Housing

Housing gets its own section in the Builder, separate from Expenses. It takes a Rent or Mortgage selection, an amount, a frequency, and due dates.

Why it's separate

Three reasons, all practical:

Size. Housing is the largest committed cost in most budgets. Isolating it means the plan can report on it directly rather than burying it in a pile of other bills.

Rent and a mortgage aren't the same thing. Rent is pure cost. A mortgage payment includes principal, which reduces a balance you owe — that makes it structurally closer to a debt than to a utility bill, and the algorithm can treat it accordingly.

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

Pick whichever applies. If you rent, enter your rent payment. If you own, enter the mortgage payment.

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

Amount, frequency, and dates

Alongside the amount you'll set a frequency and the relevant dates — when the payment starts and, where applicable, when it ends. 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 bi-weekly. Rent due on the 1st comes out of a specific check, and which check that is changes through the year.

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:

• ›Rent Affordability — a comfortable rent range from your income and location
• ›Mortgage Calculator — a full payment estimate including mortgage insurance and home insurance

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 doesn't go here

Only the rent or mortgage payment itself. Related costs belong in Expenses:

• ›Renters or homeowners insurance billed separately
• ›Utilities
• ›HOA dues
• ›Maintenance

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

Next

Continue to Expenses.