Deductible Interest Tracker

Deposit To Brokerage

Use this event when you add personal cash to your brokerage account from an external source.

When to Use

Record this event when you deposit money from your bank account, savings, or any other personal source into your brokerage. This is cash that belongs to you—not borrowed from your credit line.

Common scenarios:

  • Transferring savings into your brokerage to supplement borrowed funds when purchasing securities
  • Depositing dividend income received outside the brokerage
  • Adding cash to cover trading fees without using borrowed funds

Do not use this for:

  • Transferring borrowed funds from your credit line to your brokerage (use "Borrowing To Invest" instead)

What You Enter

Date — The date the deposit arrived in your brokerage account.

Amount — The amount deposited. Must be a positive number.

What Happens

This is one of the simplest events in the app. The deposit increases your personal brokerage cash—nothing else changes.

Brokerage Account:

  • Personal Cash increases by the deposit amount
  • Total Brokerage Cash increases by the deposit amount

Credit Account:

  • No changes. Your debt balances, interest, and principal are unaffected.

Holdings:

  • No changes. Securities and their cost bases are unaffected.

Interest Deductibility:

  • No impact. Personal cash does not factor into interest deductibility calculations. It sits alongside borrowed cash in your brokerage but is tracked separately.

Example: Simple Deposit

You have $1,000 in personal cash and $5,000 in borrowed cash in your brokerage. You deposit $2,000 from your savings account.

Event: Deposit To Brokerage

  • Date: March 1
  • Amount: $2,000

Before:

  • Personal Cash: $1,000
  • Borrowed Cash: $5,000
  • Total Brokerage Cash: $6,000

After:

  • Personal Cash: $3,000
  • Borrowed Cash: $5,000 (unchanged)
  • Total Brokerage Cash: $8,000

Your borrowed balances and credit account are completely unaffected.

Example: Deposit Before a Purchase

You want to buy $10,000 of XAW.TO. Your brokerage has $4,000 in borrowed cash and $1,000 in personal cash. You deposit $5,000 first, then purchase.

Event 1: Deposit To Brokerage

  • Amount: $5,000

After deposit:

  • Personal Cash: $6,000
  • Borrowed Cash: $4,000
  • Total: $10,000

Event 2: Investment Purchase (XAW.TO, $10,000)

  • Borrowed amount: $4,000

After purchase:

  • Personal Cash: $0
  • Borrowed Cash: $0
  • XAW.TO cost base: $10,000 ($4,000 borrowed, $6,000 personal)

By depositing personal funds first, you controlled the funding mix of your purchase. Only $4,000 of the $10,000 investment is borrowed, so only interest on that portion is deductible.

Why Track Personal Deposits?

You might wonder why you need to record deposits of your own money. The reason is accurate cash tracking. The app needs to know the total cash in your brokerage to correctly handle purchases, withdrawals, and transfers. Without recording deposits, the app would undercount your available cash and you wouldn't be able to record transactions that use it.

Personal cash also matters when you:

  • Buy securities — You can specify how much comes from borrowed vs personal cash
  • Withdraw cash — The app defaults to withdrawing personal cash first
  • Transfer to credit — You choose the funding split between borrowed and personal

Common Questions

Does depositing personal cash affect my interest deductions? No. Personal cash has no effect on your credit account or interest deductibility. It's your money, tracked separately from borrowed funds.

What if I deposit money that was originally borrowed elsewhere? If the money came from a different credit line not tracked in this app, it's treated as personal cash here. This app tracks one credit-to-brokerage relationship. External borrowing is outside its scope.

Can I deposit a negative amount (withdraw)? No. Deposits must be positive. To take cash out of your brokerage, use "Brokerage Cash Withdrawal" or "Brokerage Transfer to Credit" instead.

What if I forgot to record a deposit and already recorded purchases? You can add the deposit with the correct historical date. The app will recompute all subsequent balances. If a purchase relied on cash that wasn't yet recorded, adding the deposit should resolve any balance validation issues.

Related Events

Borrowing To Invest — Transfer borrowed funds into your brokerage. Unlike a personal deposit, this creates debt and affects interest deductibility.

Investment Purchase — After depositing, use the available cash to purchase securities.

Brokerage Cash Withdrawal — The opposite of a deposit—take cash out of your brokerage.