Goals

Curl Budget's Goals feature helps you track progress toward your savings targets. Whether you're saving for an emergency fund, a vacation, or retirement, Goals gives you visibility into how much you've saved and when you'll reach your target.

How Goals Work

Goals track your progress toward a savings target by monitoring the balances of your linked accounts. You define:

Target amount - How much you want to save
Target date (optional) - When you want to reach your goal
Accounting method - How to calculate progress (see below)

Curl Budget automatically calculates your current progress and projects when you'll reach your goal based on your savings rate.

Accounting Methods

Goals support two different ways to track progress:

Account-Based Goals

Link a goal to specific accounts and allocate percentages. This is ideal when you have dedicated savings accounts.

Example: Emergency Fund

Link your "High-Yield Savings" account at 100%
Your goal progress = account balance

Example: Mixed Allocation

Link "Savings Account" at 50%
Link "Investment Account" at 50%
Your goal progress = 50% of each account's balance

When to use:

You have a dedicated savings account for this goal
You want to track a portion of an account toward a specific goal
Multiple goals share the same account (each with different percentages)

Net Value Goals

Track a percentage of your total unallocated net worth. This is ideal when your savings are spread across multiple accounts or you don't want to designate specific accounts.

Example:

Set your Emergency Fund goal to 25% of net worth
As your overall net worth grows, your goal progress increases

When to use:

Your savings are distributed across many accounts
You prefer a holistic view of your financial progress
You don't want to micromanage account allocations

Allocation Constraints

To ensure goals represent real allocations:

Account-based: Each account can have at most 100% allocated across all goals
Net value: All net value goal percentages must sum to 100% or less

If you try to exceed these limits, Curl Budget will show an error.

Progress Tracking

Current Progress

Each goal shows:

Current amount - How much you've saved toward this goal
Percent complete - Progress as a percentage (e.g., 75%)
Progress bar - Visual indicator that transitions from blue to gold as you approach 100%

Projected Completion Date

If you have sufficient balance history (at least a few weeks of data), Curl Budget projects when you'll reach your goal based on:

Your average monthly savings rate
The remaining amount to save

The projection updates as your savings pattern changes.

Investment Account Insights

For goals linked to investment accounts, you can see:

Contributions - How much you've added to the account
Market gain/loss - How investments have performed

This helps you understand whether your progress comes from active saving or market growth.

Managing Goals

Creating a Goal

Go to Organize → Goals tab
Tap the "+" button
Enter goal details:
- Name (e.g., "Emergency Fund")
- Target amount
- Target date (optional)
- Choose accounting method
Configure allocations:
- Account-based: Select accounts and percentages
- Net value: Enter percentage of net worth
Choose an icon and color
Save

Editing a Goal

Tap a goal in the Goals list
Modify name, target, date, or allocations
Save changes

Reallocating Percentages

When you need to adjust how goals share account allocations:

Tap "Reallocate" when editing a goal
Adjust sliders for all goals sharing that account
The total must stay at or below 100%
Confirm to save all changes

Goal Status

Goals have three statuses:

Active - Currently tracking progress
Inactive - Paused, not shown in main progress views
Complete - Target reached

Mark a goal complete when you've achieved it to keep your goals list focused.

Deleting a Goal

Deleting a goal removes it from tracking. Your account balances are not affected—only the goal record is removed.

Goals vs. Budgets

Goals and Budgets serve different purposes:

Feature	Goals	Budgets
Purpose	Track savings toward a target	Limit spending in a period
Direction	Accumulation (building up)	Constraint (staying under)
Time frame	Long-term (months/years)	Short-term (weekly/monthly)
Based on	Account balances	Transaction amounts

Use budgets to control spending. Use goals to track savings.

Tips for Effective Goal Setting

Start with One Goal

Begin with your most important savings goal. Add more as you get comfortable with the feature.

Use Realistic Targets

Set targets you can actually reach. An achievable goal is motivating; an impossible one is discouraging.

Review Progress Monthly

Check your goal progress monthly to stay motivated and adjust savings if needed.

Celebrate Milestones

The progress bar turns gold as you approach 100%. Celebrate when you hit major milestones like 50% or 75%.

Budgeting - Control spending to free up money for goals
Cash Flow Report - Understand your savings capacity
Accounts - Manage the accounts that fund your goals