About savings goals

Once you know how much you need to save, you can track your savings progress in a virtual account called a savings goal account. A savings goal account is a way of hiding money from yourself so you don't inadvertently spend it on something else.

If you need a way to track savings in the context of your overall monthly spending, set up a monthly budget. To create a long-term financial plan covering major milestones such as retirement, college, and home purchase, use the Lifetime Planner.

How do I set up a savings goal?

In Quicken, you can earmark some of your earnings for a vacation or other major purchase by setting up a savings goal account, which is a special type of asset account.

Remember that a savings goal account doesn't represent a real account, and there is no real money in it. It's just a way of hiding and tracking money for a specific goal. The idea is that you won't be tempted to spend what you don't see.

Click the Planning tab.
Click the Savings Goals button.
Click Goal Actions.
Click New Savings Goal.
Enter a name, amount, and finishing date (date by which you want to reach your goal).
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  The name you enter will be the name of the account used to track the savings goal. If you've enabled support for multiple currencies, you can also choose a currency for your savings goal from the drop-down list.

Notes

Use the Saving Goals window to check your progress towards a goal, change a goal, and contribute to or withdraw from a goal.
The Account Bar lists your savings goal accounts and balances. Right-click a savings goal and deselect Show Savings Goal transactions in register and reports to hide any transfers to your savings goal and view your actual account balance.