Author Topic: help on calculating my exact savings rate  (Read 1731 times)

Stache In Training

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help on calculating my exact savings rate
« on: January 16, 2014, 10:10:10 PM »
I currently track everything using Mint.  However they just seem to exclude my investment transactions.  Also, any extra I pay on my mortgage shows up as an expense, and not as part of my savings rate, obviously.  So I'm wondering if anyone has found any programs like mint or personal capital, that does show exact savings rate? 

Or am I just going to have to look at my spending, and find all my transactions that I deem as "savings" and subtract from spending, add to my left over income, and find out my savings rate that way?  If so, then my question is, what should I count as savings; extra on mortgage, all investment purchases, what else?

If there's another forum post on this, feel free to point me in that direction.

i_am_the_slime

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Re: help on calculating my exact savings rate
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2014, 05:24:56 AM »
GnuCash uses double entry accounting, and it will therefore calculate Income - Expenses = Profit.  It also calculates Assets - Liabilities = Net Worth.  Only INTEREST is considered an expense, with the principal payment counting for a reduction in liability (and therefore increase in net worth).  The point is, the "Profit" calculation is essentially what you are looking for, but you need to be tracking assets & liabilities correctly to get there. 

I suspect other software that correctly use double entry accounting would also work - like Quicken?
« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 05:27:22 AM by i_am_the_slime »

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!