Goal-based money saving program
A picture of the program running on my desktop
with one of my No Man's Sky wallpapers in
the background (not included). Unfortunately, the
numbers don't reflect my real savings.
Goalie is a program that helps you track progress towards your goals. Goalie is designed to be as simple as possible.
Here are the steps you will need to get up and running
You will notice it asks you to create a profile. You can leave the name as default or give it a name like "Dylan's Savings".
You can also input the current savings that you have. You don't have to do this yet, but it can make the process easier.
Click the "New Goal" button. Give your goal a name - this is what will show up on your homepage. If you would like, you can start this goal off from $0.00 or you can put in a balance if you already have some money put towards this goal.
Next is the most important part. You have three options for saving money towards goals:
- Fixed amounts
- Percentage amounts
- Manual saving
By default, a goal will save 5% of your paycheck. You will notice that the text box says "5" and the drop-down next to it is set to "% (percentage per paycheck)"
If you wanted to save
If you don't want money to be automatically split between paychecks, you can simply choose "Manual (nothing per paycheck)".
Now, input your goal. If you need $100.00 to go out to dinner, then you'd input $100.00 here. Note that not all goals need a fixed goal - you have the option of simply saving money without reaching a specific goal. If you want to do this, leave this field blank or as $0.00
Finally, if you want to continue saving money even after you've reached your goal (Imagine you reached the $100 goal to go out to dinner but didn't spend it right away. You'd want to keep saving money for the next dinner too!) keep that option checked. If you want to only save exactly the amount specified in the "Goal" option, uncheck this option.
You can change these settings at any time by clicking on the goal from the home screen
The ultimate goal of this is to make the "total savings" figure line up with the money you have saved in your real bank account.
The easiest way to do this is to start off by putting all of your savings into the "General Savings" account. You can do this by simply clicking on it and editing the "Balance" field.
Now, use the "Transfer Money" button from the home page. Split up your current savings by transferring money from the general savings account to your new goals.
Once you have all your general savings and goals up-to-date, you're all done!
After you're all set up, every time you get a paycheck, simply press the "I Got Paid" button. Enter the amount you got paid after tax. The program will split up your paycheck for you!
To "spend" money, simply edit the account and reduce the balance byt he correct amount.
To delete a goal, click the goal to open the edit screen and then select the "Delete Goal" button.
Important about deleting goals: any money left in the goal will be transferred to the general savings account when you delete it. Make sure you change the balance to $0.00 and then press "Save" before you delete the goal! This only applies if you spent all the money in that goal - if you want that money to go back into your general savings, you can just delete it.