Expenses
Expense entries represent recurring outgoings in your plan — living costs, loan repayments, holidays, and anything else you expect to pay regularly. Tally Up uses these alongside your income to project your future financial position.
Like income, expenses are planning inputs for the forecast — they represent what you expect to spend, not a record of what has already been spent.
Adding an expense
Section titled “Adding an expense”Go to the Expenses section and tap Add.
Fields
Section titled “Fields”A label for this expense — for example, “Mortgage”, “Living Costs”, or “School Fees”.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| General | Day-to-day or recurring living costs |
| Car | Vehicle-related costs (insurance, fuel, maintenance) |
| Holiday | Travel and holiday spending |
| Loan | Loan or credit repayments |
The type is used for display purposes. It does not change how the expense is calculated in the forecast.
Amount and frequency
Section titled “Amount and frequency”Enter the amount per payment and how often it occurs — monthly, quarterly, annually, or another interval.
Growth rate
Section titled “Growth rate”How the expense changes over time:
- Index linked — increases with inflation
- Fixed — increases at a rate you specify (or zero for no change)
Start year
Section titled “Start year”When this expense begins:
- Plan start — from the beginning of the plan
- Custom year — a specific year you choose (useful for future costs such as school fees or a planned purchase)
End year
Section titled “End year”When this expense stops:
- Plan end — runs for the full forecast period
- Custom year — a specific year (useful for loan repayments or time-limited costs)
The person responsible for this expense. This affects which funding rules apply and how the expense interacts with that person’s income in the forecast.
How expenses affect the forecast
Section titled “How expenses affect the forecast”Expenses reduce the available cash in your plan each year. The forecast subtracts projected expenses from projected income and draws from your assets to cover any shortfall, following your Funding Rules.
- Model broad categories rather than every individual bill. A single “Living Costs” entry at an honest monthly figure is easier to maintain and reason about than dozens of small entries.
- Use index-linked growth for costs that track inflation (food, utilities, services). Use a fixed rate for costs with known escalation, such as a loan with a fixed interest rate.
- Set a realistic end year for temporary costs. A loan that finishes in 2031 should not run to the end of the plan.