Savings goals

Creating a goal

A goal needs a name, a target amount, and a pace, and the pace can be stated either way round: give a Planned Monthly Contribution and Endute works out when you will arrive, or give a Target Date (month and year) and Endute works out what to put aside monthly. Provide both and they need to agree; the dialog checks the arithmetic for you. The Priority setting decides which side bends when reality drifts: Maintain monthly contributions keeps the amount fixed and moves the date, Meet target date holds the date and adjusts the asking. A description makes the goal yours.

How progress is tracked

Goals track contributions, month by month. Each month you record what actually went aside, defaulting to your planned amount, and individual months can be customised when life interferes, the lean January after an expensive December. Progress is the sum of what you have contributed against the target, with the projection updating as real months replace planned ones.

Reading the pace

The useful signal is the gap between planned and actual pace. Falling behind shows up as a later arrival date or a higher required monthly figure, visible months before it becomes unfixable; running ahead is permission to dream slightly bigger. Either way, the goal converts a vague intention into a number with a date, which is the form intentions need to survive contact with a spending month.

Finishing, pausing, retiring

Goals carry a status: active, paused, achieved or cancelled, so an interrupted goal can rest without being deleted. And deleting one offers to transfer its saved amount into another goal, which is the graceful end for the holiday fund that became the house fund.

What next

The monthly contribution belongs in your budget like any other commitment, and the forecast shows whether the pace survives your real cash flow.