How Savings Goal Withdrawals Affect the Spending Plan (Edited)

Question

I am wondering how a transaction gets calculated in the Spending Plan if it is meant to come out of a Savings Goal. Does it still get categorized in its category in the Spending Plan? If so, does that mean it gets double-counted? Is there a way to keep transactions OUT of their associated category and only count against the balance in the Savings Goal? (I've only saved so far, I haven't spent anything out of my Savings Goals so I don't yet know how that looks.)

Example: I have a monthly "gifts" category for random things like birthdays, buying a friend coffee, buying surprise books for my kids, etc. I also have a Savings Goal for Christmas. If Christmas gift purchases get categorized as "Gifts" in my Spending Plan, it will throw off the average calculations for that category and make it look like my average Gift spending is much higher than it actually is.

So. What happens to those transactions? Do they get double-counted? Do I have to manually go in my "Gifts" category and hide them from the Savings Plan? If I tag a transaction with one of my Savings Goals, does it reduce the balance of the Savings Goal and NOT get counted in Planned Spend or Other Spend (which is what should happen, in my mind).

I guess all of this is to say…I'm worried that spending the money I've saved will mess up my Spending Plan.

DryHeat · Answer

@mmmartian

I am wondering how a transaction gets calculated in the Spending Plan if it is meant to come out of a Savings Goal. Does it still get categorized in its category in the Spending Plan?

Yes, the transaction will be "double counted." But you can easily prevent that.

Normally you will want an expense paid with a withdrawal from a Savings Goal to count only against that goal (by reducing the amount saved in the goal). Because you put that money away in prior months for this purpose, you don't want to count that expense in the monthly income/expense tracking in the Spending Plan. But by default it will show up in Spending Plan and make it look like you have overspent.

But all you have to do to prevent that is to mark the expense transaction as "Excluded from Spending Plan." Then it will only count against the funds you contributed to the goal.

Coach Aldair · Answer

Hello @mmmartian,

Thanks for reaching out! That's a great question, and I can understand wanting to keep your regular monthly spending separate from larger expenses you've already saved for.

In Quicken Simplifi, Savings Goals have their own section in the Spending Plan, separate from Planned Spend and Other Spend. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when withdrawing money from a goal:

* Spend a Custom Amount: This option allows you to spend money saved toward your goal without affecting the Spending Plan.
* Withdraw for Something Else: This returns the funds to your available spending money and removes the withdrawn amount from the Spending Plan, up to the goal's preset monthly contribution amount.

However, the actual purchase transaction is handled separately. It will still retain its assigned category and can appear in Other Spend.

For example, if you withdraw money from your Christmas Savings Goal using Spend a Custom Amount and then purchase Christmas gifts categorized as Gifts, those transactions can still contribute to the Gifts category's spending totals and averages.

Currently, Quicken Simplifi doesn't offer a way to directly link a Savings Goal to a specific transaction or account, so there isn't an automatic way to have those purchases reduce a goal balance while excluding them from their regular spending categories.

You can find more details in our support articles here:

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/3676756-using-quicken-simplifi-s-savings-goals

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4212702-understanding-your-spending-plan

You may also be interested in an existing Community Idea:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/17396/savings-goals-should-stop-counting-in-the-spending-plan-upon-expected-completion-edited

Although this Idea focuses on stopping Savings Goal contributions from affecting the Spending Plan after their expected completion date, it touches on a related limitation of how Savings Goals interact with the Spending Plan.

Thanks!