Author Topic: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?  (Read 75421 times)

Joelle

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #100 on: March 05, 2014, 01:49:59 PM »
I found MMM through his podcast with Jesse from YNAB.  Using the YNAB software and method has really helped our finances.  In addition, reviewing your finances every day or 2 days helped to keep us informed and in charge of our finances.  We are now saving for projected expenses and building up funds in our account.

I think it is a great product and wish I could convince more people to use it.

I couldn't agree more. Using YNAB was the starting point of my "Personal Finances awareness".

mred209

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #101 on: March 22, 2014, 04:12:34 PM »
I found YNAB after trying several other Mac financial tracking apps such as Jumsoft's Money, and Moneywiz by Silverwiz, but looking at how we'd spent money after the fact wasn't helping with anything and eventually I found YNAB via Google searches for budgeting apps. Thought it looked a little bit like money for old rope as the idea seemed so obvious put the way they put it, but having been using it for a year now our control over our money has definitely paid off. Love it.

Will

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #102 on: March 22, 2014, 06:55:31 PM »
YNAB is good for budgeting unfortunately it still does not track investments and actual net worth.  We feel aggregating all data into one platform would be most beneficial instead of using multiple tools.  After all, over time don't most people have most of their wealth in their investments?  If so doesn't it make sense to incorporate/merge that data with a budgeting tool?  Just our ten cents.  Does anyone else share these concerns?

This (and the cost of YNAB) is what made me build my own YNAB-based spreadsheet. I combined networth, loan, investment accounts, and budget into one tool. Currently testing and building it out. This year's has a few kinks. Next year's should work smoothly.

A screwdriver is good for tightening and loosening screws but unfortunately it still does not hammer nails or tighten and loosen nuts.  Some feel that a tool which hammers and tightens and loosens BOTH screws and nuts would be most beneficial instead of using multiple tools.  After all, if you want to nail something, don't you also have nuts and want to screw?  If so, doesn't it make sense to use one tool? 

Seriously, YNAB is amazing at what it does, and the price is more than fair.  To try to create something that does even half of what YNAB does so elegantly, considering the time one would invest... well, no kinks this year, or last year, and I imagine next year will work smoothly as well.  To each their own though.

Lol! You made me laugh with your analogy. Well, to be honest there were a couple of things that I didn't like in the YNAB budget and Mint couldn't handle a joint account properly (really a disappointment). I needed to learn to set up spreadsheets anyway, so that's what I used to do it. I learned a lot, so it served a dual purpose. The time was well-spent. Now I'm quite comfortable building them. Admittedly, the meat of my spreadsheet is the budget/expense/income tracking, because that's where I need to focus my financial energy right now, but it has some "branches" to do some light tracking of the other accounts. That's what I meant. I don't intend to build it into a total machine that does EVERYTHING. When I need a heavy duty investment tracker, I'll probably pay for one or find a good free one online.

So, it has been 5 months: how is that working out for you?

And reading back through this thread, I wonder why people were saying that YNAB doesn't do loans, net worth, or investment tracking?  I don't have any loans of any kind, but when I go to "Add Account" it gives me all kinds of loan options to add.  I click on "Reports" and there is the Net Worth tab.  And since I have my retirement and other investment accounts as "Off-Budget Accounts" that I update as needed, it reports everything accurately.  Maybe I am using it wrong?  ;)

pachnik

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #103 on: March 22, 2014, 07:24:47 PM »

So, it has been 5 months: how is that working out for you?
And reading back through this thread, I wonder why people were saying that YNAB doesn't do loans, net worth, or investment tracking?  I don't have any loans of any kind, but when I go to "Add Account" it gives me all kinds of loan options to add.  I click on "Reports" and there is the Net Worth tab.  And since I have my retirement and other investment accounts as "Off-Budget Accounts" that I update as needed, it reports everything accurately.  Maybe I am using it wrong?  ;)
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+1  I do the same as you.  No loans either.  I just update my investment accounts myself and keep them in the "Off Budget Accounts" section.  It works for me. 

GoPackGo

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #104 on: April 08, 2014, 07:24:22 AM »
YNAB has worked great for me. I am nerd so I like to see the data tracked over time and inputing it on my own. Mint scares me for some reason with all my accounts logged in. I think it works great with Triple M philosophy because you can choose to take an extreme cut off the top of the "Available to budget" (ie 40-80%) and immediately put that in a debt payoff, savings or Financial freedom category. It makes me feel like I am out of money when really I'm saving it/spending it on paper before I even make any transactions.

For the comment above you can set loan, investment, or house value accounts off-budget and make periodic adjustments to those accounts to reflect a change in net-worth.

Unchained

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #105 on: April 10, 2014, 02:23:44 PM »
I was going to share my own opinion about YNAB when I read GoPackGos response and its exactly the same as mine.

I tried MINT first and it scared me because here i was entering all of my online banking information into a site thats not even my bank! I know my way around the internet and it still bothers me. Then I found YNAB. It kinda bugged me at first because I had to enter all of my transactions manually but now that I have it set up I love it. Like GoPackGo, I love looking at the data over time and seeing my NW increase or in some cases.... decrease.

CG

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #106 on: April 13, 2014, 02:40:14 AM »
I think there may be another thread for this, bu if anyone wants to try YNAB after reading these enthusiastic posts, it would  be well worth giving it the free 34-day trial, and make maximum use of the very helpful support forum during that time. If you then decide to buy you can get $6 off with a referral code from any user posting here. Mine is [MOD NOTE: CODE REMOVED.]
« Last Edit: April 14, 2014, 02:47:18 PM by arebelspy »

arebelspy

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #107 on: April 14, 2014, 02:48:19 PM »
I think there may be another thread for this

MODERATOR NOTE: You know there's another thread for this, as you've already posted your code there. Multiple times. Further violation of the forum rules regarding spamming and referral codes will result in a ban from the forums.
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AMustachianMurse

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #108 on: May 08, 2014, 06:26:49 PM »
I love YNAB.  I'm doing my first extreme budget experiment and I am trying to live off of 30% of my income, because of direct deposit, shitty bank of america, and credit cards auto deducting it's super hard to figure out where money is going for me...this thing is a life saver.

I even have a shortcut to the mobile app as one of my lockscreen apps so that I can swipe up to it and put in a transaction as i'm in the store making the purchase in less than 30 seconds.  I have every cent i've spent allocated now thanks to this app. 

As a side note, my category (unaccounted for expenses a.k.a. waste) is shattering my 30% goal and it kills me inside every time i open the app and see in big red -($xxx.xx) Sigh...oh well, still working on cutting down the expenses. 

mred209

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #109 on: June 13, 2014, 02:09:49 AM »
I love YNAB.  I'm doing my first extreme budget experiment and I am trying to live off of 30% of my income, because of direct deposit, shitty bank of america, and credit cards auto deducting it's super hard to figure out where money is going for me...this thing is a life saver.

I even have a shortcut to the mobile app as one of my lockscreen apps so that I can swipe up to it and put in a transaction as i'm in the store making the purchase in less than 30 seconds.  I have every cent i've spent allocated now thanks to this app. 

As a side note, my category (unaccounted for expenses a.k.a. waste) is shattering my 30% goal and it kills me inside every time i open the app and see in big red -($xxx.xx) Sigh...oh well, still working on cutting down the expenses.

Out of interest is that on iOS? I use Launch Center Pro for getting to my most used apps fast but you have to unlock the phone first, and YNAB refuses to add URL schemes to the app so that it can be launched from LCP. I've asked them so many times, it's such a simple thing to add. :(

So right now YNAB has to live on my home page, along with Safari and Settings, and nothing else... I do love it though. Changed our finances. And they do such awesome things like giving it away free to students etc. Love YNAB!

AMustachianMurse

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #110 on: June 17, 2014, 06:30:25 PM »
I love YNAB.  I'm doing my first extreme budget experiment and I am trying to live off of 30% of my income, because of direct deposit, shitty bank of america, and credit cards auto deducting it's super hard to figure out where money is going for me...this thing is a life saver.

I even have a shortcut to the mobile app as one of my lockscreen apps so that I can swipe up to it and put in a transaction as i'm in the store making the purchase in less than 30 seconds.  I have every cent i've spent allocated now thanks to this app. 

As a side note, my category (unaccounted for expenses a.k.a. waste) is shattering my 30% goal and it kills me inside every time i open the app and see in big red -($xxx.xx) Sigh...oh well, still working on cutting down the expenses.

Out of interest is that on iOS? I use Launch Center Pro for getting to my most used apps fast but you have to unlock the phone first, and YNAB refuses to add URL schemes to the app so that it can be launched from LCP. I've asked them so many times, it's such a simple thing to add. :(

So right now YNAB has to live on my home page, along with Safari and Settings, and nothing else... I do love it though. Changed our finances. And they do such awesome things like giving it away free to students etc. Love YNAB!

It was a rooted Galaxy S3 running Cyanogenmod.  Unfortunately the S5 doens't have the ability to launch apps from the lock screen :(.  I've heard people using something called the Xposed framework to do the same thing but I don't have any personal experience with that.

BubbaMc

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #111 on: July 01, 2014, 06:22:20 AM »
Up until I started using YNAB in January this year (impulse buy on a Steam sale), my net worth was about -$10,000 and would not increase at all, year after year. If I had money in the bank, I'd spend it.

6 months in, my net worth is $27,000 and my finances have never been in better shape. The software has actually made me passionate about personal finance and I shudder to think we're I'd end up if I didn't start using it.

aj_yooper

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #112 on: July 01, 2014, 07:10:52 AM »
That's a major turnaround, BubbaMc!  Sounds like you were to turn off the firehose spending Way Good!

happy

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #113 on: July 11, 2014, 06:31:00 AM »
I completed 6 months tracking with YNAB end June. I really like it, just as I used to like my previous softwares. YNAB certainly takes it up a notch though with its reports/graphs etc.  Its reigned in my cc float (dang, cc float is cool) Having all my financial info in one place has other advantages - I can extrapolate future expenses, check things like "what was the gas bill last time?", and see the ugliness of my grocery bill:(.
Looking at all my many transactions, I thought I'd try to see if I could cut the number down, and strike out some categories - not by lumping, but by spending less.

Mexitali

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #114 on: September 17, 2014, 10:15:30 AM »
Love YNAB! We've had it for 6 months now; after only 4 months we were living on last month's pay instead of paycheck to paycheck AND we started using it for our business (a hair salon) to track spending and budget/plan for the future. Fantastic software.

RunHappy

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #115 on: September 19, 2014, 06:00:35 PM »
I just started using it (still on the 34 day free trial).  What I like about it, is the ability to project my budget.  I'm still going through the tutorials.  What I love most is Rule #1 "Give a job to every dollar".  I haven't been doing this but now I am.

Will

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #116 on: September 19, 2014, 09:42:47 PM »
I just started using it (still on the 34 day free trial).  What I like about it, is the ability to project my budget.  I'm still going through the tutorials.  What I love most is Rule #1 "Give a job to every dollar".  I haven't been doing this but now I am.

Yeah, that really isn't how you are supposed to use it.  You should only be budgeting money you have.  I know some people will use an "alternate" budget with numbers they project with, which is fine if you are wanting to test some things out, but I truly hope that you are only spending based on category balances as they are today, in reality.  With Rule #1, you can't give jobs to employees you don't have (yet).

Zaga

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #117 on: September 21, 2014, 07:30:39 AM »
I forecast my budget by moving forward one month.  So my November budget estimate is in the December slot right now.  Once I start getting money in for November I will start moving the budget over to November.  As I do that the December budget gradually will empty.  Once I have all I need budgeted for November I will rinse and repeat for the next month.

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #118 on: October 03, 2014, 05:56:18 AM »
I love YNAB, it has been only one month and I already see amazing things. It is fun when I got paid yesterday and selected "Income for November" as a category. Nothing feels better knowing the paycheck you just received will only be used next month. You tend to sleep better at night, because you are not reminded to pay your bills on a certain date, I usually pay them all off at the beginning of the month since I already have last month's income for this month. This also helps me plan next month's bill ahead of time and I can work around it to make sure I am able to save 40% or more in advance. It is nice knowing that if Murphy does show up unexpectedly, you can actually figure out a plan to beat it....one month in advance.

Caella

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #119 on: October 09, 2014, 08:41:13 AM »
I absolutely love this software.
Bought at the steam xmas sale last year, started using january 1st. It's GREAT. The awareness is SO powerful.

Except for a car loan that is long gone, i've never been in debt, always had some emergency fund in place, and even for me the perspective change on the YNAB philosophy was life changing. Since i always had this comfortable situation that I knew I had money in the bank, it was easy to double assign jobs to the dollars. To make that mental accountability that I will buy this, but next month I will get a bonus, so it's ok. The CC float was my best friend! On my Excel spreadsheet that I used to track my expenses, I even put the CC debt (paid always in full automatically) to the next month, because I would not worry about it until then.
The result was: I was not getting behind, but was not getting much ahead either.

Now my net worth graph is a nice upward stair, even when I ignore the money that I'm saving for a huge and expensive trip next year.
Since I bought and started using YNAB there isn't even one month where my net worth went down =D

1967mama

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #120 on: October 27, 2014, 05:46:43 PM »
Just finished my trial and downloaded the program, but still haven't got it up and running :-(

Will

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #121 on: October 27, 2014, 06:30:49 PM »
Just finished my trial and downloaded the program, but still haven't got it up and running :-(

And why is that?

1967mama

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #122 on: October 27, 2014, 06:57:21 PM »
Husband works long hours in a cubicle and travels out of town a few days a week. He has looked after all the finances up until now...its hard to take over the reins of his system which has really just been a spending record.

I'm a SAHM with a rather large passel of children and homeschool the littlest ones still.  I have been to all of the webinars twice now and am still struggling to understand some of the details of the program. Math was never my strong point.

Complainypants excuses, I know. I will get to it soon <wink>

theadvicist

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #123 on: October 28, 2014, 08:54:36 AM »
Another YNAB fan here, in fact, it brought me to MMM!

I love it, as some others have said, for forcing me to really prioritise. As in, if I want to spend money on y, I'll have to take it from x. Whereas all the previous years I'd been using Microsoft money, I would have said, I NEED y, so I'll just have to get it.

I've been a good saver for years, but my savings rate has gone way way up using YNAB, because I can no longer 'lie' to myself about how I've got cash because there's cash in the bank. Yes, I have cash on hand, but it's set aside for something in particular. If I want to use it for something else I will have to free it up, and that hurts (usually enough to stop me).

aj_yooper

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #124 on: October 28, 2014, 10:57:14 AM »
YNAB has been keeping us from spending the same money several times.  Bummer.   We  now keep separate categories for future expenses and keep sending money there.  That definitely helped the cash flow issues.   Once we had the buffer going, things got way easier then too. 

lizfish

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #125 on: October 30, 2014, 02:52:07 AM »
1067mama If you email YNAB with any specific or non specific issues I'm sure they will do their best to help. Although I understand you're also getting to grips with the finances themselves which is two jobs not one!

And please try not to let your perceived lack of maths skills hold you back. Anyone can learn. Just be patient with yourself. :-) both understanding of your household finances and budgeting skills are very important and useful so will not regret the investment. Plus your fresh outlook on the money might be exactly what your family needs to get on the path with MMM.

Good luck!

1967mama

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #126 on: October 31, 2014, 01:38:21 AM »
@lizfish,

Thanks so much for the encouragement!  I am having surgery soon that will lay me up for 8 weeks, so I am planning to use the time to get a handle on YNAB and get it working for our family. My husband totally supports the idea of YNAB, but it will have to be my research and learning and then I will get him on board and up to speed.  I think its a good idea for me to email YNAB (or maybe post on the forum) to help me through these early stages. The webinars were so positive and encouraging and the staff seems to genuinely want to help. Thanks again!


lizfish

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #127 on: November 01, 2014, 07:27:48 AM »
Good luck with the surgery 1967mama. And you're very welcome.

1967mama

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #128 on: December 01, 2014, 08:21:09 PM »
lizfish -- I got going on YNAB with the help of a friend on the phone! YAY! Its quite shocking what an exploding volcano of wastefulness our household is! Ugh!

Kwill

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #129 on: December 06, 2014, 07:51:52 PM »
It sounds like a lot of people here are using both Mint and YNAB. I've not used either, but I appreciated reading all these notes on it. My credit union added a spending tracker recently, but it doesn't work well for me. Some expenses are categorized automatically in ways that don't fit, but every time I change them, the computer changes them back. There's a label for "bowling alley" but none for "rent" or "auto insurance."

What I'd most want to be able to do is to categorize how much of my spending is work related (and how much of that is reimbursable), how much is job search related (an how much of that could be reimbursed), and which expenses relate to taxes. Does YNAB or Mint help you see those kinds of groups of expenses?

Zaga

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #130 on: December 06, 2014, 08:06:53 PM »
YNAB is super flexible in how you make your categories.  If you need a category for something, add it!  There are groups of categories and categories under that.  And everything you see can be renamed to suit your preferences.

I don't like Mint as well, because it auto categorizes things, and I don't really like the categories it chooses.  Going back and changing this is more trouble IMO than entering everything into YNAB and choosing the category at that time.  Plus I like that with YNAB everything is saved on my computer and looking back at trends is easier, I never managed to get Mint to save any of my historical net worth data.  It depends on your personality.

I would advise you to try mint first though, because it's free :-)

Kwill

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #131 on: December 06, 2014, 08:59:38 PM »
Thank you, Zaga. Maybe I'll give Mint a try. I tried Microsoft Money for awhile but I had a hard time keeping it updated. It sounds like Mint does more automatically, which might help.

I don't have any debt, and I feel like I'm being pretty frugal, especially since reading MMM. But work trips and dues for professional organizations and job search expenses make it look like my spending is really high some months with other months being very little over the most basic recurring expenses. My contract ends in June, and before it does, I want to get a better handle on how much I actually live on apart from rent, which will likely change.

Will

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #132 on: December 06, 2014, 10:31:46 PM »
You might as well try YNAB.  It has a free trial period (over 30 days long) which should be plenty of time to try it out before you buy it.  "Before I buy it?!?!?"  Yes, it costs money, but just like anything else, you get what you pay for (as you will see with Mint).  And there are a lot of referral codes floating around to save you some money too.

easypeasy

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #133 on: December 12, 2014, 04:56:02 PM »
I concur that YNAB is great and incredibly helpful.  I've been using it for 1.5 years and over time my tracking and categories have gotten simpler and more closely aligned with my financial goals. I used to track everything at a pretty fine level of detail but now we just have a big "shared" category for monthly spending and manage within that.  Not sure this advice would work for newcomers or people getting used to the software, but the simpler approach is allowing me to get the planning benefits of YNAB without the annoyance of finely categorizing each line item of spending. 

Peony

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #134 on: December 12, 2014, 07:06:29 PM »
Ah, beautiful, brilliant, wonderful YNAB. I have never had more savings. I have never had more financial awareness. I know it sounds stupid to be rhapsodic about PF software, but there it is. The forum is a delight. I am realizing my financial goals faster than I ever thought possible. I simply do not look at money the same way. MMM & YNAB are a killer combo.

catccc

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #135 on: December 31, 2014, 02:00:36 PM »
On sale at steam for $14.99 for the next 18 hours!

Kwill

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #136 on: December 31, 2014, 04:07:07 PM »
On sale at steam for $14.99 for the next 18 hours!
Thank you! I just downloaded it finally. I'd been wavering, but at $15, it seems worth trying.

superkookyburra

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #137 on: December 31, 2014, 06:26:30 PM »
I was on the fence about getting it YNAB, as Mint is free and requires less work, but I was hoping for something a little more (although I'm still not sure I could articulate what more I'm looking for). I decided last week to try the free trial and hope for a good New Year's sale if I liked it.  However, I saw their was the opportunity to win a free copy at every live class they offer, so I signed up for some of those... and won a copy at my 3rd class.  The classes were helpful to different degrees (I'm not trying to get out of debt which is big with the YNAB community), and I multi-tasked as I listened.

I'd definitely recommend watching some videos even if you don't attend the live classes.  I tend to just "play" with software, but this is something that has a system you need to understand to work with properly.

Roadhog

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #138 on: January 01, 2015, 09:53:27 AM »
I learned about YNAB through MMM and love using it.  It's been super helpful with forward looking budgeting.  Have used Quicken for years and years, but only find it useful for analyzing what has happened in the past.   Right now I use both.   I do double entering, but I find it very helpful to get total control of spending and saving.

catccc

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #139 on: January 02, 2015, 07:35:10 AM »
Still on sale at steam for 25% off if any one on the trial wants to pick it up.  I've said this before, but it took me longer than the trial to really love it, so if you are on the fence, now is a decent time.  25% off is better than a referral link discount.

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #140 on: January 02, 2015, 08:14:57 AM »
I was on the fence about getting it YNAB, as Mint is free and requires less work,

I've found Mint either requires more work or more confusion. Perhaps they've gotten better with things since I used it, but I was always figuring out duplicates or re-categorizing things, both of which were clunky on the web interface. I'd rather put them in myself (I import, I admit) and have them right the first time. I trust the accuracy of YNAB much more.

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #141 on: January 31, 2015, 02:06:53 PM »
I tried Mint for a while, but found that it would sometimes duplicate transactions. Plus I would rather plug in each transaction--I find that I'm more deliberate with what I spend (or don't spend...). That's what I like about YNAB,

If you're interested in YNAB, here is the standard $6 off link: http://ynab.refr.cc/3LWRN6P

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #142 on: January 31, 2015, 05:12:59 PM »
I planned to do paper-and-pencil for 2015, but when Steam had YNAB for $14.99, I went ahead and got it. I had been on the free trial, so had started to get the hang of it. So it is January 31 and my budget worked out just fine, although I was doing a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul…wasn't very accurate in terms of how much I spend in what categories. Somewhat to my surprise, I can easily live within that budget, and shouldn't have any trouble saving…if I can quit shopping for stuff on Amazon Prime. Ha-ha. I did do a lot of paper-and-pencil work to make sure I wasn't making any spending mistakes. And I put only my checking account on YNAB--I mean the fixed monthly income that comes in. I started a paper-and-pencil Net Worth record in a green- speckled college composition notebook. That lists my checking account base (an extra month's income, as YNAB recommends), my emergency fund down at the local bank, the amount of cash in the house, and of course, my Vanguard totals for VTSAX and VTBLX. I rack up a net worth once a week…a little too often, but it helps me keep my nose to the grindstone picking up pennies, rolling my spare change, not doing a bunch of clown spending, eating up All the food in my house, taking five-minute showers, keeping the thermostat at 65/62, etc. etc. So I am satisfied with my blended method.

What is really annoying is that a Steam window pops up on my MacBook desktop every single time I crank up my computer. I can't figure out how to eliminate it. Grrrrrrr.  Just have to click Cancel button and move on to open Safari or whatever.

catccc

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #143 on: February 03, 2015, 08:37:27 AM »
I tried Mint for a while, but found that it would sometimes duplicate transactions. Plus I would rather plug in each transaction--I find that I'm more deliberate with what I spend (or don't spend...). That's what I like about YNAB,

If you're interested in YNAB, here is the standard $6 off link: http://ynab.refr.cc/3LWRN6P

this.  I still use yodlee occasionally (to check investment account balances, etc.)  But YNAB is a completely different animal when it comes to budgeting and behavior modification.  I know there are lot of folks out there that say they are already good savers... well, so was I, but I still find YNAB to be a great tool for staying on track and improving on already good stats.  My nearly one income family of 4 (about $85-90K gross) lives well on half of my salary, we max out retirement accounts, and YNAB helps us stay on track and be aware better than any other look-back system I've used.  The next closest good model was one that I maintained in excel, but that was when I was single and without kids.  The mobility aspect of YNAB is definitely worth it, IMO.

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #144 on: February 08, 2015, 08:27:36 PM »
I've used YNAB a long time and Jesse was always a stand up guy and helped me when I got stuck 'way back in the day' when he was a one man show!

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #145 on: February 08, 2015, 08:35:47 PM »
But YNAB is a completely different animal when it comes to budgeting and behavior modification.  I know there are lot of folks out there that say they are already good savers... well, so was I, but I still find YNAB to be a great tool for staying on track and improving on already good stats.  My nearly one income family of 4 (about $85-90K gross) lives well on half of my salary, we max out retirement accounts, and YNAB helps us stay on track and be aware better than any other look-back system I've used.  The next closest good model was one that I maintained in excel, but that was when I was single and without kids.  The mobility aspect of YNAB is definitely worth it, IMO.
I agree. The approaches is quite different from Mint, which just tracks spending. YNAB tries to get you to project your expenses.

I love YNAB (and because I'm a student, it's free!). But ironically, I don't use it the way it was intended--I budget based on this month's income, not last month's. I do this because I want my YNAB information to be tax accurate.
But the two things I love about YNAB are
  • So long as you spend based on your budget, and not based on your bank statements or credit cards, if you budget money for something, that money exists somewhere in your accounts. It doesn't matter where it is, it's there. This is especially helpful to me because I have almost 20 bank accounts (and actually keep money in 8 of them)
  • You can use the budgeting aspect to know exactly how much you have left over at the end of the month to throw at investments (or debt, if you are paying down debt). YNAB makes it very easy for you to maximize the money you throw at investments and/or debt. There is no way that without the help of YNAB I could as easily manage having almost 20 bank accounts and having to save up to pay rent and school fees three times a year (I live on campus) while maximizing my investment contributions as I do now.

smalllife

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #146 on: February 09, 2015, 05:16:54 AM »
I budget based on this month's income, not last month's. I do this because I want my YNAB information to be tax accurate.

The Income/Expense report is tax accurate regardless of which month you budget the money - it's actually one of my pet peeves because I don't use YNAB for tax purposes and don't see how it would help, but I would love a budgeted vs. spent for some categories.

johnny847

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #147 on: February 09, 2015, 04:02:35 PM »
I budget based on this month's income, not last month's. I do this because I want my YNAB information to be tax accurate.

The Income/Expense report is tax accurate regardless of which month you budget the money - it's actually one of my pet peeves because I don't use YNAB for tax purposes and don't see how it would help, but I would love a budgeted vs. spent for some categories.
Haha wow. I had just assumed that if I entered income as budgeted for next month, it would show up as next month's income in the income/expense report. I just tried it and you're right, it shows up as income for the current month.
I need something to keep track of my income for tax purposes. Almost half my income comes from a source that has no taxes withheld, so I need to set my tax withholding to be far higher than normal. YNAB can track inform for me, among many other things, so I use YNAB for this purpose.

As for budgeted vs spent - isn't that already in the budget section? You budget X, and it tells you that you spent Y, and you have Z=X-Y left over? Maybe I'm not understanding your question.

smalllife

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #148 on: February 10, 2015, 05:07:18 AM »
I budget based on this month's income, not last month's. I do this because I want my YNAB information to be tax accurate.

The Income/Expense report is tax accurate regardless of which month you budget the money - it's actually one of my pet peeves because I don't use YNAB for tax purposes and don't see how it would help, but I would love a budgeted vs. spent for some categories.
Haha wow. I had just assumed that if I entered income as budgeted for next month, it would show up as next month's income in the income/expense report. I just tried it and you're right, it shows up as income for the current month.
I need something to keep track of my income for tax purposes. Almost half my income comes from a source that has no taxes withheld, so I need to set my tax withholding to be far higher than normal. YNAB can track inform for me, among many other things, so I use YNAB for this purpose.

As for budgeted vs spent - isn't that already in the budget section? You budget X, and it tells you that you spent Y, and you have Z=X-Y left over? Maybe I'm not understanding your question.

I assumed the same thing when I moved to 4.  I do use the budget section in general for that information, but I haven't mastered the export function to find averages, track personal paybacks or do detailed month over month analysis. So I just don't do analysis anymore.

catccc

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Re: YNAB - Any other YNABers in the house?
« Reply #149 on: February 10, 2015, 10:04:08 AM »
But YNAB is a completely different animal when it comes to budgeting and behavior modification.  I know there are lot of folks out there that say they are already good savers... well, so was I, but I still find YNAB to be a great tool for staying on track and improving on already good stats.  My nearly one income family of 4 (about $85-90K gross) lives well on half of my salary, we max out retirement accounts, and YNAB helps us stay on track and be aware better than any other look-back system I've used.  The next closest good model was one that I maintained in excel, but that was when I was single and without kids.  The mobility aspect of YNAB is definitely worth it, IMO.
I agree. The approaches is quite different from Mint, which just tracks spending. YNAB tries to get you to project your expenses.

I love YNAB (and because I'm a student, it's free!). But ironically, I don't use it the way it was intended--I budget based on this month's income, not last month's. I do this because I want my YNAB information to be tax accurate.
But the two things I love about YNAB are
  • So long as you spend based on your budget, and not based on your bank statements or credit cards, if you budget money for something, that money exists somewhere in your accounts. It doesn't matter where it is, it's there. This is especially helpful to me because I have almost 20 bank accounts (and actually keep money in 8 of them)
  • You can use the budgeting aspect to know exactly how much you have left over at the end of the month to throw at investments (or debt, if you are paying down debt). YNAB makes it very easy for you to maximize the money you throw at investments and/or debt. There is no way that without the help of YNAB I could as easily manage having almost 20 bank accounts and having to save up to pay rent and school fees three times a year (I live on campus) while maximizing my investment contributions as I do now.

why so many bank accounts?

 

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