Goals in Monarch allow you to create a personalized, prioritized list of your financial goals. These goals use the account balances you specify and track related transactions.
For step-by-step instructions on how to link a transaction to a goal, to associate an account with a goal, how to update balances, and how to make a rule with goals please read here.
Create goals
When you start a Goal, you are asked basic questions about what you are saving for and given a chance to name and prioritize your Goals in a list. After you set the saving goal, assign accounts, and allocate spending, you can create the Goal.
You can prioritize goals on the edit goal priorities page so that determine the order in which your Goals are addressed and displays your goals in priority order.
Assign accounts to goals
Monarch will show you the accounts that are best for the type of goal you want to achieve. These assigned accounts are the ones that will contribute to your Goal, either for spending on your Goal or as the debt you want to pay down. Depending on the available accounts, you can select multiple accounts or just one and make the selection different for each Goal. At this point, you may use the account’s entire balance or select a portion to fund your Goal.
One account assigned to one goal
You will be given the option to “Always use the entire account balance” when you assign accounts. This option is good for Goals with dedicated accounts for their specific purpose, like “Retirement” or “Pay for college.”
One account assigned to multiple goals
If you choose to toggle off "Always use the entire account balance" you can split your account balance across multiple goals, this is great if you have a large savings account that you'd like to use for a mix of your emergency fund and down payment.
Not using the entire balance will make the goal balance static unless you manually change the values, which works well for cash-based goals.
Tracking your goal balance
You can track your goal balance progress automatically which is a combination of the balances of accounts assigned to the goal. This is available on the goal detail page as well as the dashboard card for goals.
Link transactions
After you create your Goal, you can track transactions as part of your Goal. This is done to either track transfers into Goal accounts or to show the spending out of Goal accounts. These transactions will be listed on the Goal detail page and hidden from your budget since it is not tied to a monthly expense.
You may also use rules to categorize transactions as part of this Goal to track their spending as part of your Goal.
Budget contributions
Goals will display a budgeted and remaining amount in your Plan. As you assign transactions to this Goal, the remaining amount will update.
Your Goals will be featured at the bottom of your Plan so that you can monitor the Goal’s monthly contribution.
Update goal status
You can revisit your Goals at any time to edit, complete, archive, or delete them. Completed Goals will still appear in the list of goals but will be labeled as completed. Goals that are deleted are permanently deleted and cannot be restored!
For more info, or to learn how this version of Goals differs from the original version, visit our Goals FAQ here!
Please note: Money cannot be moved in or out of your bank accounts from within Monarch.