Loans and mortgages are off-budget tracking accounts: they hold a balance you owe, and paying them down improves your net worth. Add the terms and you also get a payoff projection.
Adding a loan
- Open Accounts and choose Add account.
- Set the type to Loan or Mortgage.
- Enter the current balance you owe as the opening balance.
Earmarkr creates a payment category for the loan automatically, in a "Loan Payments" group. You budget into that category monthly, and payments draw it down. It's ordinary spending — there's no reserve mechanic like credit cards, because the balance itself is the record.
Adding terms
On the account's detail page, fill in:
- Original principal — what you originally borrowed, not the current balance.
- Interest rate — the annual rate.
- Term — length in months (30 years = 360).
- Scheduled payment — your regular payment.
- Origination date and first payment date.
For a mortgage, enter both the principal & interest portion and the total payment. Earmarkr derives escrow as the difference and shows it live as you type.
Escrow is derived rather than stored because it changes over time — your taxes and insurance move every year, and a stored figure would quietly go stale.
Reading the payoff view
Two projections, side by side:
The contractual schedule — what happens if you pay exactly the scheduled amount: payoff date, total interest, and the full amortization table.
Your actual projection — your real payments replayed against the terms, then amortized forward. Each payment covers accrued interest first, and the remainder reduces principal.
The gap between them is the point. Paying extra shows up as an earlier payoff date and interest saved.
The payments used are the real transfers into the loan account — not a separate list you maintain. Record payments as transfers and the projection follows.
A caveat on mortgages and extra payments
Because escrow is derived as payment minus principal & interest, a mortgage payment above the scheduled amount is currently treated as extra escrow, not extra principal.
So if you overpay a mortgage to attack the principal, the projection won't yet reflect it. Plain loans (with no escrow) don't have this issue — extra payments reduce principal as you'd expect.
Why my balance doesn't match my lender
Two usual causes:
Imported from YNAB. A YNAB loan with payment history exports without its accrued interest, so the imported balance undercounts. See why YNAB loan balances need confirming.
Interest accruing between payments. Earmarkr's balance is the sum of your transactions. If interest posts but you haven't recorded it, the balance lags. Record it as a transaction on the loan account, or reconcile against your lender's statement.
Loans in the debt planner
Loans are included in the debt payoff plan by default, using their terms for rate and minimum payment.
Mortgages are excluded by default — most people don't want a 30-year mortgage dominating the plan — but you can opt one in from the planner.
Paying it off
When the balance reaches $0.00, close the account: open it and choose Close. It disappears from lists and pickers while keeping its history for your reports.
The payment category is removed if it has no history, or archived if it does.