I’m currently tracking my finances using an Excel spreadsheet, and I have a row for investments divided by type (Roth, individual, CMA, etc.). I want to transfer money from my bank account to my brokerage CMA account. Technically, the money remains accessible in my Cash Management Account. How should I classify this in budgeting terms? Should I consider the CMA transfer as an expense and show it as negative, or balance it out somehow?
u/labo-is-mast: Count the transfer to your brokerage CMA account as a transfer, not an expense, since the money is still accessible. This way, your budget remains balanced, and you can track how the money moves between accounts without going negative for the month.
u/Formal-Cupcake-27: Thank you, this is very helpful! I went ahead and moved my ‘investment’ column outside of my ‘expenses’ view to be tracked individually.
u/symphonypathetique: I have a Future category that has subcategories for my different types of savings/investments. In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense to categorize it as a transfer because you don’t spend money directly from those accounts.
u/startdoingwell: In our business budgeting app, we don’t treat transfers to accounts like a CMA as expenses. They don’t show up as negative; it’s more about assigning your money to a different category rather than counting it as spending.