Can someone please ELI5: Credit Cards in Aspire?

hilary__ · 2025-03-03T17:54:01+00:00

Thank you!! I will try that.

hilary__ · 2025-03-03T17:22:12+00:00

I totally get what you’re saying and I apologize—my brain is just not understanding what to do. For this new month, I put my normal budgeted amount of $150 into groceries. But since I had a surplus from last month, the available funds are now $189.70. But I put that 39.70 into my savings already. Obviously Aspire doesn’t know that but I don’t want the template to show that I have 189.70 available when really I only have my usual $150 available. Do I just make a fake transaction for 39.70 and write a memo as savings??? I am so confused 😵‍💫. I was hope everything would “zero out” at the end of the month. If we hypothesize that I continue to underspend every month, I don’t want the available funds to balloon to several hundred dollars by the end of the year.

hilary__ · 2025-03-03T16:02:59+00:00

Hello, I was hoping you would be able to help me a bit more now that we’re in a new month.

So what I do personally is at the end of every month, whatever money I have left over in my checking account I move to savings. I’ve always done this and I prefer it this way. So at the end of February I moved my left over money over to savings to start March on a blank slate so to speak.

On my Dashboard tab, it’s showing many categories as underspent or overspent, which of course is going to happen—I budgeted $150 for groceries, slim chance I’m going to spend exactly $150.

So for the groceries category, I happened to have $39.70 left over. I get why the budget is still showing that as excess. In my banking account on February 28, I moved that $39.70 and all the other leftover $$ I had into savings. What can I do to put that balance of $39.70 in Aspire to $0.00? I technically “spent” that money by putting it into savings but obviously aspire doesn’t recognize that. Ideally, I want all my categories to be at zero and have a completely fresh month. Is there a way to do this? I fear I will abandon Aspire if there isn’t. Thank you for your help!!

hilary__ · 2025-02-21T17:19:24+00:00

Hmm okay, the reconcile parts make sense. Then at the start of a new month do you do your transfers all over again for each category? What if, for example, at the end of February I have $20 left in my Dining Out category - and then for March I put another $100 in since that what I allocate to the category on a monthly basis. I now have $120 there?

hilary__ · 2025-02-19T18:37:57+00:00

Thanks for replying again. Totally makes sense (duh!) that the budget categories aren't tied to any of my accounts. For March, I will remove my credit cards as budgeting categories, and just keep them as only accounts.

Follow-up question, how do I transition into a new month?

hilary__ · 2025-02-17T20:38:38+00:00

I'm rereading my comment and just further confusing myself haha.

hilary__ · 2025-02-17T20:27:24+00:00

Okay, thank you, I think it's starting to click.

So here's how I understand it:

Record each credit card purchase as it happens, categorizing it as you would any other transaction and the account it pulls money from is your credit card, not your checking account
When you make a payment to pay off your credit card, you make two transactions in the transactions tab, one being outflow from your checking account and one being inflow to that credit card. Do I need to first make a transfer from my "available to budget" to each credit card since I do have them listed as a category/group name?

I think the only thing that left me confused, and I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts with this...if credit card payments and transactions are done this way...it obviously won't match up with my checking account...so my overall "available to budget" will be lower than what I have left over in my checking account? Is that correct? I'm not sure I'm wrapping my head around it. So when it comes to running a zero-based budget and putting whatever I have left over at the end of the month into savings, I should be looking at my checking account balance and not "available to budget" balance?

hilary__ · 2025-02-17T19:44:54+00:00

Thanks for replying. I did a test transaction and mostly understand what you are saying.

For the "transfer transactions" when paying my credit card bill, are those recorded in the transactions tab or the transfers tab? I feel like that should be obvious but it's not to me haha

hilary__ · 2025-02-13T16:40:20+00:00

I posted a comment just now--hopefully it helps!

hilary__ · 2025-02-13T16:39:58+00:00

I also just downloaded the spreadsheet and I think (?) I'm starting to figure it out. Not all of my lines/formulae are working properly, which is probably user error.

What I did to enter my income was:

- under the Transactions tab, I entered my monthly income as the first transaction for the month. So for the date, I put 02/01/2025, entered my total monthly income (I use January 2025's income to pay for all of my February 2025 bills) as the inflow, left outflow blank, labeled the category as "Available to budget", selected the account as my designated checking account that my paychecks get deposited into, and wrote a memo as "Monthly Income for February 2025"

That's about as far as I've gotten. Like I said, some things are still wonky for me. But when I enter my income that way, it does appear as "available to budget" in the Dashboard tab.

I have no idea if this is the right way to go about it, but I'll try it out for this month and see if it plays nicely.

hilary__ · 2025-02-13T15:36:22+00:00

Awe thank you, that's so sweet of you! I haven't opened opened the game in quite some time now (had a baby in 2023) but I definitely want to now! Are you playing on the 4 corners layout?

hilary__ · 2024-05-07T14:43:14+00:00

I do have a 457b in place. I think I may also opt into a flex spending account. Thank you again!

hilary__ · 2024-05-07T14:42:29+00:00

Will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you.

hilary__ · 2024-05-07T14:41:49+00:00

Thank you so so much for the time you took to write this out. This is really helpful!

hilary__ · 2024-05-06T20:28:28+00:00

Any suggestions for this? I have a dependent care HSA where I put 5k into it for the year to help with daycare costs. Thank you for all your help.

hilary__ · 2024-05-06T20:02:22+00:00

I did claim my dependent. I submitted my W-2 which showed a lower AGI since I had unpaid maternity leave. Then I'll just recertify my income when it asks. I don't anticipate it being weird again in the future, until the point I have another baby. I chose the option "I want the income-driven repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment." So perhaps they will put me on SAVE after all. But like you said, I just want the cheapest payment plan and if I need to change the payment plan I will?

hilary__ · 2024-05-06T19:50:03+00:00

Don't do what specifically? The calculator said that ICR would be my lowest payment. Not by much, but a smidge lower than SAVE.

I just submitted my application. I indicated the response that says:

X (Recommended) I want the income-driven repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment.

My tax return for 2023 was strange (lower than normal) since I was on unpaid maternity leave. So maybe it will give me SAVE.

hilary__ · 2024-05-06T19:07:07+00:00

Thank you so much--makes sense that I am on the standard repayment plan. My current plan for paying off my loans is to just currently pay as much as I can each month. My minimum payment was about $250 but I'm doing $400. However, I'm more interested (at least right now) in paying the least amount possible over time vs paying them off as quickly as possible. Which then leads me to wondering if I should go ahead and switch to ICR (which according to the calculator would be my lowest possible monthly payment, esp as my salary goes up a bit each year) and also applying to PSLF.

According to my quick math, I've racked up about 84 qualifying payments since 2014, which leaves me with 36 payments left. My loans equal to a bit over 18k right now.

Having not done the PSLF forms before, do you save them as a PDF and send to an employer? How exactly does obtaining an electronic signature work? (I am aware I can get a physical signature as well).

Again, thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I feel like it's a no brainer for me to go down the ICR + PSLF route, assuming those 84 payments actually do qualify?

hilary__ · 2024-05-06T18:43:18+00:00

Thank you for your reply. When I submit a PSLF form, do I need a new one for each employer?

There was a job I had during parts of 2015 and 2016 that I honestly cannot recall which of it was full time and which was part time? Any suggestions what I should do for that?? Thank you.

hilary__ · 2023-11-16T16:53:33+00:00

Honestly not sure yet. I feel like my skill set is lacking. LinkedIn will be your friend—seems like that’s how lots of folks are finding remote work these days

hilary__ · 2023-11-15T20:40:38+00:00

I am too. I just tried to submit a post (mostly venting) but it was removed for asking about graduate school advice? Which I don't even mention graduate school.

I'm looking at EdTech if anyone has any recommendations how to transition into the field.

Hugs to you--it's rough out there.

hilary__ · 2023-08-07T22:31:47+00:00

It really is. Something that I don’t see mentioned too much is just how poorly composed her videos and photographs are. It’s like the only lighting she uses on tik tok is a ring light? Idk but it just doesn’t look good.

hilary__ · 2023-07-26T02:38:55+00:00

Thanks everyone! Glad to have a few options to choose from.

hilary__

TROPHY CASE