-01-05 balance Assets:TraditionalIRA 9 TRADIRA >>>>> > >>>>> > The problem is this is ambiguous about the cost basis now. It may >>>>> not >>>>> > matter for tax purposes, but I care. I'd like to simply deduct the 1 >>>>> > TRADIRA share from the lot purchased at $1/share, but that doesn't >>>>> balance: >>>>> > >>>>> > 2021-01-04 * "Fee" >>>>> > Assets:TraditionalIRA -1 TRADIRA {1 USD} @ >>>>> 0.50 USD >>>>> > Expenses:Fees 0.50 USD >>>>> > ; This transaction is -0.50 from balancing >>>>> > >>>>> > So I suppose this makes sense since, because the price went down, I >>>>> lost 50 >>>>> > cents, so that should come from somewhere. >>>>> > >>>>> > What's a good account to take this from? Maybe Income:TraditionalIRA? >>>>> > >>>>> > -- >>>>> > >>>>> > --- >>>>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "Ledger" group. >>>>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>> send an email to [email protected]. >>>>> > To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/d1750d80-b867-4dc0-be8b-ed8e223ae266n%40googlegroups.com >>>>> . >>>>> >>>>> > Hi everyone, I'm trying to book a 401k fee. I'm using beancount, >>>>> but >>>>> > hopefully the syntax is similar enough: >>>>> > ; Assume the price for TraditionalIRA was $1/share when purchased >>>>> > 2021-01-03 balance Assets:TraditionalIRA 10 TRADIRA >>>>> > ; Now the broker wants to charge $0.50 in fees, and the price of >>>>> > TraditionalIRA >>>>> > ; has dropped to $0.50/share. For tax purposes, the cost basis is >>>>> all >>>>> > ; essentially zero, so (presumably to keep things simple) they >>>>> just deduct >>>>> > ; (fee / share price) from the shares. >>>>> > 2021-01-04 * "Fee" >>>>> > Assets:TraditionalIRA -1 TRADIRA @ 0.50 USD >>>>> > Expenses:Fees 0.50 USD >>>>> > 2021-01-05 balance Assets:TraditionalIRA 9 TRADIRA >>>>> > The problem is this is ambiguous about the cost basis now. It may >>>>> not >>>>> > matter for tax purposes, but I care. I'd like to simply deduct >>>>> the 1 >>>>> > TRADIRA share from the lot purchased at $1/share, but that doesn't >>>>> > balance: >>>>> > 2021-01-04 * "Fee" >>>>> > Assets:TraditionalIRA -1 TRADIRA {1 USD} @ >>>>> 0.50 USD >>>>> > Expenses:Fees 0.50 USD >>>>> > ; This transaction is -0.50 from balancing >>>>> > So I suppose this makes sense since, because the price went down, >>>>> I lost >>>>> > 50 cents, so that should come from somewhere. >>>>> > What's a good account to take this from? Maybe >>>>> Income:TraditionalIRA? >>>>> > >>>>> > -- >>>>> > >>>>> > --- >>>>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the >>>>> Google Groups >>>>> > "Ledger" group. >>>>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>> send an >>>>> > email to [1][email protected]. >>>>> > To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>> > [2] >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/d1750d80-b867-4dc0-be8b-ed8e223ae266n%40googlegroups.com >>>>> . >>>>> > >>>>> > References >>>>> > >>>>> > Visible links >>>>> > 1. mailto:[email protected] >>>>> > 2. >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/d1750d80-b867-4dc0-be8b-ed8e223ae266n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Ismael >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> >>>>> --- >>>>> >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the >>>>> Google Groups "Ledger" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/ledger-cli/rHgn5MVCkC0/unsubscribe. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to >>>>> [email protected]. >>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/20210503131518.bhzlen2lcjklg2lo%40dilion >>>>> . >>>>> >>>> -- >>> >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the >>> Google Groups "Ledger" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/ledger-cli/rHgn5MVCkC0/unsubscribe. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to >>> [email protected]. >>> >> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/8dfa5fe1-8cf4-4fdc-9107-9b2e5c60636en%40googlegroups.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/8dfa5fe1-8cf4-4fdc-9107-9b2e5c60636en%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "Ledger" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/ledger-cli/rHgn5MVCkC0/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/d81fc133-c50c-44c8-bc34-a5b768229608n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/d81fc133-c50c-44c8-bc34-a5b768229608n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/CACjABk%3DQ82xFHiYVTyLZRzUbpJHK1tK1hUksRCXaUY2WsydeTw%40mail.gmail.com.
