Hi, Mark,

I take a different approach to loans than the others that have  
responded.  I like that MoneyWell helps me spend only the money that I  
have by allocating it to specific purposes.  However, as your example  
demonstrates, finance software should do more than that.  I refuse to  
keep two money softwares to track overall net worth as well as keep  
spending under control, and I have found that MoneyWell will actually  
do both.

Consider the fact that both your interest payment as well as the  
principal payment are Car Loan expenses.

Here's what I do.  When I first pay the bill every month, I don't know  
how much I am paying towards interest and how much towards  
principal... I'm just paying the bill.  I create this expense as a  
single transfer from my Checking account to my Car loan account.  I  
put this transfer in the Car Loan bucket.

Later, when I receive my loan statement, or look at it on-line, I can  
see how much of my payment was for interest and how much was for  
principal.

I edit the original transaction, creating a split.  I put "Interest"  
and "Principal" in the memo of the two split items.  The "Interest"  
item should not be a transfer, but it should be assigned to the Car  
Loan bucket.  "Principal" should be a transfer from Checking to Car  
loan, and it should also be assigned to your Car Loan bucket.

This way, your Car loan account will show approximately what you owe  
on your car loan as far as the principal is concerned (of course this  
amount changes every day), and you will be able to track your spending  
with buckets, as well.

Hope this helps.  Please let me know if you need further detail.

Grace to you,
Blair

On Dec 22, 2008, at 10:08 PM, mhadja...@gmail.com wrote:

>
> My monthly payment from the bank is lets say 200 bucks. Each month, I
> pay a different amount, sometimes 225, sometimes 250, sometimes even
> 300. Now any extra over the 200 goes towards principle.
>
> So I can't track a steady cash flow because depending on how much
> extra money I have left is what I put in towards the car payment.
>
> So my 60 month loan should be paid off within 48 months hopefully.
> Which makes having to do more work in MW to see my remaining loan
> balance as well as track cash flow.
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Dec 22, 9:59 am, Kevin Hoctor <ke...@nothirst.com> wrote:
>> On Dec 21, 2008, at 7:01 PM, mhadja...@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe i'm missing something, but my interest goes down each  
>>> payment as
>>> I'm paying more towards principle. It also changes depending on how
>>> many days sooner my payment clears. The reason for tracking is to  
>>> see
>>> how much money is leaving my checking account each month, as well as
>>> the remaining principle left to pay my auto loan.
>>
>>> When I receive my statement, it tells me the prior months interest
>>> payment, which I tack on to the remaining auto loan balance. So the
>>> actual amount owed for my vehicle isn't exact, but its within 100
>>> bucks typically.
>>
>> But your loan payments are the same all the time, correct? And this  
>> is
>> what comes out of your checking account each month so this is what  
>> you
>> are trying to track to control cash flow, right?
>>
>> What I am saying is, tracking the principal and interest is fine but
>> excessive work because you are not affecting it unless you decide to
>> pay more than you calculated loan payment. If you are going to do
>> that, then you still will have a static amount going to your loan  
>> each
>> month and you just have to check with the bank to see what you  
>> balance
>> is prior to your last payment because it will get paid off early.
>>
>>> I'm trying to learn this program and use it to my advantage, but I
>>> feel like i'm struggling more to figure this out and having to hold
>>> back from a lot of the 2.0 features.
>>
>> MoneyWell 2.0 will have some great additions but the core process of
>> managing your cash flow better is already in place. If this is what
>> you're trying to accomplish or you just enjoy a cleaner register
>> manager, then MoneyWell 1.4 should be helpful.
>>
>> Peace,
>>
>> Kevin Hoctor
>> ke...@nothirst.com
>> No Thirst Software LLChttp://nothirst.comhttp:// 
>> kevinhoctor.blogspot.com
> >


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 no-thirst-software@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
no-thirst-software+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/no-thirst-software?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to