Pezeta Progress Log: Day 4

Had a focused session today expanding the goal system design for Pezeta. Yesterday I started with the basic concept, today I dove deeper into the details.

I expanded all four goal types with detailed logic and edge cases:

Someday goals are your classic piggy bank. You want $3,000 for a new laptop someday. The system suggests funding it until you hit that target, then stops.

Edge case: what happens if you change the target from $3,000 to $4,000? Only future months use the new target.

Monthly goals keep a set amount available each month. You want $200 available for groceries each month. If you spend $150, you need $50 to top back up. If you somehow end up with $300, that’s fine – surplus is allowed.

Edge case: what happens if you never spend anything? The surplus just sits there – no more funding needed.

Deadline goals add time pressure. $2,000 for a vacation by next summer. The system calculates: you need $200 per month to hit that target.

Edge case: what happens if you miss a month? The next month’s allocation jumps to catch up.

Reserve goals are your safety nets. Keep at least $2,000 in emergency savings. If it dips to $1,500, fund $500 immediately.

Edge case: what happens if you never touch it? No allocation needed – it’s already above the reserve.

So this session was used to think about these and take a deep dive in the goal rule engine inner workings. I still have questions but it will be iterated when I start using the MVP. I have goal examples in my current budget for all of these.

The technical challenge was handling goal changes over time. What happens if you change your vacation target from $2,000 to $3,000 in March? Should January’s allocation be recalculated as if you always wanted $3,000?

I went with a snapshot approach. Each month gets its own snapshot of goal parameters. Past months never change retroactively. January’s allocation was based on January’s goal settings, period. This preserves the audit trail of what you were thinking at the time.