We’ve completely reimagined how Goals work in Monarch to make saving and paying down debt simpler, smarter, and more accurate. Goals 3.0 is more than just a visual refresh — it’s a new foundation for managing your financial priorities in one place. It’s a big change, but we think you’ll love it once you settle in!

For detailed information on each new Goals feature, see below:

• Using Save Up Goals
• Using Pay Down Goals

Table of Contents

• What's New in Goals 3.0
• Migrating from Goals 2.0 to Goals 3.0
• Fund Allocations: A Smarter Way to Move Money
• Understanding the New Layout
• Where to Go Next
• FAQs

What’s New in Goals 3.0

1. Save up and pay down with two distinct experiences

At the highest level, save up and pay down goals are now separate features.

Because the mechanics of saving versus debt payoff are fundamentally different, we redesigned each to deliver the best experience, free from the constraints of the other.

You can now save for what’s next and track your progress toward becoming debt-free — all within the Goals area.

2. Save up goals are smarter

Save up goals have been rebuilt for clarity, flexibility, and smarter progress tracking.

• Smarter projections for save up goals

  When you add a target amount, target date, and monthly contribution to a savings goal, Monarch can now calculate whether you’re on track, ahead, or at risk — and even tell you by how far you’re ahead or behind.

• Simplified account management

  Managing accounts linked to goals is now simpler and more flexible. Instead of turning on accounts per goal, you now manage them globally, by toggling them on or off in one area. You can opt to “Use the entire balance and future activity” for one goal, and always see at a glance how much is available or allocated from each account.

  Your Available for goals amount now appears front and center, showing exactly how much of your account balances are still unallocated.

• Two spending modes

  When creating a savings goal, you’ll see an option for Spending reduces goal progress:

  • Turn this on for goals you want to refill (like an emergency fund)
  • Leave it off for one-time spending goals (like a vacation)

• Allocating funds

  Moving money between accounts and savings goals is now more flexible and transparent, without the need to manually link transactions to goals or use rules.

  Use funds allocation to move money into a goal (a contribution) or out of a goal (a withdrawal) to reflect how funds are being used.

• Spend from a goal

  You can spend from a goal by linking a spending transaction (like airline tickets) to the goal. This lets you use the money you’ve already saved without distorting your monthly budget.

3. Pay down goals are now automatic

The debt experience has been fully rebuilt to align with how debt payoff works in practice. Monarch will now automatically recognize liability accounts in the pay down section.

• Debt payoff projection

  Add the APR/interest rates and the minimum or planned monthly payments to see a debt payoff projection for each account, showing both principal and interest over time, as well as your estimated debt-free date.

• Debt savings calculator

  You can now calculate how much you’ll save by paying off your debt faster and lowering interest expenses — right in goals! You can run scenarios to see how much sooner goals can be paid off with additional monthly payments or lump sum payments, using either planned payments or the avalanche or snowball methods.

• More accurate budgeting

  You can now budget for pay down goals using a regular expense category. Link your outgoing payment transactions to that category to include them in your monthly plan.

Migrating from Goals 2.0 to 3.0

If you’ve used goals before, you’ll see a banner to start the migration flow the first time you open the page. For save up goals, your existing goal information will carry over, though your transaction history will become fund allocations. For pay down goals, you’ll enjoy a more automated experience and a significantly different overall setup.

How to migrate

Note: Migration must be done on web; once you've migrated, the new experience will be on mobile as well.

Follow these steps to migrate your data:

1. From the Goals page on web, you’ll see a welcome banner at the top inviting you to check out the new version. Click Learn More to continue.
   
2. Read about the redesigned experience and click Start Update.
3. Migrate your save up goals:
   • Review the changes to save up goals and click Continue.
   • From here, review your existing goals that will migrate to the save up section. Choose to keep everything the same, or make changes. Optional: set a target date.
   • Click Continue to save your new save up goals.
4. Migrate your pay down goals:
   • Review the changes to pay down goals and click Continue.
   • From here, review the list of liability accounts that you already have connected to Monarch. Select the ones you wish to see in the pay down Goals area. Click Continue.
   • Optional: set the APR/interest rate, minimum monthly payment, and planned monthly payment. You can leave this blank and add it later if you wish. Click Continue.
5. Click Complete Update to finish the migration and take a deep breath — you did it!

An important note on migration:

When migrating from the old version of goals to the new version, the timeline chart (which is a new feature and did not exist on the old page) will only show data from the migration date forward. It won't display any pre-migration data.

Why? The old version had significant limitations in tracking goal activities, making it impossible to fully reconstruct historical data on a chart. However, all activity types tracked in the old version are still reflected in the activities list. This includes any transactions that were linked to a goal, which are now represented as fund allocations. Note that the old version didn't track manual adjustments to allocated amounts or balance changes when using the entire account balance option.

Fund Allocations: A Smarter Way to Move Money

Meet fund allocations, a new way to move money between your accounts and goals with clarity and control. Fund allocations make it easy to add money to a goal when you save more than planned, move money out of a goal when you’re ready to spend, or shift funds between goals as priorities change. Every allocation you make is instantly reflected in your balances and progress, so your goals always match your real financial picture.

Why goal fund allocations are powerful

• Transparent: You’ll always see exactly where your money is coming from and going to.
• Flexible: Move money anytime — no waiting for transactions to post or rules to trigger.
• Simple: One clear action replaces multiple manual steps, with built-in balance checks to keep things accurate.

Allocations are the most direct, intuitive way to keep your financial plan aligned with real-world activity.

NOTE: Based on member feedback, transaction linking is coming soon!

Understanding the New Layout

Goals 3.0 introduces a few navigation changes:

Where to Go Next

Now that you’ve upgraded to Goals 3.0, here’s where to learn more:

• Using Save Up Goals in Monarch: Create, fund, and track savings goals with fund allocations and budget integration.
• Using Pay Down Goals in Monarch: Track loan balances, project payoff timelines, and simulate extra payments.

FAQs

• Why did Monarch change Goals? Can I go back to the old version?
• Why is Goals in public beta, and what does that mean? Why not make it part of Labs?
•  Do I have to migrate my goals right away?
• Will I lose my old goals or history?
• What happened to rules?
• Can I still link income or transfer transactions to goals?
• Do I need to reselect my goal accounts?

Why did Monarch change Goals? Can I go back to the old version?

We know change can be hard, especially if you had a setup that worked perfectly for you. Goals 3.0 was built from the feedback of thousands of members who wanted clearer tracking, better budget integration, and support for spending from credit cards and more account types.

The new system focuses on your real account balances and progress rather than individual transactions, giving you more accuracy and flexibility. After you explore the new tools, we think you’ll find they make saving and tracking goals easier than ever.

Once you’ve moved to Goals 3.0, your data lives in the new system, so reverting isn’t possible.

Why is Goals in public beta, and what does that mean? Why not make it part of Labs?

Goals 3.0 is in public beta because it’s ready for real use, but still evolving.

You’ll find that this version of Goals is already rich with new functionality, smarter tracking, and design improvements. But there’s more to come, and public beta lets us gather your feedback as we finish building out the full experience.

Unlike Labs features, which are more experimental, public beta means this version of Goals is stable and supported — just not yet final. Beta improvements are shipping regularly and the experience will continue to evolve.

If you’d rather wait for the complete rollout, that’s perfectly fine too. The full experience will be available early next year, once all planned features are released.

Do I have to migrate my goals right away?

You can skip migration temporarily, but your old goals will eventually need to be moved to the new system.

Will I lose my old goals or history?

For save up goals, you won’t lose any history. Everything carries forward automatically. You can still view historical data once migration is complete.

For pay down goals, budgeting works differently — they now appear as regular expenses rather than goal contributions.

What happened to rules?

Rules no longer include a “Link to goal” action. To make your goals experience the best yet, you will now use account balances and fund allocations

We plan on adding improved automation specifically tailored to Goals in the future.

NOTE: Based on member feedback, transaction linking is coming soon!

Can I still link income or transfer transactions to goals?

In Goals 3.0, you’ll use a fund allocations whenever you need to move funds. 

NOTE: Based on member feedback, transaction linking is coming soon!

Do I need to reselect my goal accounts?

Only if you want to change which accounts are enabled globally. Your previous allocations carry over automatically.