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Goals

A goal gives an envelope or an account a finish line: save $3,000 for the trip, keep dining under $200 a month, pay off the card. Climb tracks progress from your real balances, so a goal is never a separate number you have to maintain.

Three kinds

  • Savings: a target amount, with an optional target date, linked to the categories or accounts doing the saving. Money you budget there counts toward it automatically.
  • Spending limit: a ceiling instead of a target. The goal watches spending in its linked categories and shows how much room is left.
  • Debt payoff: pick the debts you want to pay down, and the goal tracks the balance falling. Credit card debt from before you started budgeting gets one of these created automatically.

Progress is read, not written

Goals don't hold money and don't need updating. Progress is computed live from the linked envelopes and accounts: budget into the Vacation category and the vacation goal moves, pay the card and the payoff goal moves. If you delete a linked category later, the goal simply stops counting that source; nothing breaks.

Where you'll see them

Progress shows up right where the money is: on budget rows while you're assigning, and beside the account you're looking at in the Logbook. A goal is a lens over your real numbers, not a separate place to check.

When a goal is done

Finished goals move to your past goals instead of vanishing, so the history of what you saved for stays part of your story.

Related: The Climb method · How credit cards work

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