Using Liquid Assets to Supplement Income in the Cash Flow
Voyant will work out most of the future cash flow for you, if you let it. If annual income doesn’t fully meet planned expenses, the software will automatically top-up income from liquid assets in order to prevent potential shortfalls in the cash flow, provided you place no withdrawal limits on these accounts.
Liquid assets include:
- Cash accounts (savings and current accounts),
- Investments,
- Pensions
Even tangible assets (entered on the Property/Assets screen) could be set to be liquidated automatically if needed to prevent future shortfalls, provided that the property is not one’s primary residence. We don't generally recommend doing this as selling a property would usually need to be an informed decision requiring actual planning, but to make a property/asset available for ad hoc liquidation, you must set its Advanced Settings > Liquidation setting to “When Needed”.
Other types of accounts have special rules or tax treatments are therefore never subject to ad hoc withdrawals.
How to Distinguish Ad Hoc from Planned Withdrawals in the Cash Flow Chart
As you examine the Cash Flow chart in its detailed view (by selecting Details top right of the chart), ad hoc withdrawals can be easily distinguished from scheduled withdrawals by their colour coding. Planned withdrawals are shown in a different colour from any ad hoc withdrawals taken by the software to help fulfil expenses.
Tip: In many client cases you may notice that in the later years of the cash flow, after retirement, as your client becomes more reliant on assets rather than income to meet expenses, withdrawals from savings and investments conveniently meet the top of the black need line. The need line represents your client’s total annual taxes, expenditure, and any planned savings and investments are being met successfully in that year of the plan. These inflows are ad hoc withdrawals taken from liquid assets as the software automatically tops up income to work out the annual cash flow.
Further details about withdrawals can be viewed by double clicking any bar/year of the chart or selecting Year View (top right of the chart). The chart details will display. Withdrawals and any withdrawal limits placed on accounts can be seen on the Investments and Pensions tabs, in the Withdrawals column. Click on the name of the account to see more information.