1:47 and 8:18. Also, not said but in definition bubbles for Savings Balance includes "goal" at 9:30 and Monthly Savings Builder includes "goal" at 12:30.
I tend to use monthly savings builders for even day to day categories (like my household items) so that the next month instead of it bringing it to the total again, I add the full amount. I still spend from it, but this also helps add buffers into each category rather than having to borrow as much. It's a personal preference for me.
"Chunks." I love it. My mom and I bonded over YNAB and Hannah's videos over the last couple of years. We were BUDGET NERDS together 😂. She passed away last October and as I go into 2023 and think about a Clean Start and another 34 Day Reset for myself and experimenting with a different budget set up... I feel her. 🥰 Just wanted to say that YNAB and Hannah contribute more to this world than just great tools and clever content. TY for all you do.
Oh my word. This touched my heart to the very deepest of its core. The things we bond over are so real and untouchable, and I'm so glad that you have such a precious reminder of your mom that will never go away. We're honored to be a tiny part of such a beautiful memory of your mom. We'd love if you'd send your mailing address to help@ynab.com-we'd love to honor her, too! Thanks so much for sharing 🥰🥰 Bless you dearly! 🌻 Hannah
The algorithm is super scary accurate today. Literally clicked on the "learn more about targets" button today and thought "this would make a good YNAB video for Hannah". Thanks for the info!! Also, I thought chunks was a totally normal word until now. Now I can't say it normally! Hahaha
It's the first of the month which means, it's Budget Time. My husband and I kind of (no, not kind of - DID) slack on our budget this summer, so not only are we sitting down to budget, we're sitting down to learn some of the new improvements. BUT, this video was so helpful and it looks like it will really help us get our budget under control!
Hey Hannah, thanks for these videos. they're great and make learning a joy! One question about this topic - what about monthly expenses that are due early in the month? Like say you have mortgage or rent due on the 1st of the month. If you put a monthly needed for spending target for the 1st, the budget won't bug you to fund that category until the 1st of the month, at which point you need the money already. Likewise, the carryover from previous months makes it tricky to set the target for the end of the preceding month.
You could name it "Next Month's Rent" (or whatever it is) and put it as due by the 31st so when the monthly rollover happens your money is there. You could also prioritize getting a month ahead in your budget, which is what I did.
@@savannahmudd3532 yes - I'm likewise budgeting ahead myself so this isn't an issue for me, but it has come up as I help other folks. The issue with labeling it as "next month" and setting it for thr last day of the month is that unless you actually pay it on that last day of the month, the total you built up carries over to the next month so the goal/target shows as being met even after you've paid your rent and now should be saving up for the next month's. It's an artifact of the monthly rollover system that YNAB uses. Budget categories that have monthly "spend by" targets should roll over on the day after the target date, not the 1st of thr month.
If you have a scheduled transaction for the 1st it will also prompt you that you need the money. Personally, I budget the month a day or two before the end of the previous month because I get paid on the last working day of the month, and my scheduled transactions and “needed by 1st of the month” targets get met that way.
Hey Ross! This is a great question! My approach to that is actually manually budgeting into the next month. It's not ideal, but since rent is my biggest expense, I always make sure before I even start budgeting out any new dollars that rent in the future month is either fully covered or halfway covered in the future month before funding the current month the rest of the way. I have my rent category at the top of my budget so it's the first thing I see and I immediately ask myself "Has rent been budgeted for next month yet?" It's not a perfect system, but it's been working for me, and makes sure that I fund my most important expense before funding all of my other smaller ones (like eating out or even car repairs). -Hannah 🌻
It would be amazing if monthly savings builder could have an amount to stop at. Say i want $4k on hand for car repairs, I then replace my radiator for $1200. It would be great to slowly replenish that money up to 4K again say at $100/month. Right now I have to remember to go disable the savings builder when I hit my amount which is a bit obnoxious. Great video as always!
Oh, well HEY THERE Sir Todd!! I don't know if I knew you were a YNAB user!! Thanks for the watch :) Hope you're doing well! We'll miss you at the wedding! -Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial Yes, I've been a user for maybe 3 years now? I too am sorry we won't be there. Best wishes of course, and we *will* see all of you someday :-)
I want to have multiple targets per category. Example: I want one category for all my subscriptions and I want to create targets for each! I like a nice condensed, but accurate and detailed budget.
Great video Hannah. Informative and you can hold the audience attention with your quirkiness! Good: Improved flexibility on how to set and track progress to different goals. Saves the need to type extra stuff in your Goal( or target now) name field. Bad: awful lot of ways to say and indicate the same thing. I hope you can turn off some of them. It can make your budget screen a little busy. I know I work in UX development!
Looks great! What about bi-weekly spending? Ex: housekeeper come ms every other Friday. How do I set up a target for that? Sometimes there are 3 cleanings in a month, sometimes 2…depends how the “every other” Friday falls.
Instead of using a target, setting this up as a repeating transaction should do the trick - just select the option to Repeat: Every other week. In months where the every other Friday occurs 3 times, the Auto-Assign will prompt you to budget for the right amount
To be perfectly honest, although I already planned to hit the like button, I didn't actually do it until you said that 'chunks' is your least favourite word in the English language. THANK YOU.
Hannah, I always enjoy your videos, and I found this one personally very valuable. I understood the basics, but this deeper dive into "how" to use each of the target types, is incredibly informative. After watching, I made quite a few changes to my budget for those categories where I want to stash more cash. Thank you and I look forward to your next and many more videos!
Oh yay!! Jaes, so glad to hear it! Surprised I could teach you something new, your comments have always tended to strike me as coming from someone who knows each and every in and out of YNAB better than I do! -Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial I would consider myself somewhat of a power user, but seeing how other people use YNAB allows me to make our family budget even better. Your videos are a great help to beginners and experts alike! Keep up the great work Hannah 🌻! ~Jaes 🏊♂️🌊🦈🌊
Hannah, you're so great at explaining the ins and outs of YNAB! I'm going back through my budget now to make sure I have it set up properly! I *do* always wish there was a way to add a specific goal to to the monthly savings builder -- for example, if I wanted to save $10 every month until I hit a certain number, not based on a date.
Howdy there! Oh, I totally hear ya. I just sent your comment back to the team! We have lots of updates and feature requests to work through, but rest assured they will see this request! -Hannah 🌻
Thank you for adjusting the spending target feature!! I hated not knowing which goal to set and whenever i spent from a category with the wrong target/goal itd fight me and say "no dont touch that money you need to touch!"
How could we not subscribe after so much educational fun. We now have YNAB, thanks to Katie and to you, Hannah. Why don't I have emoji's on categories?
Woo hoo, educational fun is my middle name!! If you're using a phone to budget, you can add emojis to your categories simply by adding one to the category name with your phone's emoji keyboard built into your regular phone keyboard. If you're budgeting from a computer, check out this doc! docs.youneedabudget.com/article/196-using-emoji-in-your-budget -Hannah 🌻
Heard It From Hannah is easily becoming my favorite series. Keep it up! For savings categories, is there an option to “hide” these categories? I find myself wanting to pull from these categories (like Christmas spending) to fund my underfunded categories because they are so easy to pull from. What do you recommend? Stronger will power? 😅
Hi Amy! You can collapse any category group by clicking the arrow to the left of the category group title. So if you put all of your savings categories into a single group, then you can hide them all. I've never heard of Micah's idea before, but I really like it! Might have to try that myself... 🤔 - Ben M
@@YNABofficial I use 3 emojis: A lock for categories I can never pull from, a broccoli stalk for necessary expenses, and the smiling sunglasses guy for discretionary categories.
I created a category that is exclusively for covering overspent categories. The amount that works for me is $200. Each time I get paid, I top-off that category so it has $200. Then, if I go over a bit in a category, I take money from that $200. Sometimes I use almost all of it between paychecks, and other times I don't use any. It adds piece of mind since I know I don't have a little extra set aside while not making an overage into a big hassle of adjusting other categories.
Loved this video!! I've been waiting for a deeper dive on targets. One question I've had though: if we use monthly save for spending targets for things like groceries, but don't spend all of the money in that category for a given month because of good budgeting (thanks YNAB!) and then want to move the excess money to a different category, how can we adjust the target for that month without impacting our recurring target in future months?
I'm wondering this too, I move the money out of a category when I don't need it that month, but need to cover something else I overspent on (roll with the punches). But then it turns yellow! ☹️
Another alternative would be to wait to the next month, then for the next month you would only need to add less money to reach the target, you can then use the excess for other categories. (Assuming you use a needed for spending goal)
Very nice explanation. It was all starting to make sense towards the end. Oh and it might just be me but while watching your video I got flash backs of max headroom 😁 especially the video cutting and the tangent stories 😂
😂 You're on top of it! And no new car here, the Buick's still going STRONG despite literally rusting away. One side mirror is taped on, the other is glued on, the padding on both backseat doors has fully fallen off, and the lights no longer work on the dashboard unless I turn ALL the interior car lights on. But she drives like a dream, so she lives on!! 🌻 Hannah
I love the new targets and they really made automating my budget a lot easier. However, I have some subscriptions with odd payment schedules like every 3 or 5 or 10 weeks. And I have not yet found a good way to deal with them. Using the weekly needed for spending means I have to remember to always assign the full amount without the budget reminding me. I also cannot set up reoccurring transactions as a reminder either. I think there are a few things you could do to help people like me, so I have one less thing to remember when budgeting for the month: 1. Allow a x weeks option with needed for spending by date. 2. Allow weekly for the savings builder. Might also be good for people that get paid weekly or biweekly and want to save a set amount from each paycheck. 3. Allow more flexibility with repeat transactions similar to how the needed for spending by date allows you the number of years and months.
So the second one is for saving up for a specific purchase...so what do you when you purchase it? Delete the target? Then it shows a big "create target" button with a caption "how much do you want X"? I already have it! Yes, I watched the wish farm video... I can do that or just delete it...but it just seems weird that I have to find a work-around to use this target type for what seems to be its primary intended use case. Unless I'm missing something?
If Hannah could make a video for everything I need to know 1) I would stay awake 2) remember what to do , (not sure about that one, I’m usually to busy laughing!
Are the savings types the only ones that carry over from month to month? For example, if we have leftover money in our restaurent category, I want it to carry over to the next month in case we want/need it. So, should I use monthly savings builder instead of needed for spending?
Hi Beth! If you have money left over in one month, you will always find it carries over into the next month, regardless of what target you use. - Ben M ✏️
Oh, absoluuuutely essential. This doc should help you learn all you need to know about getting those emojis into your categories! You can click the submenus of Web, iOS, or Android depending on which device you like to use YNAB on! support.youneedabudget.com/en_us/how-to-use-emoji-in-your-budget-SJTNIyQAc 🌻 Hannah
Hey there! I always use the spending target for my bills. If I know how much I'll need for the month and what day I'll need it by, this target type will help the Auto Assign feature (at the top of your budget) prioritize those bills over other bills that are less important. Also, with this goal, if I need to make multiple payments throughout the month (like paying twice monthly for something ,or every friday) then I won't lose my "progress" on my progress bar (like I would with a savings target). I hope this helps! Please ding me back if you need more tips or explanations! You can also check out this handy dandy article on target types: docs.youneedabudget.com/article/128-targets -Hannah 🌻
I use the monthly savings builder for gas and electricity because during winter time the bills are.. Triple. So every month I put a sum in those categories and they build up. For example I put 150 dollars on the electricity category even tho it might be 80 dollars so that when the winter bill of 300 dollars comes it will not consume all my salary. Hahahaha... Well it's not fully, but what can you do? 😅😅😅
I actually take the most expensive month I've had in the past 12 months +10% and make it needed for spending monthly. That way no matter what I spent last month I can just fill it up the next month.
@@shaunnichols8170 good idea! ❤️ The thing is I can't afford that. For example last winter the gas bill was almost half my salary. Crazy, right? So now I have to save money all year long for the winter months.
This is great! I'm just a few days in (still on the trial) and I've been wondering on how to properly use the Targets. I do have one question though. In your example of "Available For Spending" weekly (like Doggy Day Care), how should we do that we have those expense every TWO weeks instead of every ONE week. Would it be better to just put the entire amount in the Target as Monthly? Or divide the bi-weekly cost by two and put it in as Weekly? Feature Request: Wouldn't it be great when using the BY DATE and REPEAT feature that we had the option to choose WEEK in addition to Month and Year? That way, it would solve my problem and I could use a by date and then repeat every TWO weeks! Hmmm......
Bob! That's a GREAT question. Personally, I would use the weekly goal and just divide your every-other-week amount by two, that way if you're using the "assign money" feature at the top of the budget, you budget will know to prioritize that expense sooner rather than later. That is an excellent feature request idea!! You should absolutely submit that here and our team will review it: youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek -Hannah 🌻
I feel ya! In instances like that, I usually use the monthly target but just divide what's needed quarterly by three. So if I pay a $300 HOA fee every quarter, I'll just set a monthly target for $100 so I can make sure to meet that goal right on time! 🌻 Hannah
Couldn’t figure out what the shape of the new tattoo on your upper left shoulder was supposed to be. Then when you made a move to the right and the tattoo didn’t move I realized it was a crumb of a biscuit I was eating laying on my iPad. 🤪
If I'm setting aside 100$ every month, forever, to go into a sinking fund - which for me sits in a separate bank account than my checking account - should I use Needed for spending (because once I set aside the 100$, I move them to the other account, which would be an expense/outflow transaction from my checking account), or Monthly savings builder?
Great question! If you have the bank-account-where-you-dump-your-sinking-funds linked up to YNAB, then you'll use a Monthly Savings Builder target! Because, just as you said, the money is staying in the budget-it's just being moved to a different account. If you *don't* have the bank-account-where-you-dump-your-sinking-funds linked up to your budget, then you would want to use a Needed for Spending target so that the category doesn't turn red when you move that money out of your budget. Hope that helps! 🌻 Hannah
I have noticed that if I have any left in a category that is needed for spending, and it rolls over, it counts that for next month's target. What if I want to keep that overall for months where my spending is higher? For example, this month my electric bill was $160, but I budgeted $200 because that is the average for the last 12 months. How can I save that $40 for the colder months when my utilities are higher?
If you want to always put aside a set amount, you can use the Monthly Savings Builder. Then if you spend under that in the month, the savings builds up over time. Alternatively you can use Needed For Spending and put a higher cap on it. For example, I may spend on average $100/month on fuel, but if I have a Needed For Spending target of $200, then if I do a lot of driving one month I'm covered, otherwise the savings counts towards next month. It's similar to allocating "Spent Last Month", but uses the targets to cap it at a limit. The problem I have though, is if you're budgeting in advance (next month and beyond), the "Needed For Spending" will budget the full amount, since it doesn't yet know the carry-over. So I have to reset and reallocate on the first of the month for the carry-over to count towards the target.
@@jenniferday2051 I use the Monthly Savings Builder method mentioned by Trevor. The one thing I'll add is that I will either A) tweak the target amount about once a year or B) make a one-time movement of funds to another category if I notice I'm building up more or carrying over less than I prefer. It's kind of a combo of a Needed for Spending and a Sinking Fund. The total amount of the target is a combination of a NFS monthly baseline plus extra to cover the variability of expenses in the category. The best way this has helped me is with the category for my dog. I know about what his monthly expenses are, but the Monthly Savings Builder target is about double that amount. When we have unexpected or irregular expenses -- boarding, trip to the vet, etc. -- there is always money available to cover the cost. It's difficult to measure the amount of stress this has reduced in my life.
Despite that YNAB is a subscription based application, you will end up saving money and build funds for your needs if you follow the rules! I have been using YNAB for years and will for many years to come.
Absolutely! Starting a subscription for the annual plan means you only have to throw $8.25 a month into the "YNAB Subscription" category in your budget, and I can't even fathom how many hundreds/thousands of dollars it saves us a year, just because we ACTUALLY know what our money is doing and where it's taking us! Game changer for life. 🌻 Hannah
i really wish YNAB took into account when you got paid. Knowing how much i need to put in monthly is cool, knowing how much i need before my next paycheck is better. if i need $400/mo for groceries, but i get paid 3 times this month (usually i dont realize its a 3 pay month), id rather know what i need to allocate from this paycheck to groceries to meet my monthly target. obviously, i can just take the number its telling me and divide it manually, but still. would love if YNAB could do this. would be super helpful. or at least being able to do bi weekly targets.
Hey there! I saw one of your comments on another video, and I think YNAB can actually help you do exactly what you're saying! If you add targets to each of your categories (aka: telling each category how much you want in it by when, whether it's a bill with a due date or just a weekly groceries target you want to hit), YNAB can tell you exactly how much money you'll need each month to "fulfill" all those targets. Also, if you're adding due dates or a certain day you want that category fulfilled by (i.e. the 1st of every month, every Monday, by the end of the month, etc) YNAB's "Assign" feature will help you fund your categories based on which categories need the most attention first. For example, it'll fund your internet bill due on the 4th before it funds your electric bill due on the 12th, and if your paycheck only covers part of your expenses for the month, it will simply fund one or two weeks worth of groceries or gas and make sure to satisfy all of your other bills' due dates and category needs before funding the third and fourth weeks of groceries and gas. If that sounds complicated, I bet one of our workshop videos would be super helpful to helping you figure out how to hack YNAB to get it to do exactly what you need, because I believe it can do exactly what you're describing! If you're a newer user, this video may be a good place to start, and you can ALWAYS write in to our support team with questions or sign up for one of our live Q&A's with our teachers where you can ask them specific questions (just like you did in your comment!) and they'll help you understand the solution. (It's super low pressure-just type your question in a text box and they'll demonstrate the solution live according to your circumstances until you feel like you've got the hang of it!) I hope this helps!! Here's the "Setting Up Your Budget" workshop which may help answer some of your questions about targets and how they can help you accomplish exactly what you're wanting! Setting Up Your Budget: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CFXIJcyv-Pc.html Here's where you can sign up for the live Q&A's to get all your questions answered! www.youneedabudget.com/free-workshops/ You got it, friend!! YNAB is an amazing tool that will give you so much clarity and confidence in your money-I just know it! 🌻 Hannah
@@YNABofficial appreciate it. I've been using YNAB for a couple of years but every now and then I like to refresh to make sure I'm using it how it's designed and not just bare minimum so I've been on a bunch of videos recently, and likely commented similar things, while I was looking for information and learning. Thanks again for the reply!
Groceries are tough. This is what REALLY helped me. I divided my groceries into 4 weeks and it definitely helped me budget. I also started delaying my shopping day. I used to pick them up every Monday (and online shopping saves me LOTS), but in 2022 I started extended by 2 or 3 days and I think it definitely lowered the overall spending. Some stats: 2020 (one grocery category for the month) $8748.32 (average $729.03) 2021 (with categories 1-4 weeks) $7646.06 (average $637.17) 2022 Jan - March (with categories 1-4 weeks AND extending shopping by 2 or 3 days (average $566.69) I am curious to see if 2022 overall continues with this trend. Hope these little tweaks help you with your grocery category.
Steph 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 This is AMAZING!! Would you mind if I shared your groceries tip in a future RU-vid Short? You'd get full credit! I LOVE seeing the numbers on this!! Just lemme know here in the RU-vid comments or at hannah@youneedabudget.com! 🌻 Hannah
Great video! I still have questions about overspending with "monthly savings builder". Example: I set of target for buying comic books as a savings builder of $50/month. I just created this target today and put $50 in there, but then tomorrow see a comic book that costs $100 that I need to have now. Can I overspend on this category, but still just contribute my target each month until I turn it green again? How does overspending work with Monthly Savings Builder?
Hey there, Eric! This is a good exploration in which target type might serve your situation better. If you find you're buying comic books often (like every month or two), I'd go ahead and change it to be a "Monthly Spending Target", because the spending target is expecting you to spend from that money and won't prompt you to "replenish" the money when it's spent out of the category. The "Monthly Savings Builder" target is better for categories where you're not spending from the category very often at all (i.e. saving up money for a new laptop you'll buy one day once you have the money, or saving up for a new car or downpayment on a home or maybe even a trip) because if you remove money (or spend money) from that category, it will prompt you to immediately put the "spent" or "taken" money back into that category in order to reach your savings goal for the month. As far as spending money in a category BEFORE it's been fully funded to support that purchase, we generally encourage people to steer away from that, because we never wanting to be spending money we don't have. HOWEVER, if you only have $50 in your comic book category and want to make a $100 purchase today, what we WOULD encourage you to do is poke around your budget and find what other category (or collection of categories) you could borrow the extra $50 you need from in order to fund that purchase. For example, I might pull $25 from my "groceries" category and another $25 from my "dining out" category and move that money into my comic books category, so now I *do* have $100 in my comic books category. All I need to do now is be aware that both my groceries and dining out categories are a little underfunded for the month, and make sure to adjust my spending in those categories accordingly. Hope this was helpful to you! 🌻 Hannah
Hey Audrey!! I hear your passion!! 😂 You can submit any feature requests you have to this link: youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek?typeform-source=docs.youneedabudget.com -Hannah 🌻
On 9:54 you say that the difference between an NfS-Target and an SB-Target is that the latter one will set your progress back when you spend „or borrow“ money from that category. But won’t borrowing Money from your NfS-Target set your NfS-Target back as well? If I understand it correctly, only spendings won’t set your NfS-Target back. Is that correct? Edit: At 4:28 you borrow money from your NfS-Target Category and it indeed sets your progress back. Could you please elaborate wether the only difference between NfS and SB targets is regarding the crediting of spendings? Thank you! :)
Yes, *borrowing* money from a Needed for Spending target type *will* set back your progress, you are right! Good point! But if you've fully funded a Needed for Spending category and spending out of it, it won't set your progress back since you're spending the money on what it was intended for. Thank you for that clarifying question! I'll have to watch how I explain that in the future! -Hannah 🌻
My question is what do you do when you actually do spend the money in the Savings Balance? Let's say I save that 10k for a car and then....buy the car? Do I just mark it as spent and move on?
Hey Starkid! Once you reach the savings balance target you were aiming for, you can remove the target from the category and spend the money however you wish! Just make sure that if that money is living in your *savings* account at the bank that you transfer it to your checking account at the bank before making the purchase (and record that transfer in YNAB too, of course 🙃). If it's a category you aren't planning to use again (like "Downpayment" or "Trampoline for the Backyard") you can move that money to another appropriate category (like "Home Improvement") and then record the transaction there. That explanation may have been a little muddy. Let me know if you have any other questions! -Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial I didn’t quite get when you saw remove from target . I have a savings balance target for purchasing an item couple of months down the month . I fully fund this SB. When I put activity on this , would it say I need to fund again? Could you explain how to better use this option?
@@simpletube007 she's saying to remove the target (goal) itself. In other words, once you've saved the desired balance, then select the category in your budget, click Edit next to the "Saving Target" and then click Delete. The money you've saved will still be in the category, but you will no longer have a savings target since you've saved the desired amount.
Newbie here. Two questions. 1. Re: spending target date. Do I set the date to the day before I "need" the money? ie If I'm targeting for $1000 for rent, and it's due on the 1st, do I set the target for the 1st or for the end of the previous month? 2. Why did you set your grocery target using monthly instead of weekly? I'd assume that would not be accurate since there are a different number of weeks in each month. Or does it not matter because each month is approx. the same amount of days?
regarding #2 I did here her say that the program knows how many Mondays (or whatever day) are in the month. So if it has 5 instead of 4, it adjusts for that. It was when she talked about doggy daycare, right about 6:00
@@robertalynn3459 I guess my thinking is that if you know you're spending $150/week on groceries, why would you set a monthly target? Wouldn't you want a weekly?
Hey there @Jon Brown. For #1 it's personal preference. #2 most people average their grocery budget on a monthly basis - again pick what works best for you. If your routine is purchasing $50 of groceries every Monday, then the weekly option may work better.
Hey Jon! Great questions!! I set the date for the day I NEED the money by, because when using our "Assign Money" feature at the top of the budget, it will prioritize funding categories that have more urgent due dates than others. So if I get a paycheck at the end of September, it will prioritize funding my rents Oct 1st due date over my internets Oct 8th due date. Great question on why I set a monthly goal for groceries 😂 No real reason, I've just always done it that way. But you're totally right, if I shopped every Monday and knew I wanted to spend $150 a week on groceries, a weekly goal would be best! We're not so organized in our family so I tend to grocery shop sporadically, and the monthly spending goal has worked fine for that. But truly you can set it either way! -Hannah 🌻
I pay estimated taxes in (usually) the same amount April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15. Anyone figured out the best way to set up targets? For now I've settled on a repeating Needed for Spending target starting on March 15 and repeating every three months. I'll have funded each payment on the due date or a month ahead. Anyone have tips for a better approach to this?
You could also set up a monthly target of 1/3 of those quarterly amounts. I pay condo maintenance of $915 Jan 1, Apr 1, July 1, and Oct 1, and I just set up a monthly target of $305 to make it work.
I have an annual service charge for my flat that I have to pay in 6 month chunks. I have it set as an annual Needed for Spending target so I can spend the first 6 months without it setting my progress back. But to be honest, your way accomplishes the same thing!
Hi Tania! When you're setting up your targets, we recommend checking your total "Underfunded" (the amount needed to fund your entire budget) against your monthly income. If your targets require more money than your monthly income provides, then you'll want to adjust some of your targets down until you're at or below your monthly income. So long as your monthly income matches or exceeds the amount required by your targets, you're golden (regardless of how often your pay comes in)! (Just make sure that some of your categories are helping to prepare you for those non-monthly expenses that pop up, so that you're not just funding this month's expenses without preparing for the future.) Hope that helps! 🙂 - Ben M
So I have to make 4 estimated quarterly tax payments, but good old Uncle Sam didn't do it every three months. Example: 1K by April 15, 1K by June 15, 1K by Sept 15, 1K by Jan 15. Should I have a budget item for each and targets for all four? Or just do one Quarterly Estimate / Target at a time? Or is there a better way? Thanks!
I don’t like the new way to do goals, but I’m TRYING! Can you show me how to do this on the mobile app? I tried the edit button and it takes it from my “assigned” categories
Aleesha, I plan to do more tutorials and demonstrations on the mobile app from here on out! So keep an eye on future videos! But, anytime you're struggling to figure something out, always feel free to scan our help docs or reach out to customer service! They'll help ya and they love to do it :) -Hannah 🌻
Best way to deal with this is to save up to be one month or one paycheck ahead so it's already there before you get paid. If you get paid 2x per month, best way to use this is to save to be one month ahead then at the beginning of the month you can budget everything all at once. That is the best way to budget everything. Have saved up to be one month ahead so you have everything before you get paid and it will be amazing how you can just hit the budget button at the first of every month and get it all done at once and not have to deal with it every paycheck.
Think of it as your month starts in the 15th of the current month and ends on the 14th of the next month. Only use the monthly you have now and when budgeting.
YIKES. That's steep, my friend. It's $26 a day here for doggy daycare, but she only goes twice a week! I could easily spend my entire salary on my dog if I don't limit myself (*she said jokingly but also not jokingly*). -Hannah 🌻
Newbie question here! How do you categorise transactions that were made before starting the app and setting up a budget, but haven’t yet cleared (due to bank delays, weekends, etc)? For example, I’ve just bought travel tickets which have yet to clear my account, but when they do in the next few days, I’ll have to categorise them as coming from my “Travel” pot (which I set a spending goal date on and have yet to assign money to in the app). When I do this it’ll tell me I’ve overspent, even though I essentially assigned that money to my travel before I started YNAB. Is there a way to stop this giving me an “overspending” alert?
Hey Jo! Adding past transactions is super easy with the "Add Transaction" button-enter the payee, outflow/inflow, category, and memo as usual, and make sure to select the correct date in the date-picker. I hear ya on your travel situation! Even though you bought your tickets days or even weeks ago, the transaction hasn't cleared the bank yet which means you haven't actually paid for them yet. That being said, you still need to have enough money in your travel category to fund those tickets when you do officially "pay" for them, otherwise it will be considered overspending. To cover this overspending, you'll want to either move money from your "Ready to Assign" category into your "Travel" category, or move money from other various categories and into your "Travel" category until you have enough money moved into it to cover the overspending. I know it's a bit of a brain bender, having to think back to the past while waiting on those transactions to clear, but it's all part of YNAB's method-making sure every dollar that goes in or out is accounted for and budgeted for. My husband and I booked a hotel back in May and the transaction didn't clear until SEPTEMBER when our trip was. We were super grateful that we entered that transaction into our budget RIGHT away (even though it wouldn't clear at the bank for months), because it already "took" the money from our vacation category, meaning we never had the option to accidentally spend that money that we would need for our hotel later. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions! 🌻 Hannah