Thanks for your quick and speedy reply. You and Mark have been very helpful.
In keeping with the KISS principle, I came up with a solution I thought I would share. Instead of trying to keep up with separating interest and principle -- I decided to simply multiply my monthly payment times the amount of payments left on the loan and use that as my starting amount. This may over-inflate my current balance but it will more accurately show how much I actually have left to pay on the loan. Plus constantly seeing that I may have a few hundred thousand dollars to pay off my house, instead of what my payoff is, will further encourage me to pay it off sooner to avoid interest payments. If I do make early payments on principle, I can just make an adjustment transaction every now and then. Still looking forward to future versions but excited about putting Moneywell to use on our family's finances. Thanks for all you are doing, Michael > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [No Thirst Software] Re: Loan // Principle and Interest > Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:30:43 -0500 > > > On Oct 26, 2008, at 3:53 PM, mjcloud wrote: > > > I am testing out Moneywell and love the bucket approach -- been > > looking for something like that for a while. I find that financial > > software tend to either do a good job of tracking one's finances > > (backward looking) or planning (forward looking) one's finances. Of > > course, it would be nice if one did both. > > > > I am playing around with loan payments from my checking account to the > > loan account I created. The problem is that the entire payment is > > applied to the balance - without accounting for interest. My monthly > > loan payment is drafted automatically so I don't know how much -- or > > how to go about -- distinguishing between principle applied to the > > balance and the loan payment made (principle and interest). > > > > I have used MS Money for several years (does a good job of tracking, > > horrible job of helping plan). It auto-figures for monthly interest > > based on loan term entered when you create your loan account. > > > > Trying to make Moneywell work for me. > > > Mark summarized the MoneyWell philosophy well so I won't repeat the > "less is more" advice. Instead I'll let you know that the 2.x releases > of MoneyWell will incorporate more tracking of loan and credit card > debt (borrowing a bit from our other product, Debt Quencher). The goal > with MoneyWell is to help you manage your cash flow so that's why we > don't push tracking all the details of interest or tax on entries but > it is important to optimize your cash flow and one way to do that is > to pay down debt early. > > In your case above, if you are just paying your normal loan payments, > tracking your interest won't help you much but if you were paying down > a credit card, knowing how much money you could save in interest by > paying a bit more each month would be helpful. > > Peace, > > Kevin Hoctor > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > No Thirst Software LLC > http://nothirst.com > http://kevinhoctor.blogspot.com > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ You live life beyond your PC. So now Windows goes beyond your PC. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/115298556/direct/01/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "No Thirst Software User Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/no-thirst-software?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
