How do I add Real Assets?

When you’re just getting started with ProjectionLab it’s important to add your assets and liabilities. Outside of your investments, you may have real assets like a house, car, rental property, jewelry, and more.

Adding Real Assets

You can add a new Real Asset by going to Current Finances (located in the top left of your screen) > click Real Assets in the middle of the page > click + Add Asset.

A pop-up will appear to choose which asset to add. You will see a list of assets that includes: House, Car, Rental Property, Commercial Property, Land, Building, Motorcycle, Boat, Jewelry, Precious Metals, Furniture, Instrument, Machinery, and Custom Asset.

In this article, we will walk through adding a House and a Car.

Adding a House

Click House and the pop-up will disappear, directing you to input the following details:

• Purchase Price - the original purchase price of your home (for example, $750,000)
• Current Value - the approximate current value of your home (for example, $800,000)
• Owner - choose if this is owned by You, a Spouse, or Jointly
• Status - choose Fully Owned or Financed. Choose Fully Owned if you have paid cash for your home or successfully paid off your mortgage. More commonly, you will choose Financed.

Choosing Financed will reveal additional input fields:

• Current Loan Balance - your remaining loan balance
• Annual Percentage Rate (APR) - your mortgage rate
• Interest - choose Simple or Compounded
• Monthly Payment - your total monthly payment

After you fill in this information, you will see Years to pay off calculated. If you click on the number, you can also change the number of years to pay off and your monthly payment will adjust.

This is a great option to explore if you’d like to pay off your mortgage early and see the impact of making larger payments.

Rename Your Asset

Your assets will auto-populate with a generic name like House or Car. To rename an asset, hover over the name > click the Pencil icon > type in your preferred name. This is especially helpful if your household has multiple of the same asset type, like 2 cars.

Adding a Car

Click Car and the pop-up will disappear, directing you to input the following details:

• Purchase Price - the original purchase price of your car (for example, $60,000)
• Current Value - the approximate current value of your car (for example, $42,000)
• Owner - choose if this is owned by You, a Spouse, or Jointly
• Status - choose Fully Owned or Financed. Choose Fully Owned if you have paid cash for your car or successfully paid off your car loan.

Choosing Financed will reveal additional input fields:

• Current Loan Balance - your remaining loan balance
• Annual Percentage Rate (APR) - your loan rate
• Interest - choose Simple or Compounded
• Monthly Payment - your total monthly payment

After you fill in this information, you will see Years to pay off calculated. If you click on the number, you can also change the years to pay off and your monthly payment will adjust.

How to Set Expenses for Your Real Assets

Owning real assets like a house comes with expenses like maintenance and property taxes. You can add those in ProjectionLab by going to your Plan > scroll down to Real Assets > click House (this may differ if you renamed it) > click Taxes > add your Yearly Property Tax.

This will automatically show % Assessed. Prefer to put in a dollar amount? Click % Assessed to switch to Actual Currency or Today’s Currency.

If you use % Assessed, choose the assessed value from Market Value or a Specific Value. You can also choose the Reassessment Behavior from Default, Specific Growth Rate Limit, or Ratcheting Growth Rate Limit. Descriptions for each are shown below each choice.

Outside of taxes, you may have yearly maintenance costs, yearly improvement costs, yearly insurance costs, and monthly HOA fees. Each yearly cost can be entered as a percent or dollar amount, similar to taxes. Monthly HOA fees can be entered in Actual Currency or Today’s Currency. Don’t forget to click Save to keep your changes.

How to Sell Your Real Assets

Selling real assets can have a major impact on your projections. Note that Expenses do not double-count ongoing housing costs, mortgage payments, or taxes.

To model a home sale, go to your Plan > scroll down to Real Assets > click House (this may differ if you renamed it) > click Sale > update your timing.

You can indicate that you will never sell an asset, or choose from a specific milestone (like Retirement) or a specific month (like January 2035). If you choose to sell, you will be prompted to:

• Add a Broker’s Fee
• Toggle Reduce Capital Gains Tax on or off. If toggled on, choose a percent to reduce capital gains tax by. Note that the US primary residence exemption is applied automatically and this option is generally not needed for a primary home.
• Choose to Send Proceeds automatically (recommended) or to a specific account

Your home sale will appear as a Home icon in your plan. The same process applies to other real assets.

Adding Real Assets in the Future

If you forget to add a real asset or acquire a new one while using ProjectionLab, you can always return to this same location to add or update assets at any time.