Best way to enter unvested 401k match in portfolio

[Bernie]

I don't know if Q for Mac has the same built-in 401k functions as Q for
Windows. In the Windows versions Q can guide you through recording the
employer contribution and your fund purchases, but it is easy enough to do it
directly.

Do a MiscInc for the employer contribution to your 401k account. There is even
a category built into Quicken for this: _401EmployerContrib.

This will eliminate your negative balance in your 401k account. You'll also be
able to isolate your employer's contribution if you want to report on that.

Bernie

John Newitt wrote:

> Using Mac Quicken 98. My company matches my 401k contributions at $0.75 on
> the dollar for the first 6% of my salary that I contribute. I am currently
> contributing 8% of my salary, so the company match (in company stock) is
> 4.5%. I am currently not vested in the company match. What is the best way
> to enter my 401k contributions into a portfolio account?
>
> The way I have it now, there is a transfer from my salary entry in my
> checking account to my portfolio account which increases its cash balance.
> Then I go into the portfolio and BUY shares of the various funds and stocks
> (including some company stock from my contribution plus that from the
> company match) based on the report from my 401k account history. This
> creates a negative cash balance because I am actually buying more
> stock/fund shares than I have cash for from the transer from my salary.
>
> Is there a better way to do this so that I don't show a negative cash
> balance? Even better, is there also a way to do it so that I can keep track
> of the vested and unvested amounts? I would appreciate any suggestions.
> Thanks.
>
> --
> John A. Newitt
> <newi...@removeme.compuserve.com>
> (delete "removeme." to reply by email)

[desert_...@my-deja.com]

Recommend you use MiscInc entry as others suggest - use the _401K
category also. This will keep your income straight for tax purposes.
Have used the extra income and transfer in my paycheck as someone
proposed above but it can lead to error in reporting your taxable
income.

Don't have any ideas on non-vested/vested unless you handle these in
separate accounts.

In article <38DD5FDE...@dqd.com>,

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[james-a-rogers]

My company also matches part of my 401k contributions. Here is how I set up
Quicken.

>>I created a 'Dummy' account which is used in the 'Category' column in the
'Split Transactions Window' as a source of the money. (A better approach
probably would have been to create a new 'income' category.) The amount is
positive (+) for this line in the Split Window to offset the negative (-)
amount for the Company matching contribution. The matching contribution is
split into another new account 'Company 401k Matching'. My contributions are
split into another account for 'My 401k Contributions'.

My vesting increases anually. I always know what my vested percentage is
and, therefore, how much of the value of the 'Company 401k Matching' is
mine. When I become fully vested I will transfer the entire matching
account in to my contributions account and change my scheduled transaction
so that both (company and my contributions) go into one account.

The use of a dummy account as a source works fine for me. One side effect
is that the negative balance for this account is always equal to the total
that my company has contributed. If I had thought of it when I was
originally setting it up I would probably have used an income category.

I also have a percentage of my salary deducted to buy company stock (at a
discount). The actual purchases take place only once per quarter. My
solution to that problem is similar to your 401k method. I don't use my
checking account because I prefer to keep these moneys separated. I setup a
separate 'holding' account for the deductions. After I receive my quarterly
statement I enter the purchases, which transfers the money from the holding
account to shares in the stock account. This works well, especially since
only whole shares are purchased, leaving a small 'unused' amount each
quarter.

I don't know if all this meets accepted accounting principles, but it works
for me. I hope this is helpful for you.

Jim Rogers

John Newitt <newi...@removeme.compuserve.com> wrote in message
news:newittja-ya0240800...@news.erols.com...