Adding Expenses to Your Plan

Expenses fill out the spending side of your plan, and they’re what spending-based milestones like retirement and financial independence are based on. You can always go back to update expenses later if you don’t have exact numbers initially.

Where to Add Expenses

Expenses are part of initial plan setup, right after adding Income. You can also add expenses later – scroll below the graph to the Expenses section, between Income and Flows. Click + Add Expense and choose a type – Housing, Living Expenses, Custom Expense, and more (15 types in total; see the expense types reference article for the full list). Expand each section’s up/down arrows to see all options.

Setting Up Each Expense

Every expense has a Start and an End, set as fixed dates or attached to a milestone so they adjust automatically. For example, you could set a specific expense like a Retirement Trip attached to a milestone such as your retirement date milestone, or to a specific month and year, i.e. June 2045. Adjusting the milestone moves the expense with it.

Each expense can be tied to a specific account, or left to draw from your general cash flow. You’ll choose between two payment methods: Automatic (recommended), which pays with income from the current year if possible and only draws from other accounts if needed, or Specific Account, which withdraws from a chosen account – useful for cases such as funding education expenses with a 529 or health expenses with an HSA. For couples, you can set ownership on an expense – you, your spouse, or joint – for costs that belong to one person rather than both.

You can also mark each expense as Essential, Discretionary, or Hybrid. This matters most during a shortfall: discretionary spending gets cut first, while essential spending is protected. See the spending classification article for details.