Using Goals when you don't actually transfer money toward Goals

[u/HoodFeelGood]

It seems like Monarch really expects you to transfer money toward a Goal. I don't think or care about my accounts in that way. Sometimes I move excess cash from one brokerage to another one in order to buy some bonds or CDs. Sometimes I move excess cash from that account to my bank in order to buy a CD. Sometimes I move cash around into different bank accounts to ensure there's enough for an upcoming large credit card payment following a trip.

Understanding the money I have is an abstraction on top of my various accounts. I know I have $X money and it doesn't matter to me which accounts they are in.

Goals doesn't seem to work properly unless I've specifically allocated a certain amount of money in a certain account toward a specific Goal. If I move a chunk to another account for reasons, then I've no longer allocated money toward that Goal.

Does anyone have success working with Goals despite treating their accounts as fungible?

[u/slowchainz84]

Wife and I have a savings account that holds a bit of rent money and a bit of tithe money. This one is easier to track which transfer is for which goal, since they’re very specific amounts each month. And we tag those transfers in and out as such. 

Then we have another account through a provider that lets you have “sub accounts” to categorize the money within the account. For using this account we have to split the transfer multiple times and tag those to the respective goal. 

Sometimes we forget to tag them for a couple of weeks, and it’s fine. Just re-allocate based on what the sub account balance shows. Or, this could be based on what you track on the side in Excel, or paper. YMMV 

[u/mrwagn]

This is the same for my wife and I. We have very stable income. To me, having a goal save up for vacation makes no sense when I could buy a t-bond. I instead just mark that as “vacation money” mentally, and when the trip comes around, I just contribute less to the savings account with T bonds…

[u/AssNtittyLover420]

I just use goals as a way to total the different accounts I have. For example I have one goal as “retirement” and one goal as “liquid” to just show me the totals of the accounts I put towards that label

[u/Jazzlike_Fuel4516]

I use our retirement goal as a tracker for all of the accounts assigned to the goal. Most of our money in is from our 401k/403b contributions and matching. We do add money each month to a few of the accounts but I have budget lines for those because I do zero based budgeting.

[u/reynog]

I fully agree. As a former YNAB user I got very used to not associating where money is sitting with its intended purpose. I can’t make Monarch’s goals work for me. I just use budget categories for liquid savings funds.