Spending without affecting the Saved Amount so far is confusing

tsnyder91

Would it be possible to understand more about why it would be possible to spend money from a savings goal but NOT lower the Saved so far amount?

I recently accidentally used the Custom Amount withdrawal, which does not lower the saved so far amount. This number is also prominent in the UI and led to some confusion on why the saved so far amount did not add up to the underlying funding account that was feeding my goals.

I eventually found that I did the same withdrawal method on two different goals as I was moving funds between goals to align to the timelines I have set. It led to the totals being off by 3.99. And it appeared initially like I had somehow created fictitious fund availability, as the saved so far numbers were adding up to a number higher than my funding account balance.

I was told by support that the Custom withdrawal feature, which does not impact the saved so far amount, was a recent new feature.

What is the rationale for allowing you to spend out of an account and not reduce the saved amount so far? To me, that number should be the same as the available amount, and it would have been a lot easier for me to spot where I had mistyped the balances upon setup. Separating the two makes this more complicated than it needs to be. If you spend out of a goal, you also reduce the amount saved so far by the very act of spending from it.

There is also no way to zero out the spent number and update the saved so far manually. So I had to delete both of the goals and recreate them again, so now it looks like I didn't contribute to these goals this month when I did in fact.

Some context on why Simplifi thought it would be a good idea to make this harder than it needs to be would be helpful. I wasn't able to find any features around this to explain the rationale, but I haven't read everything yet either.

With this method being available, you could easily end up with a 10k or 50k saved so far number on a goal that is only 2k if you spend from it often, if it lasts for a few years. That just doesn't seem useful as a number anymore at all. If you want to track that, in my mind, you would be better off using the categories or tags on the actual transactions you spent from or a spending plan number with rollover, which is also a recent feature release.

Coach Jon

Hello @tsnyder91,

Thanks for reaching out! If you are looking to lower the "Saved so far" amount in a Savings Goal, you can do so by using the "Withdraw for something else" option in the Withdraw from Goal menu in Quicken Simplifi. This support article goes into more detail here: https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/3676756-using-quicken-simplifi-s-savings-goals#h_27389ead92

-Coach Jon

DryHeat

@tsnyder91

As far as the rational goes, I think it's for something like this scenario:

I am planning a vacation for which I need to save $4000. I create a savings goal in that amount. I have saved @$2500 so far, but now it's time to buy the plane tickets.

I handle that by "spending a custom amount" of $1400, which is what I need for the tickets right now.

The Savings Goal now shows that I have saved $2500 so far toward my goal of $4000, but I have spent $1400 of that savings on the thing the goal was created for. So $1100 of the savings is still available and I need to save another $1500 to be ready for the vacation. That's a lot of information, but it makes sense.

If the "Saved so far" were reduced by the withdrawal, it would look like you were much farther from your Goal than you really are. They could have handled that problem by reducing the Savings Goal by $1500 instead, but then you wouldn't be able to see the progress you had already made toward the $4000. Different people might prefer that it worked one way or the other, but they both make sense in their own way.

tsnyder91

@DryHeat That does make more sense describing that scenario. It does seem like you could easily and accidentally inflate that number accidently like I did though. Thanks for the scenario to help explain it. It does seem like the verbiage on the withdrawal options seem to lean toward the intention is to spend without lowering the amount. And the way it's written for the other option makes it seem like you are doing it wrong if you choose that one but still spend it on the things the goal was for.

Appreciate your response!

DryHeat

@tsnyder91 What I look at most in Savings Goals is the amounts shown on the Account panel.

Here's the section of the panel showing the balance for one of my checking accounts. The Savings Goals amount shown indicates the total of saved funds that are still in that account. (Meaning the amount saved so far minus the amount spent — which leaves the amount that is "spoken for" by the Savings Goals.)

This is the amount I'm usually interested in — how much "savings" is actually in each account at the moment.