LearnVest Classes
Getting Organized Challenge
How to Set Up a Budget
in the Money Center
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Resources
Steps to Setting Up Your Money Center
1. Connect your accounts
If you don’t see your institution, you can easily add an
account balance manually.
2. In the inbox, enter your monthly take-home pay in the
“Paychecks” folder
If you have other sources of monthly income, such as from
commissions, bonuses, or a rental property, enter that in the
“Other Income” folder.
3. Set up your fixed expenses folders in the “Essentials”
section
This includes expenses like rent or mortgage payments,
utilities, cell phone bills and insurance payments. It also
includes expenses you’re committed to paying, like gym
memberships, Netflix and Spotify.
4. Set up your goals in the “Priority Goals” tab
Goals include your debt and savings obligations, like credit
cards, loans, emergency savings and retirement, or even a
big trip. Connect each goal to an account, like a credit card or
savings account, and enter the total amount you need to save
or pay down. Set your monthly contributions to at least your
required minimum payments for your credit cards and loans.
5. Set up your flex spending in the “Lifestyle” section
Now that you’ve taken care of your fixed costs and debt and
savings obligations, the number that remains is what’s left
for your flexible spending—things like shopping, eating out,
entertainment and groceries. Edit your folders to match your
general spending habits and allocate the amount remaining
for your flex spending between your folders. (Use your best
guess for now).
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6. Organize your past transactions
Folder your transactions as far back as possible (at a
minimum, try one to two months) so you can take advantage
of the Money Center’s trends and analysis tools, which help
you identify your spending habits.
Tips and Tricks
Bulk Organizing
The Money Center has some simple tools to help you bulk
organize your transactions. For example, you can search for a
transaction name and select all of those transactions at once.
Drag the transactions into “unfoldered’” first, then to the folder
you want—that way you’ll teach the Money Center how to
categorize future transactions.
Adding a Cash Transaction
To add a cash transaction, just click on the “Add Cash”
button in the top right corner of the Inbox tab. Then, in the
pop-up that appears, fill out the details of the transaction.
When you have filled out all of the details, hit “Save.” If the
cash you used came from a withdrawal you made and the
withdrawal is foldered in your Inbox in your “ATM/Cash”
folder, you can indicate this by checking the “This Cash
Came From an ATM Withdrawal” box. You will then see the
total of your “ATM/Cash” folder fall by the amount of the cash
transaction. You will also see that the withdrawal in your
ATM/Cash folder is split. This will help ensure that nothing is
double-counted in your Inbox.
Splitting a Transaction
You can split one transaction between multiple folders using
our “Split transaction” feature. Simply click on the transaction
you would like to split. Click the “Split” button and then fill
out the details (folder, total) in the pop-up that appears.
For example, you might want to divide a gas station bill into
“transportation” for the cost of the gas and “coffee” for the
coffee you bought there. Once you’ve split a transaction, you
can also give each transaction a separate date. So if you
have a bill that covers an expense over multiple months, like
a quarterly utility bill, you can split the transactions and put
each one in a different past month.
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Exercises
Estimate Your Non-Monthly Expenses
Non-monthly payments and expenses—like holiday shopping, subscriptions and
veterinary bills—shouldn’t be surprises. Take a moment to estimate your non-monthly
expenses. Divide the total by 12 and consider contributing that amount into a separate
“Non-Monthly Expenses” savings account each month. To learn more, you can watch
the class on non-monthly expenses.
Non-Monthly Payments:
$_________ Auto insurance premiums
$_________ Auto registration
$_________ Conference fees
$_________ Homeowners/renters insurance premiums
$_________ Life insurance premiums
$_________ Membership dues
$_________ Professional license fees
$_________ Real estate taxes
$_________ School or tuition expenses
$_________ Subscription services
$_________ Utility bills paid quarterly
$_________ Veterinary expenses
$________________________________
$________________________________
$________________________________
$________________________________
Unforeseen and “Fun” Non-Monthly Expenses:
$_________ Back to school shopping
$_________ Birthday celebrations
$_________ Charitable donations
$_________Clothing
$_________ Gadgets and new computers
$_________Gifts
$_________Haircuts
$_________Hobbies
$_________ Holiday shopping
$_________ Holiday travel
$_________ Home renovations (minor)
$_________ Out-of-town visitors
$_________Travel
$_________Weddings
$________________________________
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$________________________________
$________________________________
$________________________________
$________________________________
$_________Total
$_________ Monthly Contribution (Total divided by 12)
Savor What You Spend
It can be an eye-opener to connect your accounts and see where your money is actually
going. These exercises can help you think about trade-offs you can make in your budget—
and how to help ensure you enjoy your hard-earned cash.
3 things that I spend the most money on:
1.
2.
3.
3 things I spend on that I cherish the most:
1.
2.
3.
An inexpensive treat that always makes me happy is ___________________________________.
I will spend less on _____________________, so I can spend more on ______________________.
I will spend less on _____________________, so I can spend more on ______________________.
I will spend less on _____________________, so I can put more towards ____________________.
I will spend less on _____________________, so I can put more towards ____________________.
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You Made It!
Next Steps to Consider:
Customize your Money Center so you’ll look forward to logging in every day. Change
the names and colors of your accounts, goals and folders to reflect your personality.
Schedule a daily “Money Minute” in your calendar so you can get in the habit of foldering your transactions and tracking your progress regularly.
Open separate accounts for each of your goals, then make sure to assign them to your priority goals in the Money Center.
After you’ve calculated your non-monthly expenses and set up your priority goals, set
up automated transfers to those accounts.
Work With Your Own Planner
$
You’ve earned a
2499 credit*
to get a custom program for your money,
designed by a dedicated LearnVest Planner.
*$24.99 will be credited to the cost of the set-up fee for the 5-Year Planner or the Portfolio Builder. Enter code: 67GX432UTM at checkout to
redeem. Cannot be combined with other offers.
LearnVest Planning Services is a registered investment adviser and subsidiary of LearnVest, Inc. that provides financial plans for its clients.
Information shown is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended as investment, legal or tax planning advice. Please consult a financial
adviser, attorney or tax specialist for advice specific to your financial situation. LearnVest Planning Services and any third-parties listed,
discussed, identified or otherwise appearing herein are separate and unaffiliated and are not responsible for each other’s products, services
or policies, and the references to any third-party materials are not an endorsement or recommendation of any such materials.
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