YNAB Users?

howamidifferent

Reached my two year anniversary on YNAB4 this month. Cant recommend it enough!!

Books4you

I meant to come back last week to reply to you. Congrats on the 2 years! I'm over 2 years now too and stilling loving every second and still annoying everyone talking about it all the time!

I switched to nynab for january 16 and i use ynab4 for someone else that I'm trying to get back on track at the moment. Both have their pros and cons. I like nynab. Suits my needs and my budget isn't complicated like others so works for me. I did check out everypocket last year, still in the early stage then so not what i was looking for but to be honest i love ynab and don't mind spending around €45 each year to support them. Worth it. I'd probably be still living paycheck to paycheck if I didn't find it.

I am going to lose my buffer and EF in the next 2 months to pay for something important BUT i do have a separate stash aside now to cover if anything pops up. It's mad to think that something big like this pops up and i can just pull that kind of money without being phased. LOVE IT!

howamidifferent

It's a glorious feeling seeing a large bill come in knowing that all of the money is already there just waiting for it with no shortage or change in lifestyle required. Peace of mind is invaluable.

OU812

I'll come back to this thread saying I've totally abandoned YNAB. It just didn't suit me. Instead I pay all outgoings (inc emergency fund & savings) by the week, building them up. I know that everything is covered & I'm in credit on a couple of things. It seems to be a better way of doing things for me.

Books4you

OU812 wrote: »

I'll come back to this thread saying I've totally abandoned YNAB. It just didn't suit me. Instead I pay all outgoings (inc emergency fund & savings) by the week, building them up. I know that everything is covered & I'm in credit on a couple of things. It seems to be a better way of doing things for me.

If the way you do it works for you then that's the main thing really. Glad to hear your're doing well with the savings!

Books4you

howamidifferent wrote: »

It's a glorious feeling seeing a large bill come in knowing that all of the money is already there just waiting for it with no shortage or change in lifestyle required. Peace of mind is invaluable.

100%

wassie

We in our 2nd year of nYNAB and its has dramatically changed our lives. The biggest changes are the fact my spouse & I no longer have arguments about money. We are both in sync and yet we dont actually have to discuss finances as the system keeps everything open and transparent. We literally have a 5 minute budget meeting once or twice a month.

We recently moved back from overseas after many years and being able to set up separate budgets to handle different currencies was a life-saver. Only downfall was not being able to transfer between budgets.

The best part of this system I believe is its flexibility - you dont need to change your own financial system to suit i.e. we have a mix of cash at hand for each of us, mortgages with redraws, savings and current accounts and multiple credit cards all - yet we know where every single cent is allocated and going. Powerful stuff - and unless you experience this it really is hard to understand.

I understand folks dont like the idea entering every transaction, but the app makes light work of that (habit forming) and it actually chnages the mindset in unnecessary spending.

kala85

Can you sync from ynab on the android version to ynab desktop.

howamidifferent

kala85 wrote:

Can you sync from ynab on the android version to ynab desktop.

Yes, two ways to do so, either using Dropbox to sync or sync over WiFi if on same lan.

Dord

howamidifferent wrote: »

Yes, two ways to do so, either using Dropbox to sync or sync over WiFi if on same lan.

That's only on YNAB4. On the "new" web version (usually referred to as nYNAB), you just need to login to the app. It'll update immediately if you have internet access.

I've been using YNAB on and off for the past 3 or 4 years. I found it very useful and well worth the money. When I first used it (YNAB4), I think I made back the license cost in savings in the first month.

Used properly it was really like getting a pay rise, but without any extra money.

The tricky thing I found was getting my wife to use it regularly. When it comes to a couple using it both really need to have bought in for it to work.

jesso

So I've been using YNAB for a few months, and I've been quite strict about it inputting money in / out.
Thing is.... I seem to be using it a spending / income tracker, and not as a budgeting tool.
I think I understand how the budgeting thing works, but I just can't make it work for me. I think seeing people who use it successfully in real life would be a real help.
I'd love to sit down with someone from the group some morning over coffee and see if I can get a handle on it.

keane2097

jesso wrote: »

So I've been using YNAB for a few months, and I've been quite strict about it inputting money in / out.
Thing is.... I seem to be using it a spending / income tracker, and not as a budgeting tool.
I think I understand how the budgeting thing works, but I just can't make it work for me. I think seeing people who use it successfully in real life would be a real help.
I'd love to sit down with someone from the group some morning over coffee and see if I can get a handle on it.

Are you assigning your income to categories as it comes in? You should be making conscious decisions about what your money is going to be doing as it comes in and assigning it to the appropriate categories.

If you are doing this and your spending is not reflecting the decisions you are making for your money up front then you have to think about either changing your behaviour or changing how you are assigning your income.

I can imagine that setting up pie in the sky category budgets would lead to the tool being ineffective. For example if I were to budget €50 to my restaurants category for the month I might be so far gone over it by the middle of week 2 that it is an irrelevance. If I set it to €200 and I'm gone over it by the middle of week 2 it would be a jolt to tell me I might need to curb my enthusiasm.

wassie

Hi jesso.

Firstly congrats in tracking your income and expenditure - I see this as the biggest obstacle stopping people from successfully using YNAB. If you are able to diligently do this then you have literally done the hard work part of the process. Budgeting is actually quite simple and once you are familiar you can often do this in as little as 10 mins a month.

Have you tried any of the free YNAB classes: www.youneedabudget.com/classes

If not then I suggest doing a few of these - they are essentially online workshops/webinars and offer great practical walkthroughs. Plus you get to ask questions from the tutors whom are very experienced.

I did most of these and whilst a lot of it I knew already, there were a few 'ah-ha' moments which set me on my way.

Let us know how you get on an if your still in a bother give us a shout out.

jlm29

I downloaded ynab last night in my laptop and phone (I’m sick of always waiting for my wages to land!!). I need to have a good play around with it, but it seems a bit complicated!! I have limited time at the moment for tutorials, etc. Could anyone recommend a good but quick one to start on??

howamidifferent

jlm29 wrote: »

I downloaded ynab last night in my laptop and phone (I’m sick of always waiting for my wages to land!!). I need to have a good play around with it, but it seems a bit complicated!! I have limited time at the moment for tutorials, etc. Could anyone recommend a good but quick one to start on??

All of the beginner tutorial videos are here, 10 minutes each.

jlm29

Thank, I had a quick look at the first one today.
I sat down and played with it for a while today. I have realised that the reason I have no money is that there’s more going out than coming in. Depressing! Time to start eating beans on toast!

RexHamilton

Would people recommend this as the best spending tracker/ budgeting app/ programme around at the moment?

I was in the states last year and a friend had Mint. It's linked to your bank account, savings and credit card accounts and made the whole thing really easy. There doesn't seem to be anything as straight forward around in Ireland though.

howamidifferent

Mint is USA based and is a retrospective look at your spending. YNAB is forward looking as you budget your money. Much better to clarify your priorities. Get a hold of YNAB4 , better than the new online version and doesn't cost €83 per year!

keane2097

The idea of YNAB is to decide in advance what your money is going to be used for. You then record your spending as it happens and so are made cognisant of how much you have spent this month for each category (groceries, clothes, booze etc) and are able to adjust your spending and/or your allocation for the remainder of the month.

Mint auto-tracking your purchases is almost tangential to budgeting. If I want to see transactions out of my bank account I can just look at my bank account. The transactions are already there, what am I going to do about them at that stage? 'Oh yeah I overspent again last month' - good to know but not really an action plan going forward.

RexHamilton

Ah OK, I see the difference. I like the sound of YNAB. Mint was handy because it was automatically tracking spending and transfers across all your accounts. But yeah, I think I'll try YNAB. Cheers.

cruizer101

keane2097 wrote: »

The transactions are already there, what am I going to do about them at that stage? 'Oh yeah I overspent again last month' - good to know but not really an action plan going forward.

Not sure I'd fully agree with that, the first step too saving money is to see where you are spending it, you also can't create a budget without some idea of what you are spending on different items.

keane2097

cruizer101 wrote: »

Not sure I'd fully agree with that, the first step too saving money is to see where you are spending it, you also can't create a budget without some idea of what you are spending on different items.

What you quoted doesn't contradict what you wrote.

RexHamilton

I'm going to have to play around with it a little bit, but is there a way to set up when direct debits are due to come out so it's easy to have a glance and see what's in your account and what's due out this week/ over the next few weeks.

wench

Yes, you can add scheduled transactions
https://docs.youneedabudget.com/article/165-scheduled-transactions

RexHamilton

Cheers. Starting to get the hang of it.

Putting in my monthly budget, but getting paid fortnightly, it has me in the red for my projected spending. It seems to be because when I entered upcoming transactions for the month ahead it budgets for them, but doesn't allow for the wages coming in in two weeks time.

Anyway, I can see the value in this already because this weekend, as I just got paid would normally be a weekend of going for coffees, or pints with the lads or whatever, not really thinking about the rest of the month, but already I'm thinking about if i went out, how much I'd be leaving myself for the rest of the month.

wench

RexHamilton wrote: »

Putting in my monthly budget, but getting paid fortnightly, it has me in the red for my projected spending. It seems to be because when I entered upcoming transactions for the month ahead it budgets for them, but doesn't allow for the wages coming in in two weeks time.

The YNAB mantra is to budget only the money you have, and then spend according to your category balances.

This can mean budgeting a few times a month until you are in a position to get ahead.



There is a good user forum here
https://forum.youneedabudget.com/discussions