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How does it "lose all of the data behind it"? It's right there on the left hand side. Money is fungible so when it comes to budgeting it doesn't matter where it

How does it "lose all of the data behind it"? It's right there on the left hand side. Money is fungible so when it comes to budgeting it doesn't matter where it comes from. I don't really see the point of adding obligations/liabilities like taxes and child support to it. The point of a budget is it's your choice how you allocate it so why add stuff that isn't your choice? When you say freelance goes directly to savings, are you saying you want something like "no matter what I earn from freelance it goes to savings"?

shagie 2y ago
> When you say freelance goes directly to savings, are you saying you want something like "no matter what I earn from freelance it goes to savings"? Yes. Or another account so that you have clear accounting for tax purposes. "This account gets freelance money and this money was spent for home office expenses related to the freelance work which is deductible from that income stream." Child support obligations come out of one income as a percentage of that income - but not the other. A two income family where the husband is paying 10% of wages to child support for example - its 10% of his $1000 / month that never hits the main account, but her $500 /month is untouched and goes to the shared account. This could be complicated if she was a 1099 worker and needed to keep track of that money separately so that it could have the proper taxes taken out of that and have the resulting "actual money" that is spendable go into the "can be spent" bucket. While money is fungible, the depiction of money flows when it hits a "one big bucket" makes it so that the value behind the Sankey diagram is lost. Is all the money that your household makes taxed the same way? Do you file jointly or separately? Is there a separate account for isolating certain expenses for reporting purposes? https://alternativeenergyatunc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/llnlusenergy20111.png https://alternativeenergyatunc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uplo... is useful and one will note the lack of a big bucket. Or consider the original one - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/JIE_Sankey_V5_Fig1.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/JIE_Sank... There is information lost when it goes to one big bucket.
- nightski 2y ago
  Accounts are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I personally have dozens and they don't really align with how I want to utilize the money when I am using them optimally from a financial perspective. It's better to think in terms of envelops/buckets IMHO, which the Sankey absolutely does. That's the right side of the equation.
- globular-toast 2y ago
  > "This account gets freelance money and this money was spent for home office expenses related to the freelance work which is deductible from that income stream." Was spent? Are you sure you're not mixing up budgeting and accounting? I think you want to use Sankey to display your accounting.

shagie 2y ago

> When you say freelance goes directly to savings, are you saying you want something like "no matter what I earn from freelance it goes to savings"? Yes. Or another account so that you have clear accounting for tax purposes. "This account gets freelance money and this money was spent for home office expenses related to the freelance work which is deductible from that income stream." Child support obligations come out of one income as a percentage of that income - but not the other. A two income family where the husband is paying 10% of wages to child support for example - its 10% of his $1000 / month that never hits the main account, but her $500 /month is untouched and goes to the shared account. This could be complicated if she was a 1099 worker and needed to keep track of that money separately so that it could have the proper taxes taken out of that and have the resulting "actual money" that is spendable go into the "can be spent" bucket. While money is fungible, the depiction of money flows when it hits a "one big bucket" makes it so that the value behind the Sankey diagram is lost. Is all the money that your household makes taxed the same way? Do you file jointly or separately? Is there a separate account for isolating certain expenses for reporting purposes? https://alternativeenergyatunc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/llnlusenergy20111.png https://alternativeenergyatunc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uplo... is useful and one will note the lack of a big bucket. Or consider the original one - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/JIE_Sankey_V5_Fig1.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/JIE_Sank... There is information lost when it goes to one big bucket.

nightski 2y ago
Accounts are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I personally have dozens and they don't really align with how I want to utilize the money when I am using them optimally from a financial perspective. It's better to think in terms of envelops/buckets IMHO, which the Sankey absolutely does. That's the right side of the equation.
globular-toast 2y ago
> "This account gets freelance money and this money was spent for home office expenses related to the freelance work which is deductible from that income stream." Was spent? Are you sure you're not mixing up budgeting and accounting? I think you want to use Sankey to display your accounting.