My YNAB win is not financial, but when my coworker noticed my YNAB bookmark on my browser and told me he was a YNABer too! A fun bonding moment at work :)
I have to share my experience with reconciling! I've been using YNAB for 4 years now, and I very rarely reconciled. Just didn't care for it. Until I heard you guys speak about the importance of reconciling on a few other videos. At first, I didn't want to do it, but over time I couldn't resist the logical appeal... And now I reconcile every day! Now that I know how good it feels to know that my budget is 100% trustworthy and matches my bank account balance, I can't stop myself from reconciling. It gives me an extra sense of reassurance and calm. I love it!
When I first started using YNAB, I thought I should only reconcile once a month because, hey, the bank thinks I only need a statement to balance once a month, right?! I switched to reconciling every day and now I can’t imagine waiting even a week to do it! It took away so much frustration, and added a ton of confidence! Thank you
My YNAB win is that I've been using YNAB for six months and it's been life changing. I did a lot of research and prep before diving into it. What I love about this video: 1) I've been using all these habits and it validates by good practices and 2) It's also helped me see some ways I can improve my budget habits. I see some ways to level up my budgeting and save more. I love reconciling, btw. I usually reconcile daily. Sometimes I wait a few days but I don't like to see the time see last reconciled get to too big. It's given me a lot more faith in my budgeting.
2 large emergencies including travel hit us Sept and Oct. All went on the CC except what we had in our "visit family fund". Ouch. Oct has been: 1) Get money in 2) Cover red categories 3) Realize you only have 10% left to do all your budgeting. 4) Rinse, repeat The good thing is each money influx we have more to budget with. Another 3 or 4 paychecks to get back to normal and sinking funds fully accumulating funds again. Being so far in the red but having a tool that I know and can use to play catch up is a type of peace unto itself. And we are sitting at 17 AOM as I am getting money in, waiting 10ish days, then paying the over use on the CC. Is it the "right way"? Probably not (don't try this at home).
Fridays are my favourite days because I get to budget haha My pay hits my bank account at 9:58am. I agree with the clarity on only budgeting what you have is such a mindset change but its fool proof. I find I'm always looking at my bank balance instead of categories to spend, I'm trying to break it and will be doing a 'no spend month' in November. But I'm great at entering spending as I go, and I also reconcile weekly. Changing the budget when I need is one of the reasons I got hooked on YNAB. Life changes so often and being able to change the budget to work with that is amazing.
I'm reconciling right now as I'm listening to you both and the struggle is real! I started yesterday but gave up because I couldn't figure out why my one of my cc's wasn't matching up. I only reconcile once a month, though. I have thought about doing it more often, but when I do it's usually right after I've finished my monthly reconcile and the thought of going through all that again the next day sucks the joy out of my life. so. When I first started budgeting, like the 2nd or 3rd month into it, one of my accounts was off by 9 cents. I couldn't figure out what I was missing, so I was just like, "Oh well! It's only 9 cents." Fast forward six months and that 9 cent difference had snowballed into over $900!!! I had to reset my budget and completely start over. So I learned my lesson the hard way on how important reconciling is, but it's still something that feels like a chore.
My habit for budgeting a month ahead by actually putting the money in the next month made it actually possible for me to get a full month ahead… and it only took me 3 months to so! At least with my China account where I’m actually doing my day to day spending. I haven’t prioritized getting a month ahead with my US account, as I want to pay off a couple of private student loans before doing that. But YNAB has been a giant help in realizing my priorities and adjusting them when needed. I realized I’m not making much progress in paying off those student loans as I was saving too much for things here in China… (I actually do need a new phone and have saved for a trip to the new Universal Resort in Beijing for my Christmas present to myself! Harry Potter World… here I come!). But I’ve made a plan to start putting more money into my US account and towards those student loans, beginning in January!
Oh my word!!! Around the 12 minute mark you guys finally explained exactly the trap I've been stuck in for 3 years!!!! I'm glad to know you had this problem too and now I feel like I am not an idiot and I can learn this new way!!!!!
Wow, you guys are talking about things that are in my subconscious mind when I do the budgeting process, but I hadn’t even thought to put them into words! I completely agree with what you are saying! Makes so much sense! Like making sure to not just leave some money to be budgeted… instead assigning it, so that if you do need to move it, you know what you are “giving up”. I hadn’t really thought it in that way! Great stuff!
I created a category called overflow and lines ate for things I forgot and paying Interest. I feel it's easier to move money if needed to cover shortages/needs. I don't ever want to see money in Ready to Assign.
I always predate when I get my stub, it comes like almost 5 days before I’m paid, but I enter it for the date it’ll hit, so when I wake up that day those dollars now are ready to allocate and that’s exciting! Plus the widget is so nice to keep tabs of my spending in real time so I can quickly look and see what I have. It’s so stress free right after that money has followed rule 1. I no longer have to worry cause after it hits zero after assigning I feel accomplished. Personally I always allocate (writing what I want each check) at the top so that I align enough money for bills, then I don’t risk under allocating for my bills. And seeing them light up green from top to bottom is beautiful! Right now I’m basically a check ahead (half a month) but soon I’ll roll into that one month ahead. Love it! Great video guys!
When you guys were talking about cash being something that feels more real to spend it's weird because it feels less real to me nowadays as a person who doesn't use YNAB yet and is just binging videos to prepare. Once it was out of my bank account and in my wallet it felt "already spent", and i so rarely pay for things in cash too, so when i do... It felt like cheating and free money
@@YNABofficial I've been using YNAB for a year and a half now and revisiting some of these videos. I still very rarely spend cash lol and when I do it still kinda never is properly tracked.
Very true! Leaving the money for “later” feel like a good backup plan but you lose all of the valuable decision making of what is due first, is there enough money, when is the next opportunity to make changes, where might my budget categories or amounts need to change, etc.
Agree 100% with Ernie. I don’t feel a sense of loss when I spend cash, but I do when I see my YNAB category balance go down after entering a transaction. All the personal finance gurus seem to recommend using a cash-based system to curb over-spending habits, but that never worked for me. Glad to hear I’m not the only one.
As our official YNAB Budget Nerds say, you are not alone! I also feel the pain when my balance goes down. Disappearing cash doesn't bug me as much, probably because I don't use it often.
Never made the connection till Ernie mentioned it. Cash and credit cards never seemed like $ spent. But seeing my YNAB category go down feels real. I'm MUCH more aware of my spending, and where I actually can afford to spend.
I learned the hard way to trust the budget over what I thought I had in my account. I thought I had a bunch of money left over from the month to pay more on my credit cards than what my budget was saying. So I spent that money and found out later that I had forgotten a big expense coming up that I had been saving for. I usually wait for the expense to hit until I transfer the funds, but that wasn't the case that time, and I had to pay for it then next month when I had less to work with.
I have $$ set aside in savings for emergency fund!!! But duh putting it in categories in my budget makes way more sense!!!! Thank you for that enlightenment!!!!!!
I'm watching this again in July 2022,and this is SO true. I'm in Canada and one of the biggest cellular providers *cough* Roger's was down for more than 15 hours, on a pay day, nationwide. Affecting not only cell phones and regular people stuff, but also preventing some banking, debit and credit purchases, bus and transit schedules AND 911. Soooo, with YNAB (And a Different carrier), no worries as No money, no assigning, no problem!!
I got a bit more than a month ahead but don't like budgeting to future months because YNAB allows borrowing from the future so I started using a "Budget Next Month" category. This may not be working though because I can use as "roll with the punches" in current month if needed but also because if I get a paycheck that is not needed in the current month and put it directly into the "Budget Next Month" category without going thro the "To Be Assigned" step some of the income reports are not accurate.
I was just about to write about this! I also don't like budgeting ahead in YNAB. I would like to do it, but I find it to discreate when I accidentally steal from the future by overbudgeting this month. I want to (as far as it's possible) cover the current months overspending with the current months money, so I always get surpriced when I notice that a future month is over budget.
I also have been confused as to what to do with extra money after I’ve budgeted out the next month. Should I budget for the month after next, or should I beef up savings categories?
The issue with waiting to reconcile until bank statement arrives is that there is a time lag between the statement date and today. If you import and clear the YNAB cleared balance is more accurate than the statement and the cleared amount includes transactions not on the statement. So reconciling is hard to match. So daily is best. Also reconcile to online balance rather than to statement. If not importing and you are diligent at entering transactions as they occur, then reconciling to statement is good enough.
After a promise of "lifetime discount of $45/year", I switched from YNAB 4 to this subscription model. This week, their new CEO went back on the promise made by YNAB and doubled my rate starting next month to ~$90 with "discount". This company is no longer to be trusted. I don't use account syncing or the mobile app, and I don't need these cheeky videos or cutely emails and blog posts. I just regret letting them talk me out of a $30 one time piece of software to something that's now $15/month for no added benefits (for me).
Lots of cool content! Thanks guys! I kinda automated my transaction imports. I too setup sms alerts with all my banks and then, I made a Tasker Profile (Android App) which would intercept my texts and based on a phone number, it would use YNAB API to enter a transaction. Transaction would be marked as uncategorized, which would serve as a reminder for me to properly categorize my transactions
From 84.00 to 98.99 a year is quite the jump. So many things jumping up in price and this is hard to take. Have been with YNAB for almost a year but I am cancelling. Take care.
@@BoeghLindholm ouch! That hurts :(. When I signed up it was 84.00. It's a great app but we are cancelling and looking at other options before renewal.
#7: seeing your subscription price double, for a product whose additional features you can't use because they're US-centric, and making the moral and financial decision to tell YNAB to get stuffed, instead of being taken advantage of. Jesse wouldn't have done this.
@@marlaedington6471 Really? That is assuming a 100% increase is ok with this person and this person has a year to save up for it. I never assume anyone's financial situation and neither should you!
Oh my goodness 😳 Great video ❤ I love monthly budgeting, to check ins every day and Absolutely 💯 on Enter when it's deposited Amen Guys !!! Cowboy and I are Retired living on his Police Retirement and Social Security. We let my Social Security just build, because we don't need it for bills ❤🇺🇸 We only owe on our Mortgage avalanche to pay off, can I hear a Amen 🙏? We will be living totally Debt free December 2022 🙌🙋♀️
Thanks for the idea! I already have it on my phone with my Target account, but it would be cool if we could grant access to each other's accounts. Doesn't Target know how much easier that'd make life for us budgeters, lol. ~Ernie
I dont think there is such rush to assign the money when current month has already been budgeted with income from previous month and the money that just came would be for the next month so I often wait until I have enough to budget for all mandatory expenses for the next month.
Hi Dawn. All three of those are applications that have been developed by fellow YNABers, but we do not provide support for them. However, we do have official YNAB widgets, and those often get talked about in the Maintaining Your Budget workshop! We also have this help doc if you're looking for more info docs.youneedabudget.com/article/1706-ynab-widget-for-mobile ~Ernie
I would love if YNAB developed a report to see HOW I assigned my money. I know that I can see it in YNAB, but I don’t know the percentages. Are my shopping or entertainment categories benefiting from a slow creep? It’s great to know how I spent my money on reports but I also want to see how assigned my money too. I maintain a spreadsheet to give me this information but it’s flawed because I don’t always maintain the categories with YNAB (it was a pain creating my 2023 spreadsheet to align with YNAB). I enter 98% of my transactions via mobile app. I will enter credit card payments on web because I need to breakdown what gets paid from different accounts - it’s just easier to work the match on the web. Otherwise, I try to make as many repetitive transactions as scheduled transactions as possible so I only need to enter spending while I’m out.
Ben, you need to switch to the new YNAB mug that has the logo on both sides.....then you can use the handle and still show the logo. I bought last years mug and was sad that the logo was always facing me. I want the world to know I love YNAB! (Can I trade my mug for the new one?) Love all my YNAB swag ; )
Ernie, What’s the story behind the YNAB stamp art behind you? I haven’t noticed that before and I bet it’s a fun story to how that got imagined and made!
Every year we do a staff retreat and one of the activities is putting together a team puzzle. We've had to do virtual retreats the past two years, so one of our designers created that puzzle for each of us to put together on our own. My 13yo finished it for me! ~Ernie
You can edit targets at any time without impacting the actual budget numbers. Generally, I wait until the first of the month to change targets just so I don't get confused about how much I need to contribute to that particular category. ~Ernie
I have found that when I put in a transaction in the mobile app, then when it imports from the bank to my web online YNAB, I cannot match them. So I have to delete one of them.
I linked my accounts in the spring this year. Biggest mistake. I left it hanging for weeks at a time and lost control of my spending and budget. Just starting back and have nothing linked!
Budget Nerds you're great but please stop waffling...we could get the info you're sharing in half the time and that would be a help. I miss out on a lot of valuable stuff because I have to factor in the time it takes to listen to you.
