New Car Loan Questions

No. I believe you specify the opening balance during the account creation dialog.

Only if you want to track the value of the car.

John, thanks for the reply. It seems that the car and the loan should indeed be associated. I set up the loan first without an associated asset, then I created the asset account (the car) and associated it with the existing loan. When you create the asset account Quicken asks if there is an associated loan thus linking the asset and the loan.

Don

You don't have to have an asset account at all.

If you *want* an asset account (if you *want* to track the value of the asset that you took out the loan to buy - which is not necessary), and you neglect to have Quicken create the asset account when you create the loan account in the Loan Wizard ... you can create the asset account later, and link the two ... as you have noticed.

So it does not matter whether you have an asset account for the loan or not, to Quicken .

As you say, it's not necessary (as far as Quicken is concerned) to create an asset account, but it does help your net worth picture to create one.

Which is why, when you asked in your first post:

"Or do I even need a linked asset account for the loan?",

I answered:

"Only if you want to track the value of the car".

I then naturally assumed that aspect of the discussion was complete.