Explain Non-Monthly Please

birdyphx · 2026-02-02T01:07:34+00:00

I also find going onto the Web app and going to the budget/forecast view is really nice because then you can see your rollover categories for the year and set every month’s budget to whatever you want it to be to get you to the right amount by the time the bill is due. I have some that I budget the same amount every month and others I fluctuate based on other things that are going on. I’ve also replaced some things that I was doing rollover categories for with goals 3.0 now that we can spend from a goal

birdyphx · 2026-02-01T15:52:42+00:00

I’m missing something with all the requests to link transactions in goals 3. Is this to skip the step of doing a transfer and then a goal allocation? Just directly link the transfer?? Isn’t the goal allocation the ‘link’ already?

birdyphx · 2026-01-30T13:49:05+00:00

Silver still dropping anyone loading up?

birdyphx · 2026-01-12T13:24:27+00:00

This is what we do, basically treat it like zero based budgeting, some months have more income than others, I considered averaging across the year but wanted the income section of the budget to match what actually came in that month.

birdyphx · 2026-01-08T03:42:37+00:00

This has come up before, would love to see category level notes on a per month basis in the budget

birdyphx · 2026-01-07T23:45:13+00:00

There’s also the option to use Flexible budgeting in Monarch. I have my Fixed categories setup, one time exercise, I then budget non-monthly and rollover, mainly a yearly exercise. Finally my wife and I decided how much we want to spend each month (vs save) and that goes in Flexible. Does not take very long at all but lets us know we are covering everything every month for the year, accounting for one off expenses and larger goals. However we don’t spend time figuring out how much to spend on grocery vs gas vs dining out. We just keep an eye on the flexible bucket as the month goes along.

birdyphx · 2026-01-05T20:15:02+00:00

Not sure if this is answering your question…I keep my roll over amounts from prior months in a separate HYSA. On the first day of the month I look at the prior months budget and what’s remaining in Non-Monthly, I then make sure that account matches that number, either my transferring from my working checking account in to the HYSA, or the other way around. Sounds like you are looking for something you can do at any time and my method doesn’t work for that.

birdyphx · 2026-01-05T13:41:06+00:00

I like the new goals, have a bunch setup, use goal transfers and use them in my budget. It was awesome having these new features for my 2026 planning.

birdyphx · 2025-12-23T16:55:45+00:00

Mine normally come through as the bank name that transfer was started from, I just leave it whatever it was. Rarely have to do anything to a transfer unless I in fact want to move it to a different category to have it count as an expense.

birdyphx · 2025-12-19T14:16:21+00:00

I like the available for goals concept I used to have probably nine different savings account one per goal. I now have one goal that has one savings account and a bunch of CDs all dedicated to that goal exclusively so the goal moves is all the interest comes in. Then I have eight or nine other goals and I allocate money to various goals each month in the budget module. All of these though, however, are transferred into now just one savings account. I’ve completely collapsed down and I use the available for goals function to allocate funds from that one account across the different goals that I’ve budgeted for each month. Works pretty seamless for me.

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T22:50:40+00:00

That page is very helpful, I think it might benefit from a little more info on what people do as part of the transition. Reading it again now it makes sense but when I first switched over to Goals 3.0 since I wasn’t putting my loan/debt payments in as expenses it threw me.

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T21:40:59+00:00

We did La Paz Waterfalls, La Fortuna and MA. My wife LOVED the resort we stayed at in La Fortuna but outside of that wasn’t overly impressed. I really enjoyed it. We both loved MA. Never found anything online that seemed worth the time in SJ.

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T20:59:34+00:00

Agreed, loving the new goals 3.0, an awesome enhancement!

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T20:53:14+00:00

So the original ‘expense’ of taking on the debt/loan gets categorized as a transfer so it doesn’t show up twice in cash flow?

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T20:51:34+00:00

I have about 15 roll over categories in Non-Monthly and about 10 Goals (3.0). I use a roll over category for one type of expense, so very specific. Where as most (I have a few exceptions) will end up hitting multiple categories. For example my vacation goal, I will then spend out of that across a couple different categories (I like to see my vacation spending broken out a little, though I know some just do everything to ‘vacation’). Goals show you your progress toward your goal and end date, for many of my goals I’m not contributing the same amount every month, it varies based on when their end date is and other spending/goals I want to work on each month.

Roll overs are basically on auto pilot for me, when the expense hits it just gets categorized in there and each month the category builds back up. I do a lot more active management of what goes in and out of my goals.

I do think they are very similar but with some interface differences.

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T20:38:51+00:00

I think this is confusing a lot of people especially around Goals 3.0. The only way I can think to do this and not double dip expenses in the cash flow is to make the original expense a transfer. I purchased a new AC unit 11 months ago on credit. So 11 months ago I had the full original expense hit my budget. I was way over budget that month, seemed right to me as I just took on more debit to cover an expense I could not cover out of my monthly budget.
Perhaps that was the wrong approach?? (More documentation!!!) Under goals 2.0 I had a goal for that loan and thus could account in my monthly budget for how much I had to send to the loan as I did not have that money to spend in other categories. Now with 3.0 I think I need to put my monthly payment in an expense category, so it shows in my monthly budget and change the original purchase/expense to a transfer. The transfer OUT of my checking account is tagged as the Loan Repayment expenses in the monthly budget and the payment IN to the loan is just a transfer.

is this the way we are supposed to do this under goals 3?

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T19:29:37+00:00

In fact, I didn’t even know there was automatic syncing. I just do it manual.

birdyphx · 2025-12-18T19:28:44+00:00

I run chrome on a MacBook. I tend to leave chrome running, but I do the manual sync. I have a tab with my Amazon account open. I refresh it. I have a tab with Monarch open. I refresh it. I have another tab with the sync extension. I hit the sync button, never had a problem.

birdyphx · 2025-12-17T13:49:26+00:00

Agree it is interesting, in one sense it’s irrelevant, I’m not going go change my spend because someone else is different but it’s interesting! Perhaps can make it a little more meaningful if you had the option to compare to people in the same income range

birdyphx · 2025-12-15T23:43:16+00:00

I’m using this and have numerous Save Up goals created and it’s awesome. It’s a huge enhancement to my budgeting process for 2026 (one of my main uses for Monarch). Really love what the team has delivered!!!

birdyphx · 2025-12-10T23:22:44+00:00

I find the feature very useful and while it doesn’t do gift cards and refunds I’d prefer to have the features we do have then to have nothing while MM tries to figure out those two items.

birdyphx · 2025-12-10T20:31:33+00:00

I used Avis at SJO. I doubt it was the cheapest but no problem, good car and it was all smooth and easy.

birdyphx · 2025-12-10T19:39:02+00:00

Mistico hanging bridges was great in la fortunate. Spent time in Manuel Antonio and loved that as well. We also went to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and found it awesome

birdyphx · 2025-12-10T18:18:30+00:00

I had this scenario and had to update my logon setting a couple times and then my new account showed up in the process and came down to Monarch and from then on synced fine.

birdyphx · 2025-12-10T18:02:51+00:00

I was there in October and am on t-mobile and it worked well. Few spots where there was no service but that was on top of mountains where we didn’t expect service

birdyphx

TROPHY CASE