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Housing

Housing is the second section of the Builder. It holds your rent or mortgage at the top, and below it the fixed bills that come with a home — utilities, internet, insurance, HOA.

Why it's separate

Size. Housing is the largest committed cost in most budgets. Giving it its own section, with its own monthly total on the track at the top of the Builder, keeps it from getting buried among other bills.

It's the one line every budget has. The Housing section isn't complete until rent or mortgage has an amount. Everything else in the section is optional.

Reporting. Housing shows up as its own category on the home screen bill list and in the dashboard's category views, which is what you want for the line that's usually a third of your budget.

Rent or Mortgage

The first row in the section is your home payment. Tap it to open its sheet:

  • ›Home — choose Rent or Mortgage
  • ›Amount — the payment
  • ›Every — how often it's due
  • ›Next — the next due date
  • ›Last — leave it on No end, or set a date if a lease or loan ends

This row can't be deleted — only edited.

For a mortgage, enter the payment you actually send. If your lender escrows property taxes and insurance into one payment, use that full amount — it's the money that leaves your account.

The lines already in the list

A new Builder starts with three lines under rent or mortgage: Water, Electricity, and Wifi, all set to Monthly with the amount blank. Fill in your amounts, or swipe a line left and tap the trash if it doesn't apply to you. A line with a blank amount is marked with a dot and counts as unfinished, so Calculate won't run until you fill it in or remove it.

If you have a Thrive subscription that renews on a schedule, the Builder also adds a BetterBudgets line at your subscription's actual price and billing period — monthly, quarterly, or yearly — starting on your renewal date. If the price can't be determined, the amount is left blank for you to fill in. Free users and lifetime purchasers don't get this line, and once you delete it, it isn't added back.

Adding a bill

Tap Add bill to open a sheet. Each bill takes:

  • ›Name — a label you'll recognize, up to 13 characters
  • ›Amount — what you pay, as billed
  • ›Every — how often it recurs
  • ›From — when it starts
  • ›To — leave it on No end, or set the date it stops

The dates are what let the app place the payment on the right paycheck rather than assuming it falls on the 1st. This matters if you're paid weekly or biweekly: rent due on the 1st comes out of a specific check, and which check that is changes through the year.

Plan limits

On Free, bills and rent can only be Monthly, and the section holds up to 5 bills besides rent or mortgage — the add row shows how many you've used. Thrive removes the limit and adds Weekly, Biweekly, Quarterly, Yearly, and One Time. (In Australia and New Zealand the two-week option is called Fortnightly.) See What's Included with Thrive.

If you're planning a move or a purchase

Don't guess at a number you haven't committed to. Two calculators exist for exactly this:

Work out the figure there, then enter it here and rebuild to see what that housing cost does to your timeline before you sign anything.

If you already have a mortgage and you're wondering about paying it down faster, that's the Early Mortgage Payoff calculator.

What goes where

Bills that exist because you have a home belong here:

  • ›Utilities — water, electricity, gas
  • ›Internet
  • ›Renters or homeowners insurance billed separately
  • ›HOA dues

Everything else you pay on a schedule — groceries, gas for the car, phone, subscriptions — goes in Expenses. Your mortgage balance itself isn't a debt entry; enter only the payment here.

If your mortgage payment already escrows taxes and insurance, don't enter those again as separate bills — you'd be double-counting.

Next

Continue to Expenses.