Setting up associated cash accounts & the role of "contributions"

I used to consider myself reasonably software savvy before this came up. I
bought MS Money 2006, made online connections to several investment accounts,
downloaded or imported transactions, and am reasonably happy with that in
that all the transactions are there and I don't have to manually enter them
and the online updates pick up new ones.

What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated cash
accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure
how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market fund,
ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"... fine by
me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS Money
intends with an "associated cash account."

In the end I wind up with FDRXX listed as a separate investment, like my
mutual funds, and something called "contributions ($)" listed at the bottom
as a negative amount. MS Money deducts this amount, which is the bulk of the
dollars actually there, in it's assessment of the Total Account Value.

Telling MS Money that "Fidelity Cash Reserves" IS the cash associated
account on the account settings page doesn't seem to work. Telling MS Money
that "FDRXX" IS the associated cash account doesn't work, either, nor does
doing these things, backing it up, and then signing on again fresh to MS
Money. Deleting the account altogether and starting over doesn't seem to do
it, since MS Money connects directly to Fidelity to get the transactions in
the first place.

I get the feeling I'm missing something really basic. Anyone able to help me
out here?

Max

Jeff
Sat Apr 15 12:16:47 CDT 2006

Think of your money market fund as just another mutual fund. The cash
account that Money sets up represents a somewhat fictional holding pen
for cash. For example, my employer deducts money from my paycheck and
sends it to Fidelity's 401(k). I have it set up in Money that the
deduction from my paycheck transfers into the Fidelity cash account.
Days later when the mutual funds are actually purchased, the purchases
come out of this cash account.

In your case, you need to use the cash account as the temporary holding
area for cash when you sell shares, transfer shares among accounts or
deposit money in the account in order to buy new shares. If this cash
actually goes into the Money Market account, then simply create a
transaction purchasing shares in the Money Market account. The cash to
pay for this purchase comes from the Money cash account.

Hope this helps.

Jeff
Max wrote:
> I used to consider myself reasonably software savvy before this came up. I
> bought MS Money 2006, made online connections to several investment accounts,
> downloaded or imported transactions, and am reasonably happy with that in
> that all the transactions are there and I don't have to manually enter them
> and the online updates pick up new ones.
>
> What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated cash
> accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure
> how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market fund,
> ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"... fine by
> me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS Money
> intends with an "associated cash account."
>
> In the end I wind up with FDRXX listed as a separate investment, like my
> mutual funds, and something called "contributions ($)" listed at the bottom
> as a negative amount. MS Money deducts this amount, which is the bulk of the
> dollars actually there, in it's assessment of the Total Account Value.
>
> Telling MS Money that "Fidelity Cash Reserves" IS the cash associated
> account on the account settings page doesn't seem to work. Telling MS Money
> that "FDRXX" IS the associated cash account doesn't work, either, nor does
> doing these things, backing it up, and then signing on again fresh to MS
> Money. Deleting the account altogether and starting over doesn't seem to do
> it, since MS Money connects directly to Fidelity to get the transactions in
> the first place.
>
> I get the feeling I'm missing something really basic. Anyone able to help me
> out here?
>
> Max

Cal
Sat Apr 15 12:19:43 CDT 2006

In microsoft.public.money, Max wrote:

>I used to consider myself reasonably software savvy before this came up. I
>bought MS Money 2006, made online connections to several investment accounts,
>downloaded or imported transactions, and am reasonably happy with that in
>that all the transactions are there and I don't have to manually enter them
>and the online updates pick up new ones.
>
>What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated cash
>accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure
>how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market fund,
>ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"... fine by
>me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS Money
>intends with an "associated cash account."
>
>In the end I wind up with FDRXX listed as a separate investment, like my
>mutual funds,

That is proper.

> and something called "contributions ($)" listed at the bottom
>as a negative amount. MS Money deducts this amount, which is the bulk of the
>dollars actually there, in it's assessment of the Total Account Value.
>
>Telling MS Money that "Fidelity Cash Reserves" IS the cash associated
>account on the account settings page doesn't seem to work. Telling MS Money
>that "FDRXX" IS the associated cash account doesn't work, either, nor does
>doing these things, backing it up, and then signing on again fresh to MS
>Money. Deleting the account altogether and starting over doesn't seem to do
>it, since MS Money connects directly to Fidelity to get the transactions in
>the first place.
>
>I get the feeling I'm missing something really basic. Anyone able to help me
>out here?

What you are missing is the deposit or transfer of funds into the
"contributions account. That explains to Money the appearance of
most of the money that you use to buy securities, including FDRXX.
Or perhaps you have some contributions accounted for, but are
missing an initial contribution.

Additionally, one quirk that you may have but have not noticed is
that Fidelity may enter your month-end FDRXX dividends as just
Dividend without sending you the Buy transactions to account for the
sweep of the dividend into more FDRXX. If you have that, the
work-around is to manually change each of the FDRXX Dividend
transactions into a ReinvestDividend.

Because of the use of the sweep account, your contributions account
should usually contain $0.00.

Max
Sat Apr 15 13:31:02 CDT 2006



"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

> In microsoft.public.money, Max wrote:
>
> >I used to consider myself reasonably software savvy before this came up. I
> >bought MS Money 2006, made online connections to several investment accounts,
> >downloaded or imported transactions, and am reasonably happy with that in
> >that all the transactions are there and I don't have to manually enter them
> >and the online updates pick up new ones.
> >
> >What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated cash
> >accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure
> >how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market fund,
> >ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"... fine by
> >me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS Money
> >intends with an "associated cash account."
> >
> >In the end I wind up with FDRXX listed as a separate investment, like my
> >mutual funds,
>
> That is proper.
>
> > and something called "contributions ($)" listed at the bottom
> >as a negative amount. MS Money deducts this amount, which is the bulk of the
> >dollars actually there, in it's assessment of the Total Account Value.
> >
> >Telling MS Money that "Fidelity Cash Reserves" IS the cash associated
> >account on the account settings page doesn't seem to work. Telling MS Money
> >that "FDRXX" IS the associated cash account doesn't work, either, nor does
> >doing these things, backing it up, and then signing on again fresh to MS
> >Money. Deleting the account altogether and starting over doesn't seem to do
> >it, since MS Money connects directly to Fidelity to get the transactions in
> >the first place.
> >
> >I get the feeling I'm missing something really basic. Anyone able to help me
> >out here?
>
> What you are missing is the deposit or transfer of funds into the
> "contributions account. That explains to Money the appearance of
> most of the money that you use to buy securities, including FDRXX.
> Or perhaps you have some contributions accounted for, but are
> missing an initial contribution.
>
> Additionally, one quirk that you may have but have not noticed is
> that Fidelity may enter your month-end FDRXX dividends as just
> Dividend without sending you the Buy transactions to account for the
> sweep of the dividend into more FDRXX. If you have that, the
> work-around is to manually change each of the FDRXX Dividend
> transactions into a ReinvestDividend.
>
> Because of the use of the sweep account, your contributions account
> should usually contain $0.00.


Thanks, I think I see. I'm not really interested in tracking the money from
my paycheck to the 401k, for example, or from a contribution from a checking
account to the IRA... I'm not using Money to create a budget for all my
finances. Do most people in my situation wind up setting up the account as a
simple investment account? I notice I have that option in MS Money. Does the
"Contributions ($)" bit and the associated cash account become irrelevant at
that point? I was reluctant to set it up that way, thinking I was missing
something.

Max
Sat Apr 15 13:51:01 CDT 2006



"Jeff M" wrote:

> Think of your money market fund as just another mutual fund. The cash
> account that Money sets up represents a somewhat fictional holding pen
> for cash. For example, my employer deducts money from my paycheck and
> sends it to Fidelity's 401(k). I have it set up in Money that the
> deduction from my paycheck transfers into the Fidelity cash account.
> Days later when the mutual funds are actually purchased, the purchases
> come out of this cash account.
>
> In your case, you need to use the cash account as the temporary holding
> area for cash when you sell shares, transfer shares among accounts or
> deposit money in the account in order to buy new shares. If this cash
> actually goes into the Money Market account, then simply create a
> transaction purchasing shares in the Money Market account. The cash to
> pay for this purchase comes from the Money cash account.


I think I've gotcha, thanks. I actually have a couple of types of accounts
that I'm trying to straighten out, IRAs and a 401k. Doing what you said for
the IRA, creating a transaction for the purchase of the MM shares, zeroed out
the "contributions (?)" bit. I appreciate it.


>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Jeff
> Max wrote:
> > I used to consider myself reasonably software savvy before this came up. I
> > bought MS Money 2006, made online connections to several investment accounts,
> > downloaded or imported transactions, and am reasonably happy with that in
> > that all the transactions are there and I don't have to manually enter them
> > and the online updates pick up new ones.
> >
> > What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated cash
> > accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure
> > how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market fund,
> > ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"... fine by
> > me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS Money
> > intends with an "associated cash account."
> >
> > In the end I wind up with FDRXX listed as a separate investment, like my
> > mutual funds, and something called "contributions ($)" listed at the bottom
> > as a negative amount. MS Money deducts this amount, which is the bulk of the
> > dollars actually there, in it's assessment of the Total Account Value.
> >
> > Telling MS Money that "Fidelity Cash Reserves" IS the cash associated
> > account on the account settings page doesn't seem to work. Telling MS Money
> > that "FDRXX" IS the associated cash account doesn't work, either, nor does
> > doing these things, backing it up, and then signing on again fresh to MS
> > Money. Deleting the account altogether and starting over doesn't seem to do
> > it, since MS Money connects directly to Fidelity to get the transactions in
> > the first place.
> >
> > I get the feeling I'm missing something really basic. Anyone able to help me
> > out here?
> >
> > Max
>
>

Cal
Sat Apr 15 14:14:22 CDT 2006

In microsoft.public.money, Max wrote:

>
>
>Thanks, I think I see. I'm not really interested in tracking the money from
>my paycheck to the 401k, for example, or from a contribution from a checking
>account to the IRA... I'm not using Money to create a budget for all my
>finances. Do most people in my situation wind up setting up the account as a
>simple investment account? I notice I have that option in MS Money. Does the
>"Contributions ($)" bit and the associated cash account become irrelevant at
>that point? I was reluctant to set it up that way, thinking I was missing
>something.

An "investment" account would be like a 401K account. In either
case, you can get rid of the cash/contributions account if that is
your preference. It is not my preference. But if it is yours, you
can go to Account Settings and un-check TrackCashTransactions.

Max
Sat Apr 15 18:22:01 CDT 2006



"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

> In microsoft.public.money, Max wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >Thanks, I think I see. I'm not really interested in tracking the money from
> >my paycheck to the 401k, for example, or from a contribution from a checking
> >account to the IRA... I'm not using Money to create a budget for all my
> >finances. Do most people in my situation wind up setting up the account as a
> >simple investment account? I notice I have that option in MS Money. Does the
> >"Contributions ($)" bit and the associated cash account become irrelevant at
> >that point? I was reluctant to set it up that way, thinking I was missing
> >something.
>
> An "investment" account would be like a 401K account. In either
> case, you can get rid of the cash/contributions account if that is
> your preference. It is not my preference. But if it is yours, you
> can go to Account Settings and un-check TrackCashTransactions.


Thanks again, I appreciate your help.

Chris
Sat Apr 15 21:02:44 CDT 2006

"Max" <Max@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D169989A-97A7-46AF-8D6B-51D8222D1D8B@microsoft.com...
>
> What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated
> cash
> accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not
> sure
> how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market
> fund,
> ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"...
> fine by
> me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS
> Money
> intends with an "associated cash account."

Actually, it doesn't. As another respondent reply, FDRXX is just another
mutual fund. Your associated cash account is exactly that, just cash.
Proceeds from sales and dividends go to it. Settlement of purchases come
from it, as do transfers out to other accounts, such as your personal
checking.

Different brokers 'sweep' excess cash into your money market account at
different intervals. When they do, it's a purchase of mutual fund FDRXX,
paid from the associated cash account.

Personally, I ignore the sweep transactions. It's just noise. I record the
FDRXX dividends, of course, which simply increase the balance in my cash
account.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

Chris
Sat Apr 15 21:04:14 CDT 2006

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup@please.tnx> wrote in message
news:9ch242lain3h1t1c5ftsaprto9ve4l0ffh@4ax.com...
>
> An "investment" account would be like a 401K account. In either
> case, you can get rid of the cash/contributions account if that is
> your preference. It is not my preference. But if it is yours, you
> can go to Account Settings and un-check TrackCashTransactions.

I don't think you can do that for a retirement account, can you?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

Mirthrindr
Thu Jun 22 21:45:02 CDT 2006



"Chris Cowles" wrote:

> "Max" <Max@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D169989A-97A7-46AF-8D6B-51D8222D1D8B@microsoft.com...
> >
> > What I don't seem to understand on some basic level is the associated
> > cash
> > accounts. I believe I understand what it's supposed to do, I'm just not
> > sure
> > how to set it up. For Fidelity, as an example, there's a money market
> > fund,
> > ticker symbol FDRXX, which MS Money dubbs "Fidelity Cash Reserves"...
> > fine by
> > me... and this money market fund obviously fills the role of what MS
> > Money
> > intends with an "associated cash account."
>
> Actually, it doesn't. As another respondent reply, FDRXX is just another
> mutual fund. Your associated cash account is exactly that, just cash.
> Proceeds from sales and dividends go to it. Settlement of purchases come
> from it, as do transfers out to other accounts, such as your personal
> checking.
>
> Different brokers 'sweep' excess cash into your money market account at
> different intervals. When they do, it's a purchase of mutual fund FDRXX,
> paid from the associated cash account.
>
> Personally, I ignore the sweep transactions. It's just noise. I record the
> FDRXX dividends, of course, which simply increase the balance in my cash
> account.
> --
> Chris Cowles
> Gainesville, FL
>

Sorry for my financial ignorance, but I to am trying really hard to
understand this exact issue but having difficulty.

I have a Roth IRA through Fidelity with a single Mutual Fund. When logging
into Fidelity web, you see two actual securities, the Freedom Fund (FFFEX) I
actually chose for my IRA, plus this thing Fidelity automatically sets up in
the account called â??Cash Reserveâ?? which is actually also a type of security
(FDRXX).

As I have learned, this Cash Reserve Mutual Fund is just a holder for any
money I transfer into my Fidelity account to then use to purchase my Fidelity
Freedom Fund shares with. So when I transfer money from my Checking Acct. to
Fidelity, it goes into this Cash Reserve Mutual Fund first, THEN I purchase
my actual Freedom Fund shares with the money from this â??accountâ??.

So, where Iâ??m getting lost is with this â??Contributionsâ?? thing that MONEY
shows in my Roth IRA account in Money. To me, the process is transparentâ?¦ I
transfer money from my checking acct. to Fidelity and it seems to just appear
in the Cash Reserve account. Iâ??m not â??purchasingâ?? shares of this Cash Reserve
then selling them to buy my actual Freedom Fund shares, but it sounds like
that is what technically happens in the background. So, am I understanding
you folks correctly in that you are saying the transactions in MS Money would
actually look something like this?

1. Transfer from Checking to the â??Contributionsâ?? category for the Roth IRA
account
2. â??Buyâ?? transaction from â??Contributionsâ?? to purchase shares in the â??Cash
Reserveâ?? mutual fund
3. â??Buyâ?? transaction from â??Cash Reserveâ?? to purchase my actual Freedom Fund
shares

Iâ??m having so much trouble getting this Investment account working correctly
in MS Money, because I guess Iâ??m just all confused about how exactly I am
supposed to ente all the different transactions necessary just to track the
process of transferring $x dollars from Checking acct. to Fidelity, and then
the purchase of xx number of shares of my actual Freedom Fund.

Thanks so much for any advice.

Jim

Chris
Fri Jun 23 00:31:42 CDT 2006

"Mirthrindr" <Mirthrindr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C2076471-C0D2-4FA0-A104-E82CA1FD782F@microsoft.com...
>
> ...
> 1. Transfer from Checking to the 'Contributions' category for the Roth
> IRA
> account
> 2. 'Buy' transaction from 'Contributions' to purchase shares in the 'Cash
> Reserve' mutual fund
> 3. 'Buy' transaction from 'Cash Reserve' to purchase my actual Freedom
> Fund
> shares
>
> I'm having so much trouble getting this Investment account working
> correctly
> in MS Money, because I guess I'm just all confused about how exactly I am
> supposed to ente all the different transactions necessary just to track
> the
> process of transferring $x dollars from Checking acct. to Fidelity, and
> then
> the purchase of xx number of shares of my actual Freedom Fund.

The mechanics within Fidelity is:

1. Deposit cash to Roth IRA account.
2. 'Buy' transaction using cash to purchase shares in the 'Cash Reserve'
mutual fund
3. 'Sell' transaction from 'Cash Reserve' to create cash available for
Freedom fund purchase.
4. 'Buy' transaction using cash to purchase my actual Freedom Fund shares.

Within Money, I ignore the 'Cash Reserve' buy/sell events. The events I
record in Money are:

1. Transfer cash from Checking to the 'Contributions' portion (it's not a
category) of the Roth IRA account.

2. 'Buy' transaction from 'Contributions' to purchase Freedom Fund shares.

It really doesn't matter to me that idle cash sits in 'Cash Reserve'. Yes,
I want it there, because it's a higher interest rate. But I don't feel it's
necessary to obsess about tracking every event, as I know that it is
happening.

If you download transactions, you'll get events that reflect what I
describe as my preference. The cash reserve buys and sells are ignored.
Cash reserve dividends are not. You'll get monthly dividend deposits. I
simply record those as a deposit to Contributions, and it increases the
cash balance.

Other users prefer to see every cash reserve buy/sell. I don't want to be
bothered.

Does this make sense?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

Mirthrindr
Fri Jun 23 18:18:01 CDT 2006

Yes Chris, I do believe I've got it now. Thanks so much for taking the time
to explain it.

Jim

"Chris Cowles" wrote:

> "Mirthrindr" <Mirthrindr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C2076471-C0D2-4FA0-A104-E82CA1FD782F@microsoft.com...
> >
> > ...
> > 1. Transfer from Checking to the 'Contributions' category for the Roth
> > IRA
> > account
> > 2. 'Buy' transaction from 'Contributions' to purchase shares in the 'Cash
> > Reserve' mutual fund
> > 3. 'Buy' transaction from 'Cash Reserve' to purchase my actual Freedom
> > Fund
> > shares
> >
> > I'm having so much trouble getting this Investment account working
> > correctly
> > in MS Money, because I guess I'm just all confused about how exactly I am
> > supposed to ente all the different transactions necessary just to track
> > the
> > process of transferring $x dollars from Checking acct. to Fidelity, and
> > then
> > the purchase of xx number of shares of my actual Freedom Fund.
>
> The mechanics within Fidelity is:
>
> 1. Deposit cash to Roth IRA account.
> 2. 'Buy' transaction using cash to purchase shares in the 'Cash Reserve'
> mutual fund
> 3. 'Sell' transaction from 'Cash Reserve' to create cash available for
> Freedom fund purchase.
> 4. 'Buy' transaction using cash to purchase my actual Freedom Fund shares.
>
> Within Money, I ignore the 'Cash Reserve' buy/sell events. The events I
> record in Money are:
>
> 1. Transfer cash from Checking to the 'Contributions' portion (it's not a
> category) of the Roth IRA account.
>
> 2. 'Buy' transaction from 'Contributions' to purchase Freedom Fund shares.
>
> It really doesn't matter to me that idle cash sits in 'Cash Reserve'. Yes,
> I want it there, because it's a higher interest rate. But I don't feel it's
> necessary to obsess about tracking every event, as I know that it is
> happening.
>
> If you download transactions, you'll get events that reflect what I
> describe as my preference. The cash reserve buys and sells are ignored.
> Cash reserve dividends are not. You'll get monthly dividend deposits. I
> simply record those as a deposit to Contributions, and it increases the
> cash balance.
>
> Other users prefer to see every cash reserve buy/sell. I don't want to be
> bothered.
>
> Does this make sense?
> --
> Chris Cowles
> Gainesville, FL
>
>
>
>
>
>