What’s a sinking fund?
A sinking fund is money you set aside a little at a time so a big, predictable bill doesn’t blow up your month. Holdfast supports them as a special kind of goal.
The problem they solve
Some bills are annual or semi-annual: car insurance, property tax, AAA renewal, professional dues. They’re not surprises — you know when they’re coming — but they don’t fit cleanly into a monthly budget. The month they hit, you’re suddenly $600 over.
A sinking fund spreads the cost. Instead of paying $600 in one month, you set aside $50 each month for twelve months. When the bill arrives, the money is already there.
Example: car insurance, $600 annual
Setting one up in 30 seconds
During onboarding, the Bills step asks for due dates. Any bill marked as quarterly or annual automatically gets a sinking-fund prompt on the Goals step. You can accept the suggested monthly contribution or adjust it.
After commit, you can add or edit sinking funds from Settings → Goals. Hit “Add a goal”, check “this is a sinking fund”, and link it to the parent bill.
Each month, the sinking-fund contribution is part of the plan that carries over through the monthly ritual— the balance accumulates across periods, and zeroes out only when the parent bill is paid.
Why your dashboard says “covered the bill”
When the bill month finally arrives, you’ll see something like this on the dashboard:
From your /budget page in the bill month
That row replaces the usual “actual vs. planned” number with the plain phrase. There’s no contribution that month — the accumulated fund zeroed out paying the bill, and next month the sinking fund starts rebuilding for the next cycle.
Why it’s technical, not magic
Holdfast doesn’t move money — we don’t initiate transfers. The “sinking fund covered the bill” line means the math worked out: your goal-balance entering the period was at least the bill amount, and we account for the bill against that balance instead of against this month’s plan.
Sinking funds vs. regular goals
The product distinguishes between them:
- Regular goal— you contribute monthly toward something open-ended (Emergency fund, Vacation 2027). The balance accumulates indefinitely.
- Sinking fund— tied to a recurring bill. The balance resets each time the bill is paid.
Both appear on the dashboard’s Goal contributions card. Sinking funds carry a small annotation showing the parent bill — “from Car insurance.”