Suggestion for improvements: making this easy to roll over so that we can do multiple years in review. I would love to be able to look back year to year to see how that’s changed and make the year to year combined
Hi Katie - very nice sheet. A couple of observations and/or suggestions. I didn't see social security income for future years - perhaps you can use pension. Since you've done videos on what order to withdraw funds in retirement I would have love to have seen this calculated in here. I realize that future years are hard due to tax law changes.
Love this! Gotta go buy one now 😊 2023 Wealth Planner has made tracking net-worth as a married couple separate finances easier! My husband used to avoid talking about money and all of his retirement accounts are all over the place. Since I showed him your wealth planner, he has consolidated all the accounts and now he is the one initiates and that is excited to do it on the date we usually fill it out 😂 Our net-worth also has grown over $100k and it is very rewarding to see all the history of numbers! Thank you Katie 💕
This is excellent! First time doing this, definitely a good use of $57. One request for a future iteration of this product -- tracking saving/investment more granularly would be great. Assuming that all non-spent inflows are invested towards FI and doing that adjustment manually on the Financial Independence tab is a messy and error-prone workaround. If instead I could track how i'm investing/saving at the goal level, with projected returns/balances over time, that'd be SUPER cool and could show when you'd meet certain goals (with FI being just one of those goals). Shouldn't be very difficult to implement and I think it'd significantly broaden the usefulness of this product. Am really enjoying it though :). Thanks!
I am irrationally excited about this! Year-in-review insights are something I hacked together for 2022--will definitely be putting my 2023 data in as soon as I get it! Thank you!
Hi Katie! I love your Wealth Planner- just purchased today and almost done setting it up. I'm confused about how to handle a few items on my monthly budget though. I use YNAB and set aside a predetermined amount each month/sinking funds for the following: emergency fund, travel savings, medical savings, and maybe a couple of other categories. I don't see a specific place for entries like these in that first tab- would I leave them off my monthly budget and then just add each month to the "Monthly Contributions" section? Thanks!!
You can copy it over for the following year! We release a new one with upgrades every year if you'd like to update yours, but you can also keep using your same planner if you like it!
How would you recommend inputting semi regular spending? Things like quarterly pest control or children's tuition fees that are only Sept-May? First thought was to put them into the "irregular spending" category, but since you can't select multiple months for each item (i.e. tuition), there are not enough cells to do even tuition for 9 months. If I add up the total for tuition and just divide by 12 months and input into regular spending, won't that throw off the accuracy of actual spending each month? Thanks!
I like the idea and this is a good start, I love excel and can tweak for my specific situation. I would suggest to add Head of household. I also have non-taxable income such as VA disability pay and child Support (which I just added to the take home portion for now, but it would be nice to see it separate).
Just bought mine! Is there a way to add more cash accounts on the first tab? I'm also wondering if the monthly contributions for an account should be the sum of contributions and withdrawals, or if withdrawals are reflected in the monthly spending
I pay additional principal payments on my mortgage each month. The debt paydown section is specific to non-car and non-mortgage. Do I just include the additional $500/month in my mortgage section so it's included in my budget vs. adding to the debt section? I want to be able to capture this as part of the overall savings/debt reduction % for the year-end review. Thoughts?
That's wonderful, great job. In this instance, since you're making additional principal-specific payments, I would recommend adding a new subcategory in the Debt section that just says "Mortgage Principal." You can either put just your $500 there, or do the whole payment; up to you. The decrease in your liability will also be reflected in your net worth tab as you update the balance!
Hi Katie! I love this new wealth planner! I bought the 2023 version & am so excited about this new version that I'm one of those overachievers you mentioned in your year in review template. I'm doing it all over again so I can take advantage of all these new features for 2023. I do have a question about 401K & HSA contributions. I'm maxing both out & adding them in the monthly contributions section, but wondering if I should add them in the incoming funds section, as well. I view them as income, but worried I may be adding them in two places that way. I appreciate your guidance! BTW, I've been a Quicken user for YEARS and still love it, but I am really enjoying this planner even more. I'm a spreadsheet & $ geek! Thank you! 🤑
One question, I pay almost all of my expenses, including things like rent and car insurance, with my credit cards. Does breaking down these expenses in the regular monthly spending categories and also putting my credit card debt (non-car and home debt) double count these expenses?
Hi Katie! If we have rental income and expenses, I am wondering if you have a recommendation for inputing that info? I was considering housing expenses, but I am struggling where to itemize that portion of our finances. Suggestions?
Hi Katie! How would you see something like this alongside a day to day budgeting app like YNAB? I'd love to see my year over year financial picture but wouldn't see myself double entering from YNAB into the wealth planner? Thoughts? Thank you!
I pair my Wealth Planner's monthly info with an app called Copilot, so you can definitely do this with a day-to-day budgeting app as needed and then take the aggregate category spends and input those into the Planner!
I’m considering buying but I need to know if this works for retired people with social security income, a small retirement plan, Medicare premiums, etc. Thanks.
It's personal preference! I like to update mine on the first day of the month. E.g., on November 1, I'd input my values for November. But it doesn't matter, as long as you're inputting them roughly 30 days apart.
Hi Katie! Love your podcast and find the topic you dig into very informative. I'm a business owner and curious if this budget is appropriate for entrepreneurs? I get a W-2 and K1 from my business. Thanks.
Hello! This Wealth Planner is intended to manage someone's personal financial situation, as opposed to someone's business revenue and expenses. Our goal in creating the Wealth Planner is making a product that'll work for most people, and while I don't think we'd ever trick out the flagship Planner for business owners (since to my knowledge, the majority of our customers do not own their own businesses), we will consider building one in the future that can do both as a more advanced option for those who want it. In the meantime, the workaround that makes the most sense would be making a blank copy of the Planner and using one for your personal life (including your W-2 taxable income; e.g., the money you're declaring as income or taking as an owner's draw vs. reinvesting in your business) and personal spending, and then using the duplicate copy for business revenue and expenses. That may require some adapting as taxes on business income are treated differently, but it should still work for tracking purposes as far as what's going in and out. Since the tax table only impacts that one page's calculation to help you figure out your take-home pay, it shouldn't impact anything else in the rest of the file.
Thanks for the detailed response. I purchased and love! The self-employment tax area is perfect@@MoneywithKatie The one thing that's tricky with being a business owner is that the K1 amount isn't really determined until close to the end of the year (obviously I project out a ballpark but the exact number isn't known) AND as an entrepreneur, we can't assume a 3% salary increase every year. I realize your audience is mostly W2 folks but appreciate your content nonetheless.
Hi Katie. What if your self employed and your income changes every month. I am a Realtor and make 100% commission. Therefore, I never know my annual income until the end of the year.
The initial “average take-home pay” estimate in the first tab is used for the purposes of making budgeting recommendations, but shouldn't impact anything elsewhere in the Planner! If you wanted to see recommendations based on your “lower paycheck months” or your “bonus-free/commission-free” income, you can always subtract the amount from your overall salary to get a more “realistic” monthly estimate for recommendation purposes. The intent is to see how your annual income averages out every month for planning purposes, but if that’s throwing you off, feel free to be more conservative.
Yes, the currency can be changed at the spreadsheet level to reflect other currencies, and the investment account dropdown menu options can be edited to include accounts specific to your country. While the federal/state/FICA tax breakdown tax table is specific to the US, that's the only feature that won't work for people outside the US. If you know your actual effective tax rate, you can just plug that in instead!
Hi, does the planner work for Europeans too? I guess I would not be able to use the Income Tax Calculator since we get paid net, but what about the rest?
I pay into a state pension and don't pay social security. Is there a way to customize the Income Tax Liability Estimate so it adjusts for that? Or can I just delete that formula?
This is a great question! My husband also receives a military housing allowance. I like to be conservative, so I just put his entire income in the gross income box and let the tax calculation run on all of it, but the easiest workaround is to just tweak the take-home pay amount in the first tab so it's accurate. It may look artificially low. The tax table doesn't impact anything anywhere else, so it shouldn't matter if it's aggressive-but next year, we'll work on building in a tax-free income spot! Thank you for your service!
Hello! These comments are not actively monitored for Support questions. If you have a Support question about the product you'd like answered, please reach out to support [at] morningbrew [dot com]. We'll be happy to help you there!
Does the planner need to be used in conjunction with Mint or Copilot so you can see your overarching category spend and fill it in on the Monthly tab here? I currently track every transaction I make in a spreadsheet and link them to my spending categories to see that type of spending.
I track my transactions in my own spreadsheet as well. I label each transaction in excel and then use a pivot table to automatically total up each category so you don't necessarily need to use Mint or Copilot.
Hi Katie - I max out my traditional 401k (pre-tax deduction), but where would I enter the additional money that'd deducted form my paycheck for a mega backdoor (in-plan roth conversion), since this is an after-tax deduction? Do I also add that into the "pre-tax paycheck deduction"?
This looks really nice and I’ve been following it since it first came out and was $5. $50 is kinda steep for me and I have to pay for that every year to get the planner?
If you've been a previous purchaser, email us at moneywithkatie@morningbrew.com with your previous order info and we'll send you a 40% off code! (You don't need to get the planner every year, btw, just if you'd like the upgraded bells 'n whistles :))
Hello, I haven't purchased your planner (yet?) because I was trying to see if it might mesh with some of what I already do, without reinventing the wheel. Looking at your tax section, it doesn't look like it counts exemptions, does it? I'm asking because that makes a significant difference. For example, because of the number of kids we have, we still receive a significant refund, even with federal taxes set at $0 withholding. Another question I had: It looks like your calculations for FI are based on projected expenses in retirement remaining the same as current expenses. Is there a feature where you can set a different monthly expense goal to calculate FI? I'm asking because...kids. Once all those expenses go away, I mean maybe we would "grow into" the same budget we currently have, but maybe not. (A different kind of lifestyle creep.) Also: What if you have more than one goal per account? We have two (well, three) accounts that I keep spreadsheets for using an envelope system. Each account has different types of goals and expenses. One account has all the longer-term savings goals with fixed funding but without fixed spending dates...vacation, car savings, education, home repair emergency fund, etc. And one last question: What happens if you need to change the info on your start-up page? I find I need to update our budget sometimes twice a year, such as with income increase, changes in major expenses (adding three teen drivers, etc.). Do you make a copy of the existing page and give it a new start month? If you change the info in the existing start page without changing the start month, I assume it would back-revise (and therefore screw up) its previous calculations with the new amounts? If you change the start month on the start page to the current month, when you make the adjustments, will that screw everything up? Thank you!
We release a new version of the Planner every year with upgrades and additions, so there won't be any updates included in the purchase. But you can continue to use the 2024 Planner for future years, though!
Yes, the currency can be changed at the spreadsheet level to reflect other currencies, and the investment account dropdown menu options can be edited to include accounts specific to your country. While the federal/state/FICA tax breakdown tax table is specific to the US, that's the only feature that won't work for people outside the US. If you know your actual effective tax rate, you can just plug that in instead!
Hi Katie, I'm thinking of getting Monarch budgeting app -- how would that work with this? Would I just diligently add my expenses and such into the budgeting app, then migrate the overview into this sheet?
yes i believe so - i haven't used it myself (though i've heard good things!), but you'd have to manually migrate the category spending over into the tabs.
We recommend counting contributions toward an investment account like 529s as “spending,” rather than contributions to savings (since it's not money you're "keeping" to use for yourself. Just remember that your FI Number does not need to support these expenses in perpetuity, so you may want to manually remove them from the “Monthly Spending” column in the year you estimate you’ll be stopping. Normally, if a meaningful portion of your savings are NOT going into the stock market (like college savings!), we recommend manually subtracting the appropriate amount from the Annual Saved column (beginning in Cell H15) in the Financial Independence tab and "dragging" the cell down to apply that treatment to the rest of the column for as long as your savings are being diverted elsewhere. This ensures it’s not capturing savings for the future that won’t be “yours.”
Hi Katie! Do you have any tips when using this planner for those who work for tech companies whose total compensation is a large part in RSUs? Since the market has some play in our total compensation, income can vary.
It’s up to you whether you want to count unvested stock toward your net worth! Regardless, it would go under the “Non Qualified Accounts" section with the Taxable label, and you can give it a nickname that reminds you it’s unvested (which may be helpful if you have some that is already vested, to keep it separate, mentally).
@@MoneywithKatiethey are probably referring to the portion that's vests for that year. I don't think much can be done since no one knows what the stock price will be prior to the vest date.
Each monthly tab will show you the savings from that month and then your net worth will show savings + any gains from investments + new accounts, etc. You'll also be able to see your total savings at the end of the year in the "Year in Review" tab!
Thank you for your reply!@@MoneywithKatie I have been using your budget calendar since the start of the year and it has taken me a while to understand some things...do you ever offer one on one coaching? I am needing some help with my budget
@@MoneywithKatie my main question is that I have created different savings accounts for bills/expenses I save up for e.g car registration or getting my hair done...if I spend it and put it under 'irregular' spending section with the account that it is linked to, it doesn't automatically update the amount in that savings account with the deducted amount. It stays the same. Is that correct? e.g I have 400 saved in my checking account for my car registration. I paid the bill ($350) and put it under irregular spending but the spreadsheet shows I still have $400 saved.
@@lanelandry1859 For something like variable spending on hair or car registration, I'd recommend using the respective sections of the budget and guesstimating your averages. E.g., you might spend $1,000 every three months on haircare, so you'd just make the budget for airfare $333 per month. It shouldn't functionally make a difference at a high level, but should give you a sense for how much of your monthly income is being spent on these items. A lot of budgeting at this level of detail comes down to personal preference, so you could also make “Haircare" or "Car Registration" a goal associated with an account you're actively contributing to in your monthly tabs to track contributions (if you like to use the “sinking fund” method).
Because of how complicated (#fun!) the charts are this year, please be careful not to add, delete, or merge rows or columns anywhere in the spreadsheet. Adding or removing rows can break the running totals that fuel the charts and trend lines. Until I can pay a developer to turn this into a snazzy iPhone app, we’ve gotta work within the tyrannical laws of the Sheets. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Oh no... I missed buying the 2024 Planner during launch weekend, as I was waiting for the discount code e-mail to come in to my Inbox... But it didn't! I looked for it all over my Mailbox but it definitely didn't arrive. Any chance you could share the code directly with me Katie?
Hi Nikman, so sorry to hear you didn't get the code! Can you email support@morningbrew.com with the email you used on the waitlist and we'll get it sorted out?
@@MoneywithKatie Hmmm interesting you say that... my team is almost done building a financial budgeting/tracking software we've been working on for over 3 years now. We've designed it so the platform can be whitelabeled and modified for different money coaching philosophies. I wonder if you'd be able to use it like your Wealth Planner - I'd be happy to set up a demo if you're curious :)
You could add in all your various budget categories in the beginning and then have them populate every month and only fill in the months that you need it!
Suggestion for improvements: making this easy to roll over so that we can do multiple years in review. I would love to be able to look back year to year to see how that’s changed and make the year to year combined
still absolutely loving these videos. So much knowledge. I almost feel guilty this is all free to learn lol
Hi Katie - very nice sheet. A couple of observations and/or suggestions. I didn't see social security income for future years - perhaps you can use pension. Since you've done videos on what order to withdraw funds in retirement I would have love to have seen this calculated in here. I realize that future years are hard due to tax law changes.
I’m so excited for this!! To be honest I did purchase 2023 but didn’t use it…I’m hoping to change that around for 2024!
Love this! Gotta go buy one now 😊 2023 Wealth Planner has made tracking net-worth as a married couple separate finances easier! My husband used to avoid talking about money and all of his retirement accounts are all over the place. Since I showed him your wealth planner, he has consolidated all the accounts and now he is the one initiates and that is excited to do it on the date we usually fill it out 😂 Our net-worth also has grown over $100k and it is very rewarding to see all the history of numbers! Thank you Katie 💕
I'm so thrilled to hear this!!!
Some great updates! Will be my third year in a row of purchasing.
That's so kind of you, thank you! I hope you love it.
I am incredibly excited for this roll out! 2024 will be my second year using your wealth planner 🤑
Thank you Jacqueline - I hope you find it just as useful!
Same here! Year #2!
This is excellent! First time doing this, definitely a good use of $57.
One request for a future iteration of this product -- tracking saving/investment more granularly would be great. Assuming that all non-spent inflows are invested towards FI and doing that adjustment manually on the Financial Independence tab is a messy and error-prone workaround. If instead I could track how i'm investing/saving at the goal level, with projected returns/balances over time, that'd be SUPER cool and could show when you'd meet certain goals (with FI being just one of those goals). Shouldn't be very difficult to implement and I think it'd significantly broaden the usefulness of this product.
Am really enjoying it though :). Thanks!
Can't wait for the new one! The 2023 planner helped me a lot this year.
Oh, I'm so glad to hear!
I am irrationally excited about this! Year-in-review insights are something I hacked together for 2022--will definitely be putting my 2023 data in as soon as I get it! Thank you!
Woohoo! I hope you find it helpful. :)
Hi Katie! I love your Wealth Planner- just purchased today and almost done setting it up. I'm confused about how to handle a few items on my monthly budget though.
I use YNAB and set aside a predetermined amount each month/sinking funds for the following: emergency fund, travel savings, medical savings, and maybe a couple of other categories. I don't see a specific place for entries like these in that first tab- would I leave them off my monthly budget and then just add each month to the "Monthly Contributions" section? Thanks!!
If you watch at 16:35, she addresses that point.
Do I have to buy a new wealth planner every year? Or can I copy it over for the 2025 year?
You can copy it over for the following year! We release a new one with upgrades every year if you'd like to update yours, but you can also keep using your same planner if you like it!
Looking good! Love the changes. The pension box was on my wish list! Yay!
Woohoo!
Love the updates! My 3rd and a half year using the planner! Switching back to pink from boring blue this year!!!
we love to see it!!!
would love to see green. a yellow green not teal.
How would you recommend inputting semi regular spending? Things like quarterly pest control or children's tuition fees that are only Sept-May? First thought was to put them into the "irregular spending" category, but since you can't select multiple months for each item (i.e. tuition), there are not enough cells to do even tuition for 9 months. If I add up the total for tuition and just divide by 12 months and input into regular spending, won't that throw off the accuracy of actual spending each month? Thanks!
Yassss 🎉 pension box!!
We got you 👊
I like the idea and this is a good start, I love excel and can tweak for my specific situation. I would suggest to add Head of household. I also have non-taxable income such as VA disability pay and child Support (which I just added to the take home portion for now, but it would be nice to see it separate).
We're adding HOH for next year's Planner, so stay tuned! Thank you for using it and sharing!
Next year can you do 2 different pension income tables? My husband's and mine will both be different value and start different years. Thank you!
We'll take it into consideration - thanks Allyson!
yes, that is needed very much
@@MoneywithKatie
Hi Katie - How many years is assumed you can live off your money starting from the year you reach FI?
WOOOOO Get hype!
Where would we list a 529 account?
Same question. Money invested in the market, but the gains aren't taxable as long as spent on education. I get a state tax benefit from it, too.
@@kayekavanagh3622 My question as well!
Just bought mine! Is there a way to add more cash accounts on the first tab?
I'm also wondering if the monthly contributions for an account should be the sum of contributions and withdrawals, or if withdrawals are reflected in the monthly spending
Thanks Katie! Great work
Thank you!
I pay additional principal payments on my mortgage each month. The debt paydown section is specific to non-car and non-mortgage. Do I just include the additional $500/month in my mortgage section so it's included in my budget vs. adding to the debt section? I want to be able to capture this as part of the overall savings/debt reduction % for the year-end review. Thoughts?
That's wonderful, great job. In this instance, since you're making additional principal-specific payments, I would recommend adding a new subcategory in the Debt section that just says "Mortgage Principal." You can either put just your $500 there, or do the whole payment; up to you. The decrease in your liability will also be reflected in your net worth tab as you update the balance!
Thank you@@MoneywithKatie ! That's just what I did, so glad I am on the right track.
Looks great! Is this useful/worth if for those of us who don't file taxes in the USA?
We have FAQs and ways to adjust for non-US users!
Hi Katie! I love this new wealth planner! I bought the 2023 version & am so excited about this new version that I'm one of those overachievers you mentioned in your year in review template. I'm doing it all over again so I can take advantage of all these new features for 2023. I do have a question about 401K & HSA contributions. I'm maxing both out & adding them in the monthly contributions section, but wondering if I should add them in the incoming funds section, as well. I view them as income, but worried I may be adding them in two places that way. I appreciate your guidance! BTW, I've been a Quicken user for YEARS and still love it, but I am really enjoying this planner even more. I'm a spreadsheet & $ geek! Thank you! 🤑
you can put pre-tax amounts taken out of your paycheck under "monthly contributions" - incoming funds should be post-tax income!
Thank you!@@MoneywithKatie
One question, I pay almost all of my expenses, including things like rent and car insurance, with my credit cards. Does breaking down these expenses in the regular monthly spending categories and also putting my credit card debt (non-car and home debt) double count these expenses?
How would you recommend classifying a 529 educational account?
What is you're Canadian and you own a small business? I pay myself through dividends which are taxed quite differently.
Hi Katie! If we have rental income and expenses, I am wondering if you have a recommendation for inputing that info? I was considering housing expenses, but I am struggling where to itemize that portion of our finances. Suggestions?
"Medical debt if you're in the US. LOL Live Laugh Love" 🤣🤣🤣
We love it here!
Hi Katie! How would you see something like this alongside a day to day budgeting app like YNAB? I'd love to see my year over year financial picture but wouldn't see myself double entering from YNAB into the wealth planner? Thoughts? Thank you!
I pair my Wealth Planner's monthly info with an app called Copilot, so you can definitely do this with a day-to-day budgeting app as needed and then take the aggregate category spends and input those into the Planner!
I’m considering buying but I need to know if this works for retired people with social security income, a small retirement plan, Medicare premiums, etc. Thanks.
When do you recommend filling out the net worth tab? At the end or beginning of each month?
It's personal preference! I like to update mine on the first day of the month.
E.g., on November 1, I'd input my values for November. But it doesn't matter, as long as you're inputting them roughly 30 days apart.
Hi Katie! Love your podcast and find the topic you dig into very informative. I'm a business owner and curious if this budget is appropriate for entrepreneurs? I get a W-2 and K1 from my business. Thanks.
Hello! This Wealth Planner is intended to manage someone's personal financial situation, as opposed to someone's business revenue and expenses.
Our goal in creating the Wealth Planner is making a product that'll work for most people, and while I don't think we'd ever trick out the flagship Planner for business owners (since to my knowledge, the majority of our customers do not own their own businesses), we will consider building one in the future that can do both as a more advanced option for those who want it.
In the meantime, the workaround that makes the most sense would be making a blank copy of the Planner and using one for your personal life (including your W-2 taxable income; e.g., the money you're declaring as income or taking as an owner's draw vs. reinvesting in your business) and personal spending, and then using the duplicate copy for business revenue and expenses.
That may require some adapting as taxes on business income are treated differently, but it should still work for tracking purposes as far as what's going in and out. Since the tax table only impacts that one page's calculation to help you figure out your take-home pay, it shouldn't impact anything else in the rest of the file.
Thanks for the detailed response. I purchased and love! The self-employment tax area is perfect@@MoneywithKatie The one thing that's tricky with being a business owner is that the K1 amount isn't really determined until close to the end of the year (obviously I project out a ballpark but the exact number isn't known) AND as an entrepreneur, we can't assume a 3% salary increase every year. I realize your audience is mostly W2 folks but appreciate your content nonetheless.
Hi Katie. What if your self employed and your income changes every month. I am a Realtor and make 100% commission. Therefore, I never know my annual income until the end of the year.
The initial “average take-home pay” estimate in the first tab is used for the purposes of making budgeting recommendations, but shouldn't impact anything elsewhere in the Planner! If you wanted to see recommendations based on your “lower paycheck months” or your “bonus-free/commission-free” income, you can always subtract the amount from your overall salary to get a more “realistic” monthly estimate for recommendation purposes.
The intent is to see how your annual income averages out every month for planning purposes, but if that’s throwing you off, feel free to be more conservative.
Very nice work Katie! Any product like this for Canadians though?
Yes, the currency can be changed at the spreadsheet level to reflect other currencies, and the investment account dropdown menu options can be edited to include accounts specific to your country.
While the federal/state/FICA tax breakdown tax table is specific to the US, that's the only feature that won't work for people outside the US. If you know your actual effective tax rate, you can just plug that in instead!
Hi, does the planner work for Europeans too? I guess I would not be able to use the Income Tax Calculator since we get paid net, but what about the rest?
Yes! We dive into some non-US tips here: moneywithkatie.com/2024-wealth-planner-faqs
I pay into a state pension and don't pay social security. Is there a way to customize the Income Tax Liability Estimate so it adjusts for that? Or can I just delete that formula?
Yes, you can easily delete the FICA tax formula box if you'd like to (or just manually input the pension amount)!
Where do you list both Term and Permanent (cash accumulating) life insurance payments.
Is there a way to capture non taxable income? (i.e. military housing allowance)
This is a great question! My husband also receives a military housing allowance. I like to be conservative, so I just put his entire income in the gross income box and let the tax calculation run on all of it, but the easiest workaround is to just tweak the take-home pay amount in the first tab so it's accurate. It may look artificially low. The tax table doesn't impact anything anywhere else, so it shouldn't matter if it's aggressive-but next year, we'll work on building in a tax-free income spot! Thank you for your service!
Hello! These comments are not actively monitored for Support questions. If you have a Support question about the product you'd like answered, please reach out to support [at] morningbrew [dot com]. We'll be happy to help you there!
Does the planner need to be used in conjunction with Mint or Copilot so you can see your overarching category spend and fill it in on the Monthly tab here? I currently track every transaction I make in a spreadsheet and link them to my spending categories to see that type of spending.
I still use mine in conjunction with Copilot to sort by categories, yes!
I track my transactions in my own spreadsheet as well. I label each transaction in excel and then use a pivot table to automatically total up each category so you don't necessarily need to use Mint or Copilot.
Hi Katie - I max out my traditional 401k (pre-tax deduction), but where would I enter the additional money that'd deducted form my paycheck for a mega backdoor (in-plan roth conversion), since this is an after-tax deduction? Do I also add that into the "pre-tax paycheck deduction"?
This looks really nice and I’ve been following it since it first came out and was $5. $50 is kinda steep for me and I have to pay for that every year to get the planner?
If you've been a previous purchaser, email us at moneywithkatie@morningbrew.com with your previous order info and we'll send you a 40% off code! (You don't need to get the planner every year, btw, just if you'd like the upgraded bells 'n whistles :))
Hello, I haven't purchased your planner (yet?) because I was trying to see if it might mesh with some of what I already do, without reinventing the wheel. Looking at your tax section, it doesn't look like it counts exemptions, does it? I'm asking because that makes a significant difference. For example, because of the number of kids we have, we still receive a significant refund, even with federal taxes set at $0 withholding.
Another question I had: It looks like your calculations for FI are based on projected expenses in retirement remaining the same as current expenses. Is there a feature where you can set a different monthly expense goal to calculate FI? I'm asking because...kids. Once all those expenses go away, I mean maybe we would "grow into" the same budget we currently have, but maybe not. (A different kind of lifestyle creep.)
Also: What if you have more than one goal per account? We have two (well, three) accounts that I keep spreadsheets for using an envelope system. Each account has different types of goals and expenses. One account has all the longer-term savings goals with fixed funding but without fixed spending dates...vacation, car savings, education, home repair emergency fund, etc.
And one last question: What happens if you need to change the info on your start-up page? I find I need to update our budget sometimes twice a year, such as with income increase, changes in major expenses (adding three teen drivers, etc.). Do you make a copy of the existing page and give it a new start month? If you change the info in the existing start page without changing the start month, I assume it would back-revise (and therefore screw up) its previous calculations with the new amounts? If you change the start month on the start page to the current month, when you make the adjustments, will that screw everything up?
Thank you!
If you buy it do you get updates?
We release a new version of the Planner every year with upgrades and additions, so there won't be any updates included in the purchase. But you can continue to use the 2024 Planner for future years, though!
Is there a possible Canadian version available, or could I make changes to the formulas to make a Canadian version?
Yes, the currency can be changed at the spreadsheet level to reflect other currencies, and the investment account dropdown menu options can be edited to include accounts specific to your country.
While the federal/state/FICA tax breakdown tax table is specific to the US, that's the only feature that won't work for people outside the US. If you know your actual effective tax rate, you can just plug that in instead!
Hi Katie, I'm thinking of getting Monarch budgeting app -- how would that work with this? Would I just diligently add my expenses and such into the budgeting app, then migrate the overview into this sheet?
yes i believe so - i haven't used it myself (though i've heard good things!), but you'd have to manually migrate the category spending over into the tabs.
I purchased the 2024 Wealth Planner. Where do I enter my kids' 529 plans?
We recommend counting contributions toward an investment account like 529s as “spending,” rather than contributions to savings (since it's not money you're "keeping" to use for yourself. Just remember that your FI Number does not need to support these expenses in perpetuity, so you may want to manually remove them from the “Monthly Spending” column in the year you estimate you’ll be stopping.
Normally, if a meaningful portion of your savings are NOT going into the stock market (like college savings!), we recommend manually subtracting the appropriate amount from the Annual Saved column (beginning in Cell H15) in the Financial Independence tab and "dragging" the cell down to apply that treatment to the rest of the column for as long as your savings are being diverted elsewhere. This ensures it’s not capturing savings for the future that won’t be “yours.”
Hi Katie! Do you have any tips when using this planner for those who work for tech companies whose total compensation is a large part in RSUs? Since the market has some play in our total compensation, income can vary.
It’s up to you whether you want to count unvested stock toward your net worth! Regardless, it would go under the “Non Qualified Accounts" section with the Taxable label, and you can give it a nickname that reminds you it’s unvested (which may be helpful if you have some that is already vested, to keep it separate, mentally).
@@MoneywithKatiethey are probably referring to the portion that's vests for that year. I don't think much can be done since no one knows what the stock price will be prior to the vest date.
@@dec1slh Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, I probably wouldn't personally track that preemptively until it's clear what the value will be
for the net worth tab, does automatically populate the savings over the month as you enter each monthly budget/savings?
Each monthly tab will show you the savings from that month and then your net worth will show savings + any gains from investments + new accounts, etc. You'll also be able to see your total savings at the end of the year in the "Year in Review" tab!
Thank you for your reply!@@MoneywithKatie I have been using your budget calendar since the start of the year and it has taken me a while to understand some things...do you ever offer one on one coaching? I am needing some help with my budget
@@MoneywithKatie my main question is that I have created different savings accounts for bills/expenses I save up for e.g car registration or getting my hair done...if I spend it and put it under 'irregular' spending section with the account that it is linked to, it doesn't automatically update the amount in that savings account with the deducted amount. It stays the same. Is that correct? e.g I have 400 saved in my checking account for my car registration. I paid the bill ($350) and put it under irregular spending but the spreadsheet shows I still have $400 saved.
@@lanelandry1859 For something like variable spending on hair or car registration, I'd recommend using the respective sections of the budget and guesstimating your averages. E.g., you might spend $1,000 every three months on haircare, so you'd just make the budget for airfare $333 per month. It shouldn't functionally make a difference at a high level, but should give you a sense for how much of your monthly income is being spent on these items. A lot of budgeting at this level of detail comes down to personal preference, so you could also make “Haircare" or "Car Registration" a goal associated with an account you're actively contributing to in your monthly tabs to track contributions (if you like to use the “sinking fund” method).
👏👏👏
How do I add another row for one of the spending categories? Can I insert a row without messing everything up?
Because of how complicated (#fun!) the charts are this year, please be careful not to add, delete, or merge rows or columns anywhere in the spreadsheet. Adding or removing rows can break the running totals that fuel the charts and trend lines. Until I can pay a developer to turn this into a snazzy iPhone app, we’ve gotta work within the tyrannical laws of the Sheets. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Oh no... I missed buying the 2024 Planner during launch weekend, as I was waiting for the discount code e-mail to come in to my Inbox... But it didn't! I looked for it all over my Mailbox but it definitely didn't arrive.
Any chance you could share the code directly with me Katie?
Hi Nikman, so sorry to hear you didn't get the code! Can you email support@morningbrew.com with the email you used on the waitlist and we'll get it sorted out?
@@MoneywithKatie OK will do
can you Provide sample file ?
Have you ever considered turning this Excel sheet into software?
Turning into an app is my ultimate dream!
@@MoneywithKatie Hmmm interesting you say that... my team is almost done building a financial budgeting/tracking software we've been working on for over 3 years now. We've designed it so the platform can be whitelabeled and modified for different money coaching philosophies. I wonder if you'd be able to use it like your Wealth Planner - I'd be happy to set up a demo if you're curious :)
Does it allow you to change budget categories monthly?
You could add in all your various budget categories in the beginning and then have them populate every month and only fill in the months that you need it!
Can this take into account military pay and taxes?
You can input whatever your pay and taxes are and it'll auto adjust or you can manually adjust!