Geldzin2: Income Distribution

In version 1.6 (build#56), I introduce the concept of income distribution. This is the second unique feature in my personal finance management system that no one else out there has. Simply put, "income distribution" is the practice of earmarking (or distributing) your income towards budget categories, debt, and other savings goals systematically. It ensures that your immediate budget needs are covered, debt paid off as quickly as possible, and other savings goals catered to. All you have to do is punch in your paycheck whenever it arrives, and the system will tell you how to use it.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you simply plug in an income amount and distribution tells you what should be applied towards charity & giving, current and next month budget needs, and debts or loans. When you save the distributions, it counts as a deposit as well. If there is any leftover money, you have a choice to save it for a future distribution, or spread it out among all your budget areas.

The lifestyle principle is that you should only spend from what you have earned/distributed rather that what you have planned/budgeted. In other words, just because there is a budget doesn't mean the money is there. The budget is only the beginning: income distribution is a necessary second (and ongoing) step.

To see this feature in action, access the webapp at http://jubilee.homeip.net:84/geldzin2/ and login. [Demo account is username guest and password geldzin]. Navigate to {Distributions | Income Distributions}.

Geldzin2: Charity & Giving

In version 1.6 (build#56), I introduce the concept of charitable giving as part of the financial lifestyle. This is the first unique feature in my app that no other personal financial management system has. The idea is simple: you ought to give away a portion of your earnings to charitable causes and helping others; it will make you happier! There is all manner of research and experience that support the connection between happiness and generosity. You are never truly wealthy until you can give away some of your treasures.

In Geldzin, you provide a percentage that will be earmarked for charitable giving during income distribution (called the charity rate). You also provide the name of the category with which charitable giving can be tracked in your transactions.

Apart from the happiness you might derive from generosity, the category is there to help you track charitable giving for tax purposes as well. The charity category is not included in the budget, as the practice is to deduct charity money and applying the rest to budget priorities. This enables people to consider charity and giving no matter what their income is, and to always be generous as long as there is an income.

Check out the feature at http://jubilee.homeip.net:84/geldzin2/ and login with username "guest" and password "geldzin". Select menu {Guest > Profile}, access the "Charity" tab.

Geldzin2: Debts

In version 1.5 (build #39), I add the ability to begin tracking debts. Only basic information about loans and credit cards (how much is owed, when the next payment is due and for how much) is tracked, needed to devise a debt payment strategy (coming in a later version). On this page, you can also see how many payments are left if you were to pay minimums only.

When making a budget, you also need to account for minimum debt payments per month. If there are debts to pay, Geldzin will show debts in categories/budget under a special category highlighting payments that will need to be done throughout the year, as shown in the screenshot below. This gives you a better picture of what your expense budget should be.

You can preview this feature at http://jubilee.homeip.net:84/geldzin2/ (login as guest with password geldzin, select menu Navigate > Credit Cards & Loans). Note that the guest/demo account is reset each night, so any changes you make will be lost overnight). This application is still in beta.

Geldzin2: Financial Accounts

In version 1.4, I add the ability to begin tracking bank accounts and cash. After you figure out how much you will be spending (see Geldzin2: Categories & Budget), you need to know how much money you currently have and where it is held. Aside from that, you should also know how you use the financial accounts, such as if there are any debit cards associated with them. I attempt to meet these goals in the latest implementation of Geldzin2, as shown in the screenshot below.

In the future, I'll provide a means to connect to banks and download balances and transactions, as well as additional account analysis and reports. I'll also provide reminders for when debit cards expire, and notices for when accounts may run out of money based on historical expenditure trends.

You can preview this feature at http://jubilee.homeip.net:84/geldzin2/ (login as guest with password geldzin, select menu [Navigate > Financial Accounts]). Note that the guest/demo account is reset each night, so any changes you make will be lost overnight). This application is still in beta.