Had MM 2004, upgraged to 2006 deluxe to solve this two fold problem, but it
still exists. First, when I make my mortgage payment, it is automatically
deducted from my checking account, and MM lumps it all together in the budget
as debt. However, the payment is actually a) principal b) interest c)
property tax and d) insurance. Because it is all lumped together as debt
under a "special" line on the budget, it won't take the categories I've
assigned each part of the split payment and put them where they belong in the
budget. If I change the category from Loan Payment : Home Mortgage to split,
it doesn't automatically put the payment into my home loan like it should.

Second, when ever I have money withdrawn automatically from my checking to
go into various retirement accounts for my wife and I (4x month), it doesn't
allow me to assign a category (i.e. retirement) so it shows up as transfers
out of my budget instead of in the retirement category like I want it to.
What's the point of putting money into categories in your budget if MM
hijacks the category for automated payments? Is this a flaw in the program,
or is there a work around? Thanks in advance.

RE: budget category problems by Lee

Lee
Wed Aug 02 11:46:01 CDT 2006

Yes!! I have the exact same problems...

As a workaround I did manage to take the Interest and Escrow portions out of
the loan payment and enter them in as budget categories to track, but the
principal is still not reflected in the budget. I read an article where it
said Money has the philosophy that your loan principal is not an "expense"
just a transfer of accounts, which is true, but it does impact your cash
flow. It should come out in Transfer Out of Budget Accounts but there is no
way to ADD a category in that group?! However your budget will show $$ in
that category. I still havent figured it out.

For now, I have to deduct my loan principal and my retirement contributions
from my salary to rig it...

RE: budget category problems by nwsteve

nwsteve
Wed Aug 02 22:27:02 CDT 2006

I have a similar problem. Why doesn't autobudget pickup all my scheduled
transactions that are "transfers out of budgeted accounts" and do you know
how to add one?

"Lee" wrote:

> Yes!! I have the exact same problems...
>
> As a workaround I did manage to take the Interest and Escrow portions out of
> the loan payment and enter them in as budget categories to track, but the
> principal is still not reflected in the budget. I read an article where it
> said Money has the philosophy that your loan principal is not an "expense"
> just a transfer of accounts, which is true, but it does impact your cash
> flow. It should come out in Transfer Out of Budget Accounts but there is no
> way to ADD a category in that group?! However your budget will show $$ in
> that category. I still havent figured it out.
>
> For now, I have to deduct my loan principal and my retirement contributions
> from my salary to rig it...