You can add a loan (An agreement to borrow or lend money, usually with an interest charge on the amount borrowed.) against any asset (An item of value that you own. Assets can be tracked in Money by using asset accounts.) in your Lifetime Plan. For information about changing loan details for a house or asset, see Change the loan associated with a house or asset in the Lifetime Plan.

A home equity line of credit, though secured by the equity you hold in your home, isn't quite the same as a mortgage or other loan that you take out to purchase an asset. Generally, the Lifetime Planner classifies a balance on a home equity line of credit as an expense, although you can change that if you want.

To add a line of credit to your Money file (A computer file that stores the information that you enter into Money. A single Money file can contain many accounts, so if you have a new account, bank, or brokerage, you can add those accounts to the Money file that you already use.) :

1. Click Banking, and then click Add a new account.
2. Click Other account type, select Line of Credit, and then click Next.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen.

By default, the line of credit will not be included in your debt reduction plan (because of its low interest rate and because it's likely to be used to cover expenses), but you can move it into your debt reduction plan if you want. For information about adding a new debt account to your Lifetime Plan, see Add or remove a debt account from the debt plan.

Adding it to your debt reduction plan will also incorporate it in your Lifetime Plan. Any balances you have in the account will appear in your Money file as a liability and will be subtracted from net worth (The value of everything owned by you or your business, minus any of the values of any liabilities.) calculations.

For information about closing or reopening an account, see Close or reopen an account.

• The Lifetime Planner records assets that you hope will grow in value over time and that could be sold to fund a goal. Unless your car is a museum-quality Bentley, for example, it isn't this kind of an asset; it's something that you'll use up and eventually replace. The same goes for a washing machine or a computer.
• For planning purposes, it's better to think of a car or a similar item as an expense-one that you happen to pay for all at once, even though you use the car over time. You can't rely on those items to hold their value, so you can't rely on them to contribute to your long-term financial health. Therefore, it's more sensible to exclude them from your Lifetime Plan's asset figures. For information about adding special expenses to the Lifetime Plan, see Add a new special expense to the Lifetime Plan.