When you buy stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies, your cash balance doesn't actually decrease. It's simply a virtual operation where you've exchanged money for securities or cryptocurrencies. Only the subsequent price movement of your asset (up or down) impacts the value of your money, which you'll see in your Wallet statistics.
How to make an asset purchase an expense in Wallet
If you have a long-term investment plan and therefore consider the current purchase of an asset as an expense, and you wish to reflect this in Wallet, follow these steps:
Android
Exclude investments from statistics:
- Tap "≡" in the top left.
- Select "Investments."
- Choose the investment account you want to edit.
- Tap the editing pen in the upper right corner to adjust: Exclude from stats.
This ensures that purchases/sales won't affect your overall statistics.
Mark the money transfer as an expense:
Before purchasing an asset, you typically transfer money (e.g., from your bank account to your broker's account). Do not mark this transaction as a transfer. Instead, open this transaction in Wallet, mark it as an Expense at the top, and then save it.
Adjust available cash:
If you manage asset purchases this way (viewing them as expenses), you'll also want to adjust the available cash in your investment account.
- Tap "≡" in the top left.
- Select "Investments."
- Tap the editing pen next to "Available cash" to adjust it.
- Choose the option: Adjust balance with record - set to 0.
iOS
Exclude investments from statistics:
- In the main list of accounts, select the investment account you want to edit.
- Select Edit to adjust: Exclude from stats.
This ensures that purchases/sales won't affect your overall statistics.
Mark the money transfer as an expense:
Before purchasing an asset, you typically transfer money (e.g., from your bank account to your broker's account). Do not mark this transaction as a transfer. Instead, open this transaction in Wallet, mark it as an Expense at the top, and then save it.
Adjust available cash:
If you manage asset purchases this way (viewing them as expenses), you'll also want to adjust the available cash in your investment account.
- In the main list of accounts, select the investment account you want to edit.
- Tap the editing pen next to "Available cash" to adjust it.
- Choose the option: Adjust balance with record - set to 0.
Web App
The Web App is read-only for this functionality. Adjustments must be made on a mobile device.
Example Scenario:
John buys an ETF with a long-term investment horizon (30 years). He currently views the ETF purchase as an expense (saving for retirement). John uses a "Buy and Hold" strategy, and since he buys the ETF for the same amount every month, he utilizes a Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) strategy.
John has a standing order set up in his bank account, sending the same amount to his broker's account each month. He then immediately uses this money in the broker's account to buy the ETF, leaving no free cash available in the broker account.
To reflect his behavior in Wallet, he follows the steps described above:
- He excludes investments from his statistics.
- He marks the money transfer from his account to the broker's account as an expense.
- He manually sets the available cash in his investment account to 0.