This video provides a tutorial on entering a savings account and setting a minimum balance in the Voyant software.
Transcript
To enter a savings account into the plan, start in the Dashboard at the top and click the plus button in the bottom-right. Here, select Savings & Investments → Savings.
Make sure the owner of the savings account is correct. If it’s jointly owned, you can select another person in this window. Enter the name of the savings account and the current balance at the start of the Voyant plan.
The Interest Rate is entered in this section. The default value is taken from your plan settings, so it’s a good idea to review the plan settings before building a case. You can also change the interest rate for this individual account here if needed.
Next, we’ll enter a Contribution. Contributions can be set as:
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a fixed amount,
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an amount increasing with inflation, or
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a percentage of income.
In this example, I’ll enter $100 every month. Change the frequency from annually to monthly.
Keep in mind, for a contribution to be made, there must be available surplus money in the plan. In this case, I’ve already entered their employment income, which sits above the black line in Cash Flow, so there is surplus money available to save—and this is where it’s going.
In Timing, we’ll set when the contribution starts and stops. For this example, I’ll have it start now and end at Julia’s retirement.
Now, let’s look at Withdrawal Limits. Here you can change how the account is accessed in the plan. I’ll demonstrate by setting a Minimum Balance. If I put in $20,000, this amount will remain ring-fenced in the plan. Money above $20,000 can be spent if needed, but the plan will never withdraw from that $20,000 reserve, even in the event of a shortfall. Essentially, this sets up an emergency fund.
Click Save.
Now, with the details entered, we can see the light blue portion of the chart representing this savings account being used when needed in retirement.
In Year View, click on Investments to see all savings and investment accounts, along with end-of-year balances, contributions, and withdrawals for each year.
If I click on the name of the account, I can see more details. I set up a contribution of $1,200 per year—that’s the $100 monthly contribution. The plan did make that contribution, so we can confirm it here. The growth rate is 1%, as I set it, and since there are no fees on savings accounts in my plan settings, it’s a net 1%. In this year, there are no withdrawals, and we can see the end-of-year balance.
If I scroll ahead to the retirement years, we can see money being used in the plan. Notice that even when there is a shortfall, the plan does not withdraw the $20,000 minimum balance. That amount stays protected, although the plan does take out the interest earned on it.