Thats a great plan

I hate computer metaphors because they are clumsy- but consider two facts that are often seen with complex computer programs- for example an information processing system laid on top of linked databases with various algorithms to take input data and automate the process of getting a calculated output.

In systems like this- it is simple for a programmer to just go to the database and insert data if they want a certain result or they are fixing an incorrect input. Say that step 5 in a calculation used data output from step 4 but step 4 was wrong or hadn’t completed- you input the number you want into the place where step 3 outputs data- run program- step 4 and 5 run. But....

It’s quite common that inputting data directly to the database of a complex program system like that will “break” some process of the program down stream. “Gremlins” of code you could call it I suppose. What’s more- you could also simply skip to the end and put whatever number you want there once you are placing numbers manually right?

If you made a complex program to control your budget and spending, and make sure you could pay all your bills on time- why would you go in and edit the data for spending directly? For one thing- that defeats the purpose doesn’t it? If you’re manually controlling budget allocation- why have a complex system for it and not just watch your own budget? Secondly- if you change only one of those data areas- the math won’t add up when you run the program- if suddenly you change 500+60=560 to 500+500=560.... you’ve messed up the whole program- and if it does run- your historical data is now way off. But if you alter your spending habits using your knowledge of the algorithms- you can get the data to do what you want without having to modify the program or data- or deal with clean up or bugs after.