On-budget vs. off-budget

Every account in Climb is one or the other, and the difference decides whether its money flows through your envelopes.

On-budget: money you spend from

Checking, savings, credit cards, and cash are on-budget (Climb calls them spending accounts). Their balances are the money you assign to categories, and every transaction in them draws an envelope down or fills one up.

A useful way to think about it: your budget doesn't care which account money sits in. Checking and savings are one pool of dollars wearing different account names. The envelopes say what the dollars are for; the accounts just say where they're parked.

Off-budget: money you keep an eye on

Investments, loans, mortgages, and property are off-budget. They matter enormously to your financial life, but you don't spend groceries out of your 401(k), so they stay out of your envelopes. Climb tracks them for net worth and long-term planning instead.

Money you send to an off-budget account (a loan payment, an investment contribution) is still budgeted like any expense: give it a category, fund the category, done.

The rule of thumb

If the money is for spending, it's on-budget. If it's for growing (investments, property) or owing (loans, mortgages), it's off-budget.