The Expenses tab allows you to model the projected spending of the household during the plan scenario and how it may fluctuate over time between different categories.
The Expenses table has a row for each expense, showing their Name, Dates, and Value with frequency.
Clicking the 👁️ icon in a row will toggle whether the expense is included or excluded from the plan scenario.
Clicking the ADD button in the bottom right will bring up a window where you can create a new expense. Clicking the ⚙️ icon will open the expense window for editing.
Add & Edit Expenses
Name is a free-form text field for naming the expense.
Amount is the periodic amount for the income. If the Frequency below is set to Monthly, the amount entered here will be modeled as received every month. If the Frequency is Yearly, this amount will be modeled as received once a year on the anniversary of the start month.
Monthly / Annual is a toggle that allows you to control how you wish to input expense values.
- Monthly will apply the value in the Amount field based on the Frequency options below.
- Annual will assume that the value in the Amount field represents the total expense that would be incurred over the course of a full calendar year. That value will be divided by 12 and then treated as a monthly expense from the Start date/event through the End date/event selected below. For example, setting the toggle to Annual and entering $60,000 will have the same behavior as the toggle set to Monthly with an Amount of $5,000.
Frequency can be set to Monthly, Once a Year, or One-Time.
- Monthly: The amount will be applied every month from specified start to end.
- Once a Year: The amount will be applied in full every year on the same month as the start month. For example: the client pays an insurance premium every April separate from their steady monthly non-discretionary spending.
- One-Time: The amount will be applied once in full on the start month.
Start can be set to a specific month/year or an event, such as Plan Start. Using events ensures that even if you change the date on which the event occurs, all items using that event as a start or end date will update accordingly as well.
End can be set to specific month/year or an event. This date is ignored when using the Frequency of One-Time.
Annual Increase % will increase the expense each year at the beginning of the calendar year.
Future Value? gives the option of choosing PV (present value) so that the Annual Increase is applied from today onwards, or FV (future value) which will only apply the Annual Increase onwards from the year in which the expense begins. PV is selected by default.
Deleting Expenses
To delete an expense, highlight it in blue by clicking its row and then clicking the 🗑️DELETE SELECTED button in the bottom right. This action is not reversable.
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