6100expenseNormal balance: Debitpersonal6100 — Housing
Housing is usually the biggest single expense category most households have — rent, HOA dues, home maintenance and repairs, property tax if it is not escrowed separately, and the mortgage payment itself if you choose to track the whole thing here rather than splitting principal off to the Loans liability.
As an expense, it carries a normal debit balance. Whether to track a full mortgage payment here or split it — principal reducing Loans (2700), interest landing in Interest Paid (6700) — is a genuine judgment call; many people simply track the whole payment here for simplicity rather than splitting it every month.
This account is worth reading as a percentage of income more than as a raw number on its own — housing costs tend to scale with what a household earns and where it lives, so the dollar figure alone tells you less than how much of total income it is actually consuming.
What belongs here
- rent payments
- HOA dues
- home maintenance and repairs
- property tax, if not escrowed separately
- a full mortgage payment, if tracked here rather than split against the Loans liability
What does not belong here
- utility bills — Utilities (6150) on this personal chart
- homeowner's or renter's insurance — Insurance (6300)
- a home purchase or major renovation that adds real value — arguably an asset, though this personal chart has no account to track home value at all, a real gap worth knowing about
Where it shows up
Shows on the personal income statement, usually the largest single line for most households. Worth tracking as a share of income rather than as a raw dollar amount alone.
Common questions
- Should I split my mortgage payment between principal and interest?
- You can, with principal reducing the Loans liability (2700) and interest landing in Interest Paid (6700), but many people simply track the full payment here for simplicity. Either works if applied consistently.
- Does this account track how much my house is worth?
- No — this personal chart has no account for home value as an asset at all. It only tracks what you spend on housing, not what the home itself is worth.