<klink type="trbls">Troubleshoot the Purchase Wizard</klink>
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<p>What are you having trouble with?</p>
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<tease>I don't understand where the Purchase Wizard get its information.</tease>
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<p>The Purchase Wizard bases its analysis and suggestions on information you've entered about your savings and investment accounts (except for retirement and dependents' accounts), bank accounts, and cash accounts. It also uses information you've entered about your credit card interest rates. If you want to use different figures, you can edit the information in the Purchase Wizard. Your changes won't affect the rest of your Money file.</p>
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<tease>I can't find what I want to buy on the <emph>What do you want to finance </emph>list?</tease>
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<p>Use the closest match. The Purchase Wizard focuses on the general type of purchase you want to make and how much it costs. For example, if you want to buy a kayak, click <emph>Buying a boat</emph>; if you want to buy an RV, click <emph>Buying a car</emph>. If you don't see a good match, click <emph>Other</emph>.</p>
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<tease>I want to use the Purchase Wizard, but I haven't set up a budget in Money.</tease>
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<p>No problem. The Purchase Wizard does not look at your budget, but rather at how much you would have to save to make the purchase within the time frame you specified. To figure out how you could cut expenses to save that amount, go to the Budget Planner.</p>
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<tease>I need to find a way to pay for the college costs coming up this year.</tease>
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<p>You can use the Purchase Wizard to do this. In contrast to the Lifetime Planner, where you might be planning for college costs farther out in the future, you can use the Purchase Wizard to help you figure out the best option for coming up with the money for this year's expenses.</p>
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<tease>I'm not sure if I should include the down payment in the cost of buying a new car.</tease>
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<p>If you know you want to pay the dealer cash for the car, include the down payment in the total cost. If you plan to get a loan, use the Purchase Wizard twice: once for the down payment (so that you can figure out the best way to raise that cash) and again for the remaining amount (so that you can understand more about the costs of taking out the loan).</p>
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<tease>I can't decide if I should take out a margin loan.</tease>
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<p>Margin loans can be a quick and easy source of ready cash. But you can borrow only half the value of the investments you put up as security for the loan, and if your investments lose value you may have to come up with cash in a hurry to cover the loan. For example, if you want to borrow $5,000, you have to put up $10,000 in investments as collateral. If your investments' prices fall, you have to either pledge more investments as collateral or come up with enough money<mdash/>right away<mdash/>to bring your loan into line with the lower value of your investments.</p>
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<tease>I don't understand why I need to think about paying taxes when I'm thinking about buying something.</tease>
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<p>If you sell an investment to buy something else, and you sell the investment for more than you paid, you have a <glossary>capital gain</glossary> and will need to pay taxes on that gain. Those taxes are an extra cost of making your purchase, and that's why you need to think about taxes when you're figuring out how to buy a big-ticket item. On the other hand, if you have to sell some of your investments at a loss, those losses can reduce your overall capital gains, thereby reducing your capital gains tax. <alink type="cncpt" href="UnderstandTaxImplicationsOfCapitalGainsCashFinder.xml"/></p>
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<tease>The Purchase Wizard seems to think I have a lot more (or a lot less) high-interest debt than I think I have.</tease>
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<p>In the Purchase Wizard, high-interest debt reflects Money's total for your current balances on credit cards. If you haven't entered all your balances in Money, or if you think of high-interest debt in some other way, Money's figures and yours may not agree. If you want, you can edit Money's figure.</p>
