A goal puts a target and a date on money you already set aside: an emergency fund, a trip, a cushion in a savings account. A goal never holds money of its own. It uses a category, a Plan and, for some kinds, an account you already have, or creates them for you. Goals are free for every household.
The three kinds
Tap +, then Goal, and pick one. Or tap Add a goal in the Goals section of Budget, or Make this a goal on a category's sheet or a savings account's screen.
- Save for a date. An amount by a date: a trip, a car, a deposit. It is for a one-time target. Forward makes a one-time Plan on that date with Save toward it on. A category that already has a repeating Plan can't take it, because that Plan already saves for each time it comes round; you can still build a cushion there.
- Build a cushion. A balance you build and keep, in a category or in a savings account. A date is optional.
- Emergency fund. A cushion measured in months of your spending. Forward works out the amount.
Pay off debt is the fourth row. It isn't a row in the Goals section; see Paying off debt.
Example. The Riveras save $3,000.00 for a trip to Oaxaca by 07/15/2027, and $450.00 a month into an Emergency fund.
The Emergency fund's target
Pick how many months of spending to cover (3 is shown first). The target is those months times your average monthly spending over the last three months that have ended. The dialog shows its basis, such as "3 × $3,520.52, your average spending over Jul–Sep". Transfers, your goal categories and money moved into your savings and investment accounts are not counted as spending.
- A budget with only one or two ended months averages those.
- With no ended month yet, Forward can't suggest a target. Type one instead.
- You can always type a target instead of using the suggestion; a target you type stays as you typed it.
- Forward stores the target when you save the goal and works it out again at each month-end Review, where it shows the new figure and the old one.
The monthly Plan
A cushion or Emergency fund asks for a monthly amount, a saving Plan. Forward asks for it every month until the goal is reached, even though the money stays in its category, and asks for nothing once it is. (A cushion measured by a savings account keeps asking until you end its Plan.) In a paycheck's plan, each goal's line carries a Goal mark and is spread across the month's remaining paychecks. $450.00 a month with two paychecks left in October is $225.00 on each. Adding a goal assigns the first month's amount. Nothing is funded until you confirm each paycheck.
Where you see it
- The Goals section of Budget: each goal with a bar, a status and one line, such as "$0.00 of $3,000.00 · by 07/15/2027".
- A category's sheet has a Goal section with the same, plus Edit goal and Archive goal.
- The Overview has a Goals card, with Open Goals.
- The month-end Review has a Goals group, one line for each goal.
What the status means
- On track. Saved so far is at or ahead of the straight pace to the target.
- Behind $150.00. The amount you are short of that pace. If Trip to Oaxaca should have $300.00 by November 1 and has $150.00, it reads Behind $150.00.
- Reached. The category, or the account's balance, is at least the target.
- Date passed. A Save for a date goal after its date.
- Progress never shows below $0.00.
A savings-account goal is measured by the account's balance. Before its start month it reads as not started.
The levers
When a dated goal is behind, you can change the plan. Nothing changes until you tap Apply on the category sheet, or confirm the Review.
- Keep the date. Raise the monthly amount so the goal still arrives by its date. The figure shown is the least whole-cent amount that gets there, an estimate: for Trip, $316.67 a month from November. After you apply it, your paychecks ask $316.66 a month, because the paycheck proposal rounds down and the odd cents are asked in the last month.
- Move the date. Keep the original monthly amount ($300.00 for Trip) and let the date move later: for Trip, to 08/15/2027.
Applying a lever changes the Plan or the date, not Funded money. It then re-bases the pace: from that month on, the goal is paced as the amount still to save over the months left, so it reads On track while you follow the new figure. After Move the date, that is $285.00 a month for Trip ($2,850.00 over 10 months). The month's Assigned follows at the next Review.
When a goal's date passes
A Save for a date goal reads Date passed from the day after its date. The month-end Review asks: Archive goal, which keeps the category, its money and its Plan, or Not now, and asks again at the next Review. Forward changes nothing until you choose. Moving the date later makes the goal dated again.
A cushion that reaches its target also asks you at the Review: end the Plan, raise the target, or move the monthly amount to the next goal's Plan.
What to do
To add a goal:
- On Budget, tap +, then Goal.
- Pick a kind and fill in the target, date or months, and Each month.
- Read When you save. It lists what will be created and assigned.
- Tap Save goal.
To change one, open its category and tap Edit goal. To stop one, tap Archive goal; the category and its money stay.