On Jan 24, 2009, at 5:54 PM, Jay wrote:

> I cannot figure out how the New Flow amount is calculated... it always
> surprises me.  For example, in my spending plan, I have my mortgage
> split across each half.  I expect to see half my mortgage in the New
> Flow column, but it's not.  It's usually less.
>
> How does this work?
>
Hi Jay,

The new flow amount is based on the timing of the bucket, the setting  
for the Monthly Timing on the Allocate Income panel, and the money you  
have available to allocate.

If the Monthly Timing is set to "First Half of Month" and you have a  
bucket that allocates in that same timing, MoneyWell will try to fill  
it if you have the money to do so. If you have the bucket timing set  
to "All Month" then MoneyWell tries to fill it half way based on the  
money you have to do so.

If the Monthly Timing is set to "Second Half of Month" then MoneyWell  
tries to fill the rest of the planned amount for each bucket. Again,  
this is limited by the amount of money you have. If the bucket is not  
getting enough money, it may need to be moved up in priority so it  
gets filled before some others.

> A related question: I get paid on the 7th and 22nd each month.  I
> treat the 7th-22nd as the 1st half of the month and 22nd-7th as the
> 2nd half when it comes to planning.  Is this workflow affecting the
> allocation?  Is there a better way to manage this payment schedule?


I think I would treat the 22nd as funding the first half of my next  
month because many of my bills won't wait until the 7th but how you  
use this money is not really that critical. All MoneyWell sees is that  
you have a certain amount of cash in your income bucket and you are  
trying to distribute it into your expense buckets. The best scenario  
would be that you are not living off of your most current paycheck and  
you have a buffer of cash so you can allocate your income more evenly  
when you need to pay your bills.

Think of it this way: You want to make sure you have set up a spending  
plan that sets aside money each month to build a financial buffer.  
Then you will be pouring your income into an income bucket twice a  
month and allocating some of that money when necessary (probably twice  
a month also) to your expense buckets but you don't want to always be  
fully draining that income bucket.

You want to get to a point where you are spending less than you are  
making and you have this nice war chest of cash that you can use when  
the unexpected happens (and it will happen). I hope this helps.

Peace,

Kevin Hoctor
[email protected]
No Thirst Software LLC
http://nothirst.com
http://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 [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
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to