YNAB

Anyone use YNAB? ( You need a budget)

I was using mint but found it only let me monitor things as I spent them. I like the conscious work required on YNAB to enter expenses etc.

Thoughts on other budgeting software?

I use MINT, but frankly find an Excel spreadsheet+Mint to be the best. Use MINT to have everything in one place, then enter it into the spreadsheet to actually budget things out. I hate that MINT doesn't let me use 1 account for more than one goal.

I need to try YNAB though.

I've used Quicken for years, but have nothing but trouble with Quicken 2015. Online comments shows Mint users have downloading issues from banks. Discovered Intuit bought Mint and changed the syncing codes to their own (the one with the Quicken troubles).

I've since migrated to iBanks on my iPad due to a recommendation. I only need to be able to download my bank account info AND log future planned payments. iBanks does that rather easily. But I will need to pay an annual fee for it to keep the download/bank sync feature. I can also see it on my iPhone. I'll gladly pay the annual fee for the convenience.

I've heard good things about YNAB, but we've had a budget controlled by a spreadsheet called "Within Your Means" for about the past 6 years or so, and it works very well, so I haven't looked into it.

One of the big things for us (when we were looking for a good budget management setup) was that WYM allocated funds for repairing/replacing all of the things we owned,e.g. a roof lasts ~25 years, and costs $6000 to replace, so put aside $20/mo to cover replacing it. It gaves us the piece of mind to know that if my fridge dies tomorrow, I have an account specifically set aside to replace household/standard of living kinds of things.

The other big thing was that you budget by the year, so you don't get surprised when you need to buy oil in October, or pay taxes in July. This was critical when we had to float two mortgages for a year when we moved from PA to CT 3 years ago.

Most of the ones I checked out really only had you do a "savings" and "future projects" bucket.

In reply to WonkoTheSane:

One of the big reasons I like ynab is that it rolls surpluses forward, so that it's easy to save for vacations, car repairs, every 6 month bills. We shall see how it goes.

I always said I didn't need Mint because I was mindful of my spending and never went overboard. Then I got mint and the amount of money I spent on certain things really added up and surprised me. Always said the same thing about budgets so maybe I need one of those.

I kind of reverse budget right now. I set goals to invest XXXXX in my IRA/401K/HSA/Taxable account and as long as I hit that, I figure I'm doing ok.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: In reply to WonkoTheSane: One of the big reasons I like ynab is that it rolls surpluses forward, so that it's easy to save for vacations, car repairs, every 6 month bills. We shall see how it goes.

That works.. The WYM method is that you pre-allocate everything that needs doing (replacement fund, savings & checking (your monthly bills)), and then anything you have above that is free and clear, so no need to "keep tabs" on it. If you wanted to save up for a vacation, you'd put in there "I want to spend 3000 on 7/2016" it'll adjust your weekly budget by $57.70.

Enyar wrote: I always said I didn't need Mint because I was mindful of my spending and never went overboard. Then I got mint and the amount of money I spent on certain things really added up and surprised me. Always said the same thing about budgets so maybe I need one of those. I kind of reverse budget right now. I set goals to invest XXXXX in my IRA/401K/HSA/Taxable account and as long as I hit that, I figure I'm doing ok.

Yeah, that's kind of sobering when you first go through that.. It took me about 3 months of pain to really adapt to the budget lifestyle, but man, it's freakin' awesome never worrying about what to do if my cars' tires need replaced, or my water heater dies. I know that I won't have to hit my savings or go without for weeks to cover it. I never stress having to buy wood (or oil) seasonally, the money is "just there."

WonkoTheSane wrote:

Enyar wrote: I always said I didn't need Mint because I was mindful of my spending and never went overboard. Then I got mint and the amount of money I spent on certain things really added up and surprised me. Always said the same thing about budgets so maybe I need one of those. I kind of reverse budget right now. I set goals to invest XXXXX in my IRA/401K/HSA/Taxable account and as long as I hit that, I figure I'm doing ok.

Yeah, that's kind of sobering when you first go through that.. It took me about 3 months of pain to really adapt to the budget lifestyle, but man, it's freakin' awesome never worrying about what to do if my cars' tires need replaced, or my water heater dies. I know that I won't have to hit my savings or go without for weeks to cover it. I never stress having to buy wood (or oil) seasonally, the money is "just there."

I use capital one 360 for this as well. I budget $50 a month for misc, kids expenses.. I put this into an automatic debit into a "High interest" savings account.. Every month it comes out and now I have an account I can move this from when I have to pay for Summer camps etc.....

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

WonkoTheSane wrote:

Enyar wrote: I always said I didn't need Mint because I was mindful of my spending and never went overboard. Then I got mint and the amount of money I spent on certain things really added up and surprised me. Always said the same thing about budgets so maybe I need one of those. I kind of reverse budget right now. I set goals to invest XXXXX in my IRA/401K/HSA/Taxable account and as long as I hit that, I figure I'm doing ok.

Yeah, that's kind of sobering when you first go through that.. It took me about 3 months of pain to really adapt to the budget lifestyle, but man, it's freakin' awesome never worrying about what to do if my cars' tires need replaced, or my water heater dies. I know that I won't have to hit my savings or go without for weeks to cover it. I never stress having to buy wood (or oil) seasonally, the money is "just there."

I use capital one 360 for this as well. I budget $50 a month for misc, kids expenses.. I put this into an automatic debit into a "High interest" savings account.. Every month it comes out and now I have an account I can move this from when I have to pay for Summer camps etc.....

Does Cap. 1 have it where you can just create accounts within accounts at will, without a process?

mtn wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

WonkoTheSane wrote:

Enyar wrote: I always said I didn't need Mint because I was mindful of my spending and never went overboard. Then I got mint and the amount of money I spent on certain things really added up and surprised me. Always said the same thing about budgets so maybe I need one of those. I kind of reverse budget right now. I set goals to invest XXXXX in my IRA/401K/HSA/Taxable account and as long as I hit that, I figure I'm doing ok.

Yeah, that's kind of sobering when you first go through that.. It took me about 3 months of pain to really adapt to the budget lifestyle, but man, it's freakin' awesome never worrying about what to do if my cars' tires need replaced, or my water heater dies. I know that I won't have to hit my savings or go without for weeks to cover it. I never stress having to buy wood (or oil) seasonally, the money is "just there."

I use capital one 360 for this as well. I budget $50 a month for misc, kids expenses.. I put this into an automatic debit into a "High interest" savings account.. Every month it comes out and now I have an account I can move this from when I have to pay for Summer camps etc.....

Does Cap. 1 have it where you can just create accounts within accounts at will, without a process?

Yes.. That's what I do.. I have one account with 4 accounts inside it...