In: Accounting
Think about the money you spend every day. You probably spend the most money at or near the beginning of each month. However, after all the bills are paid, you have what are often referred to as discretionary funds. That’s money you can spend any way you wish. Please tell us on what types of things you spend that extra-or discretionary-money? How will learning the Quicken software help you determine whether you have discretionary funds, and if so, how much each month?
The type of things that I spend that extra-or discretionary-money are things like entertainment expenses (movies, theatres, art exhibitions etc.), eating out, holidays, etc. All these are non-essential spending by me or in other words are spending that is on things other than necessities like food, cloth and shelter.
Learning the Quicken software will enable me and help me to determine whether I have discretionary funds and what is the quantum of those discretionary funds. The Quicken software will allow me to do budgeting in a holistic manner and I will be able to build a budget that incorporates my essential spending. The budget will determine my savings for each month and the amount left for discretionary spending each month. Quicken software will enable me to track my purchases and expenses and hence I can easily determine the size and balance of my discretionary funds each month after adjusting my income for the budgeted and actual purchases and spending on essential items. I will be able to create a periodical budget (monthly usually) and will be able to organize my expenses into fixed heads and discretionary heads. Quicken Starter Edition enables one to track his/her expenses by having different categories of expenses like housing, utilities, long term savings, healthcare, entertainment etc. I can also create my own category if there is a need to do so. I will then be able to examine my cash flows along with the payment schedules and this will finally help me to determine whether I have discretionary funds and what is the quantum of those discretionary funds.