Why YNAB vs. Mint?

[MsPeacock]

I am hoping to get back on track w/ tracking my expenses more effectively in 2016. Last year I tried a variety of methods w/o being able to stick consistently w/ one (I would estimate that I tried over the course of 5 months - so did a fair run, trying to adjust when I saw problems, etc.). I tried Mint, homemade spreadsheets, various paper and pencil methods, etc. I did not try YNAB - wondering how it is different then Mint and if it is worth paying for the service.

I found that my sticking points were that I would forget to record transactions and then later couldn't recall what the purchase was. I also had problems breaking down  purchases at the grocery store or costco into the various categories (e.g. groceries vs. household items). I think I need something very easy to use and that is semi-automated and I can do daily. I guess Mint sort of did this, but I found it clunky for some reason. I also got fuddled up w/ various deductions on my paycheck and would forget what category I used for various items that were purchased.

I use a paper and pencil calendar religiously and have no trouble keeping track of my schedule that way. I use an app for tracking calories and exercise, and have no problems w/ that. I realize some of my problems w/ tracking is likely an emotional/avoidance issue - but some of it is also a methodology issue.

Recommendations much appreciated!

[Vanguards and Lentils]

I can't speak to YNAB, but Mint became useful for me after I started using it diligently. Firstly, this meant paying for everything with my credit cards/checking account. There's a way to add cash transactions manually, but since those ended up being <1% of my total spending, I felt comfortable ignoring it. Secondly, I had to stay on top of correcting the automatically given categories (which were right most of the time). For example, a lot of transactions get automatically categorized as "shopping", but I always changed those since I wanted to know what it was exactly, usually clothes or books. In the cases where I forgot what the transaction was, searching the $ amount in my email usually located it for me.

Now at year's end, I have lots of interesting data on my spending habits by going to the "Budgets" section. As a side note, I use Mint to track spending only; I didn't link any of my money accounts besides checking, and use Personal Capital for investments instead. IMO, Mint does spending/budgeting better and PC does investment accounts better.


EDIT: Oh and I've also thought about the food/household supplies issue before. You could separate your goods into two purchases at the grocery store, so that they show up as 2 lines in Mint. I personally didn't care to do this because my toiletries/household category is completely dwarfed by my food category anyway and I don't think it'll sway the numbers very much.

[Lski'stash]

Have you tried personal capital? I find it to be much better at tracking the investments than Mint, and I really like the income vs. spending feature. You can also track your expenses back for whatever length of time you'd like.

[Thegoblinchief]

YNAB can be an excellent spending tracker if you set it up in a way that makes sense to you. It's main power, however, is in planning for the future and budgeting.

I wouldn't describe YNAB as automated. That said, it's easy once you build the habit. What works for me:

1. Save physical receipts. Make notes on the receipt about any split categories (e.g. Groceries versus household) right away so you don't forget. Input them into YNAB as time allows, usually same or next day.

2. Once a week, on the same day to make it simple, download and import the transactions from previous week from credit cards, bank, etc. This catches any online shopping, regular bills, or other things that don't have physical receipts.

3. Once imported, double check budget tab to make sure I'm no over budget anywhere. If I am, adjust budget.

4. At month end, set categories for next month. Rinse, repeat.

YNAB quickly gets overwhelming, however, if you have lots of different accounts that you use, like if you're travel hacking. That's where something like Mint or Personal Capital's automation, even with the miscategorization that might need manual fixing, would be better.

[spruce]

I use them both and I find in combination they're the perfect solution for me.

Mint is great at showing you all of your accounts and downloading transactions, but it sucks at budgeting. YNAB is great at budgeting, but it'd be too much work to manually enter or even download all your transactions for all accounts.

I only have my spending and short-term accounts in YNAB, and every few weeks I pull up Mint and YNAB side by side and enter transactions into YNAB. I love YNAB because it really helps me budget and keep track of savings goals, and I definitely started saving more once I started using it. Mint is still useful to see all accounts and net worth and to notice if any strange charges pop up.

I think YNAB and Mint are different tools so it shouldn't be a question of one or the other. I have also heard good things about Personal Capital as a competitor to Mint, but I've used Mint for over 5 years now and just don't want to start over with no transaction history.

[ender]

Use Mint if you want to look at the end of your month and see how your finances went for the month.

Use YNAB if you want to look at the end of the month and budget/plan for the next month.

Both tools have very different goals.

[HAPPYINAZ]

perhaps you could instead just use a credit card more for your purchases?  then everything is automatically tracked.  that is what I do and find it so easy to keep track of what I spend that way.  I almost never use cash.  Get a good rewards card and then just use it for everything possible (paying it off automatically every month of course so you don't run into any late fees).  Many credit cards now have software built in so that you can analyze spending from within your online credit card account, or you can do as I do and just download all transactions into Quicken or some other program that you like. 

[MM_MG]

I am hoping to get back on track w/ tracking my expenses more effectively in 2016. Last year I tried a variety of methods w/o being able to stick consistently w/ one (I would estimate that I tried over the course of 5 months - so did a fair run, trying to adjust when I saw problems, etc.). I tried Mint, homemade spreadsheets, various paper and pencil methods, etc. I did not try YNAB - wondering how it is different then Mint and if it is worth paying for the service.

I found that my sticking points were that I would forget to record transactions and then later couldn't recall what the purchase was. I also had problems breaking down  purchases at the grocery store or costco into the various categories (e.g. groceries vs. household items). I think I need something very easy to use and that is semi-automated and I can do daily. I guess Mint sort of did this, but I found it clunky for some reason. I also got fuddled up w/ various deductions on my paycheck and would forget what category I used for various items that were purchased.

I use a paper and pencil calendar religiously and have no trouble keeping track of my schedule that way. I use an app for tracking calories and exercise, and have no problems w/ that. I realize some of my problems w/ tracking is likely an emotional/avoidance issue - but some of it is also a methodology issue.

Recommendations much appreciated!

Use YNAB with the app.  You can try it free for 30 days.  If you track your calories/exercise you would like having an app for expenses.  We were skeptical at first, but after 4 months it has absolutely changed our behavior with regard to spending money.   Good luck!

[soccerluvof4]

I have used Mint and Personal Capital. I found that it wasnt so much which one i used as could simply make either on work so just settled with Mint. Mint has an app now too. At the end of the day I think you can make adjustments to make any of them work for you just depending on how much you want to break things down etc..

[letired]

YNAB really isn't automated at all, so I'm not sure if it will be a good fit for you. I use it primarily for planning. The spending tracking is a secondary feature (but obviously important).

The key for it working for me was asking for a receipt for every purchase, including the $2 coffee on the road trip.

I really like that it keeps me from 'double-booking' my money. I know I've allocated $X to Category Y, so I can't spend it on Category Z.

Mint is more retroactive, seeing where your money went. YNAB is planning for where you want you money to go (then making it go there).

[DirtDiva]

 I like the fact that YNAB shows credit card transactions as "spent" money the minute I enter the transaction.  There is never any question that the money is sitting in my checking account waiting to pay the credit card bill in full at the end of the month.

YNAB encourages you to "buffer" your money; i.e. use January's paychecks to pay February's bills.  Both of our incomes are variable and this is a great way to deal with unknown paycheck amounts as well as pad the emergency fund a bit more.


I used Quicken for 25 years, then I tried Mint for a few months.  I find YNAB to be the most useful for giving me a really good handle on what's happening, and to stash more money in savings.

[aj_yooper]

We have been using YNAB for nearly 3 years and find it very useful, but you must be diligent in entering in all purchases.  As others have noted, it helps one to plan uses for the dollars in a flexible format and ensures you only spend the dollars once. 

If you have trouble tracking, why not just do paper and pencil until you find your mojo.  Then Mint might be enough or you could du YNAB.  Some speak well of gnu cash too.

Best wishes on the tracking.

[turketron]

Mint worked OK for me, but I find that YNAB allows me to be much more specific about how things are recorded than what Mint could pull in from my account history. Specifically, I didn't like how Mint handled things like CC payments or transfers between accounts- these usually ended up showing as a separate payment out of 1 account and then a deposit into the other, which threw off my income and spending reports. Also, I find YNAB much easier to use for tracking reimbursable expenses without them showing up as part of my actual "Spending." I don't really use YNAB as you're "supposed" to if you follow their rules, but it works for me.

Additionally, I found that I was frequently going in to correct the automatic categorizations that Mint attempted to make for a lot of transactions. At that point, adding them manually into YNAB really isn't any extra work.

[MsPeacock]

Thank you all for the replies! I am going to give YNAB a try. Some of the comments about other's experiences with Mint were reminders of why I struggled with it. Tracking is my "big" resolution for the year, so off to a fresh start on January 1.

[jim555]

I use a spreadsheet with categories across and dates running down.  Very simple and works well.  Any time I have a receipt I put it by my desk, then enter it in next time I am on.  Everything is tracked down to the penny.

[runningthroughFIRE]

Mint for expense tracking and a personal spreadsheet for budgeting/planning.

Mainly I use Mint to keep an eye on all my accounts in one place and track the flows in and out. I update my spreadsheets with the net worth info from Mint once a month, and set the budget in Mint based on my spreadsheet for a high-level red flag if I overspend on something.  My transaction categories are pretty simple, so I don't have to do much in the way of manual adjustments.

[coffeefueled]

The big differnce between YNAB and mint is the difference between thinking about your spending before you do it (and thereby growing your frugal muscle) or just tracking your spending once you can't undo it.

I think I remember reading somewhere that MMM doesn't budget because he is so used to thinking about whether something is worth spending money/time on that being frugal is pretty automatic for him (huge apologies if I'm getting that confused). I mention it because YNAB is a great way to build that muscle. If you want to change your spending the most important part is looking at the app when you're considering a purchase and seeing if that purchase matches where you allocated your money. If it doesn't, you either have to reconsider your priorities (and know you have to take money from somewhere else) or not buy it.

That process of looking at the app or recording transactions as you go reminds you to flex your frugal muscle before you make a purchase instead of just dealing with the aftermath at the end of the month. It also prevents you spending on something with the notion that you budgeted whatever amount for restuarants for eaxmple, but forgot that you went out last Friday and already spent the money.

I think that change of recognising where you want to spend your money  before you spend (whether that "spending" is sending $ to make you more $ in your 401k or exchanging it for a fancypants latte) is the key to developing some frugal muscles and the stache that comes with them. If you're just tracking it after you've spent it the task is much harder.

[slappy]

The big differnce between YNAB and mint is the difference between thinking about your spending before you do it (and thereby growing your frugal muscle) or just tracking your spending once you can't undo it.

I think I remember reading somewhere that MMM doesn't budget because he is so used to thinking about whether something is worth spending money/time on that being frugal is pretty automatic for him (huge apologies if I'm getting that confused). I mention it because YNAB is a great way to build that muscle. If you want to change your spending the most important part is looking at the app when you're considering a purchase and seeing if that purchase matches where you allocated your money. If it doesn't, you either have to reconsider your priorities (and know you have to take money from somewhere else) or not buy it.

That process of looking at the app or recording transactions as you go reminds you to flex your frugal muscle before you make a purchase instead of just dealing with the aftermath at the end of the month. It also prevents you spending on something with the notion that you budgeted whatever amount for restuarants for eaxmple, but forgot that you went out last Friday and already spent the money.

I think that change of recognising where you want to spend your money  before you spend (whether that "spending" is sending $ to make you more $ in your 401k or exchanging it for a fancypants latte) is the key to developing some frugal muscles and the stache that comes with them. If you're just tracking it after you've spent it the task is much harder.

This is very helpful! Thank you! I was going to start using mint to get an idea of what we are spending so i can start budgeting.  Maybe YNAB is the way to go, so that hubby can see what has been spent and what needs to be spent vs what we have to spend.