Question for the Quicken users here (I know there are a few...)
In the past couple years we have bought several I-Bonds and at the time I entered the purchase amounts as investments in Quicken. I haven't updated Quicken with any of the interest yet because we use the reports out of Quicken at year end to help us predict expected taxes so we can gains/loss harvest and do Roth conversions. I didn't want the interest showing as taxable income in those reports because it's only taxable when you cash in the bond. These are the only bonds we hold in taxable accounts so I've never encountered this issue before.
OTOH, as we continue purchasing and holding I-Bonds in the coming years, I can see how not entering the interest is going to throw our Asset Allocation reporting out of whack, because it is going to under-report our Bond holdings. How do other Quicken users here track I-Bonds and interest?
Here is how I do it. I wanted to be able to track them in my Interest Income report, my Asset Allocation report but not track them in my YTD Taxable Income report. Plus since both my wife and I have I Bonds I wanted to be able to track each individual I Bond for both me and my wife.
I first created an account in Investing named Treasury Direct - Name of Person. For example, Treasury Direct - Michael. I created it as a Brokerage Account and said it was not tax deferred and do not show cash in a checking account. Also you can add a tax schedule at the bottom to track Schedule B interest. I did not add any tax schedules to the account.
I then created a security for each separate I Bond each of us owns. I named each separate I Bond "I Bond - Date of I Bond when purchased - Name of Person. For Example, I Bond 110121 Michael. When creating the security
the Type: US Savings Bond, Asset Class: Created the name I Bonds, you can also add the Maturity Date at that time.
When an I Bond pays interest I record it in the Treasury Direct - Michael account, action: Reinvint Security: I Bond 110121 Michael.
I now create 4 reports. One name Deferred Bonds & CDs (All IRA or I Bond accounts and securities listed), Asset Allocation and YTD Taxable Income. I also track Deferred Bonds & CDs interest income in another report.
On the Deferred Bonds & CDs under Accounts I check the Treasury Direct - Michael account. On Categories I chose all except Not Categorized. There is a reason I had to uncheck Not Categorized but I don't remember why. On Securities chose all, on Actions Chose all, On Security Types, choose the types you want tracked, in this case I Bonds that you had previously created.
On the Asset Allocation report Choose on all fields. It creates the report by the asset classes you previously created when you created your security.
On the Taxable Income, choose Accounts you want to include, choose the categories you want to use but make sure you have chosen _DivInc and _IntInc. Make sure that the accounts you use in your Taxable Income report you have applied the Tax Schedules ScheduleB:Interest Income and ScheduleB:dividend income. Remember we did not do that in our Treasury Direct accounts.
I know initially this is a lot of work but once everything is set up then it's very simple. You just enter you interest on any CD, Bond, I Bond, Corporate Bond, etc and all the reports work as expected.
I hope I didn't miss anything in this convoluted explanation. Being very anal about stuff this helps me track each individual I Bonds interest right down to who's I Bond it is. I also can track individual CDs, Corporate Bonds, Treasury Bills, Cash, Money Market, EE Bonds, etc. Just create an asset class for what you want to track separately if one is not available.
I usually can figure out a way to have Quicken track anything I want. I buy a lot of discounted Gift Cards so I created a report to track those, I also track Points & Miles from all my credit card rewards, hotel and airlines. I even track the $ benefit amount of all these rewards when redeemed plus major coupons I've used, etc, etc, etc. Crazy, uh?
One last thing I keep all Bank Accounts, IRAs, Checking Accounts, everything under the Investing Tab. The only accounts under banking are my credit card accounts.
