cash: asset alloc vs checking/savings accounts

I think not including Quicken "Cash Flow" accounts in asset allocation makes sense: if your asset allocation strategy called for increasing your Large Cap Stock holdings and decreasing your Cash holdings, would you even consider taking the cash from your Christmas savings account to buy shares of "Large Corporation"? Put another way, I think that funds that you would never use to meet asset allocation targets should not be part of your asset allocation reporting.

But Quicken is versatile enough to allow you to include that Christmas savings account in your asset allocation ... if you tell Quicken that the account is an "investment" account, instead of a "cash flow" account. In the Account List, on the Manage Accounts tab, select the account, then click the "Change Group" button.

hi - tnx for the tip - yeah... sometimes you want things treated the same, and sometimes not :) Like I don't even include our 529 accounts as part of the portfolio. I guess it's more like liquid assets vs long term hold.

from a Quicken point of view - it seems like I need some "mods".

for "cash" - it can handled and accounted in a couple of different ways.

SO - If we strictly go with the asset category of "cash", to determine how much cash we have on hand for investing, or other immediate needs, then it becomes misleading with respect to the "partial holdings" of some mutual funds...

If we moive the checking/savings accts into the Quicken group for cashflow management, then we loose the "asset report", plus there is no way to move a specific MM mutual fund up to that area.

Therefore - we are stuck with having the checking/savings "above the line" and the MM mutual funds "below the line" and hidden from the cash view. As far as the partial holdings... since we can't get to that cash anyway, it only means something with respect to risk management vs liquid assets.