Allocating Income, I had to do 12 times

[bazcurtis]

Hi,

I am running 1.4.7 and will upgrade tomorrow, but I have just
allocated my income for the month and I had to do it 12 times to get
the full allocation allotted to the buckets. Normally it would
allocated the full amount in one go. It has never done this before.
Have I managed to tick something by mistake?

All help would be most welcome.

Best wishes

Michael

[Kevin Hoctor]

Hi Michael,

The only thing I can think of is that the Timing settings were off on
the Allocate Income panel. Is it possible that some of your buckets
weren't set to fill until the second half of the month and the timing
for the allocation was the first half?

Peace,

Kevin Hoctor
ke...@nothirst.com
No Thirst Software LLC
http://nothirst.com
http://kevinhoctor.blogspot.com

[bazcurtis]

Hi Kevin,

I just checked and all buckets are set to All Month. Does that give
any clues?

Best wishes

Michael

[Druzyne]

> I just checked and all buckets are set to All Month. Does that give
> any clues?

Michael,

To get the buckets to fill all the way up at once, you need to adjust
the timing of the allocation to second half of the month. When you
click the "Allocate Income" icon, and the roll-out window comes out,
there's a drop-down list in the upper right that says "Monthly
Timing." You'll want to set this to the second half of the month.
This FAQ does a good job explaining how Timing affects allocation:

http://nothirst.com/support/faq_bucketTiming.html

//Drew

[Kevin Hoctor]

On Jun 6, 2009, at 6:21 AM, bazcurtis wrote:

> I just checked and all buckets are set to All Month. Does that give
> any clues?

Yes. That means that MoneyWell will not fill them completely until the
Allocate Income panel is showing "Second Half" as the setting.

Peace,

Kevin Hoctor
ke...@nothirst.com

[bazcurtis]

Thanks Drew and Kevin, I will make sure that is the setting. Once I
have set that will that setting stick. This is the first time this has
happened. Did the default change?

Thanks once again.

Best wishes

Michael

[Kevin Hoctor]

On Jun 7, 2009, at 3:54 AM, bazcurtis wrote:

> Thanks Drew and Kevin, I will make sure that is the setting. Once I
> have set that will that setting stick. This is the first time this has
> happened. Did the default change?
>

Michael,

I think back in 1.4.7 a bug was fixed that had the allocate income
timing set to the second half of the month when it should have been
the first. This would have filled the buckets too early.

Peace,

Kevin Hoctor
ke...@nothirst.com

[Jason]

Drew and Kevin,

If I'm reading Drew's comments correctly, it seems to conflict with
the logic outlined in the FAQ and link that he provides. The FAQ
states:

"When set to the first half, MoneyWell will fill all the buckets set
to "First Half" fully and the buckets set to "All Month" partially.
Those buckets set to "Second Half" are ignored."

The way I interpret this, if you set the allocation timing of a bucket
to the first half of the month, that bucket is given priority and the
"fill to" amount is filled completely.

The FAQ seems to stated that you prioritize the timing of expense
buckets based on when in the month (first half/second half) you pay
the bill. It seems logical that you can then allocate income to those
buckets in the first half of the month for expenses that are incurred
in the first half of the month.

Lastly, is timing for when you allocate income a variable in this
process? For example, I'm paid on the 15th and the 30th of the month
and had planned on allocating income after I log income for each
date. I'm assuming that I will log the income on the 15th, use the
allocate income process, and my buckets that are set as "first half"
will be prioritized. Then on the 30th, I'll do the same process and
my buckets set for the "second half" will be prioritized.

Am I understanding correctly and is this the best process to follow?

Thanks,

Jason

[Kevin Hoctor]

On Jun 7, 2009, at 9:54 AM, Jason wrote:

> If I'm reading Drew's comments correctly, it seems to conflict with
> the logic outlined in the FAQ and link that he provides. The FAQ
> states:
>
> "When set to the first half, MoneyWell will fill all the buckets set
> to "First Half" fully and the buckets set to "All Month" partially.
> Those buckets set to "Second Half" are ignored."
>
> The way I interpret this, if you set the allocation timing of a bucket
> to the first half of the month, that bucket is given priority and the
> "fill to" amount is filled completely.
>
> The FAQ seems to stated that you prioritize the timing of expense
> buckets based on when in the month (first half/second half) you pay
> the bill. It seems logical that you can then allocate income to those
> buckets in the first half of the month for expenses that are incurred
> in the first half of the month.
>

Jason,

From what I read, he had his buckets set to "All Month" and that's
why he's not getting them filled completely until the Allocate Income
panel is set to "Second Half" timing. During the first half of the
month, the all month buckets get filled half of the remaining planned
amount. You can see how this could continue to fill them partially.

> Lastly, is timing for when you allocate income a variable in this
> process? For example, I'm paid on the 15th and the 30th of the month
> and had planned on allocating income after I log income for each
> date. I'm assuming that I will log the income on the 15th, use the
> allocate income process, and my buckets that are set as "first half"
> will be prioritized. Then on the 30th, I'll do the same process and
> my buckets set for the "second half" will be prioritized.
>
> Am I understanding correctly and is this the best process to follow?

Actually, the buckets are filled in priority order as you have placed
them on the list. MoneyWell starts at the top and works its way down
applying the other rules for first/second/all month timing.

Peace,

Kevin Hoctor
ke...@nothirst.com

[Druzyne]

Jason,

I just wanted to make sure you understand that the "Timing" of an
allocation is specified in two places: once on your Spending Plan,
where you specify First Half/Second Half/All Month for each bucket;
and second on the Allocate Income panel (after you click the "Allocate
Income" icon) where you specify that the allocation is for the First
Half or Second Half of the month.

The setting on the Allocate Income panel seems to adjust automatically
based on the current date, but it can be changed. So, for those like
myself who are paid once a month, and want to allocate once a month,
we must specifically choose a "Second Half" allocation on the first of
a month for all of our income to be allocated (since it's already
there). I believe this was what Michael was trying to achieve.

You really should try to see a difference between the "timing" of a
bucket, and the "priority" of a bucket. Priority means deciding that
if there are limited funds, the electric bill should always win out
against a vacation fund. This setting is best for those that have
variable or unpredictable income. Timing means that if you're paid bi-
weekly or semi-monthly, you can hold off on allocating to your
electricity bucket until the second paycheck, because the bill is due
at the end of the month. These settings have different purposes for
different situations.

I'm glad, however, that Kevin shared how priority figures into timing
and allocation. For those that allocate twice a month, it shows how
beneficial it would be to always set the timing of low-priority
buckets to "Second Half" (in the Spending Plan). It's not a big deal,
though, since you can always flow money out of low-priority buckets.

//Drew

[bazcurtis]

Hi all,

This is what I was trying to achieve, just for clarity.

All my direct debits come out of Moneywell on the 1st of the month. I
am paid on the first on the month. I want to fill my buckets in one go
at that time. From what I am reading I need to set the allocate income
to the 2nd half of the month and all will be well. Looking forward to
next month :-)

Best wishes

Michael

[Jason]

Thanks everybody for the helpful responses!

[The Watkinson Family]

Michael,

If I understand you correctly, I think that you would want to set the
allocation for 1st Half. This will ensure that when you want to
allocate on the 1st of the month, all your money will be allocated in
the 1st half (which is the half that you're in on the 1st of the
month). I hope this makes sense.

If you were to select second half on all of your buckets, they would
not be allocated unless you selected Allocate Income sometime during

the second half of the month.

Grace to you,
Blair

[bazcurtis]

Hi Bill,

I would have thought the same, but Kevin and Drew are saying that as
the buckets are set to all month, the setting should be the second
half. I will try next month. I have no more money to allocate :-(

Best wishes

Michael


On Jun 9, 11:14 am, The Watkinson Family <thewatkins...@mac.com>
wrote:

[Druzyne]

> If you were to select second half on all of your buckets, they would
> not be allocated unless you selected Allocate Income sometime during
> the second half of the month.

To clarify, you in fact can select a second-half allocation during the
first half of the month (on the Allocate Income panel). However,
changing all of your buckets to First Half allocation would take
advantage of automatic behavior.

> I would have thought the same, but Kevin and Drew are saying that as
> the buckets are set to all month, the setting should be the second
> half. I will try next month. I have no more money to allocate :-(

Both approaches are valid. However, I prefer to consider the timing of
buckets and of allocation separately, much as the program does.
Besides forcing a deliberate consideration of my buckets, this offers
me a degree of flexibility. At any time, I could seamlessly transition
to allocating twice a month. If, for example, I were to change to a
job that paid semi-monthly, then there would be no need to change the
timing of buckets, as I had already set those to a mix of first/second/
all.

//Drew