I feel that the fact that YNAB is importing transactions on a daily basis (average) and not instantly is a huge let down. The ultimate goal with YNAB is that making spending decisions should be based on available money in your YNAB plans categories and not account balances. If YNAB is not updated with instant data it’s just not reliable for spending decisions. Thoughts?

Delay... Not Debt Jesse shares a story about helping his daughter use YNAB to plan her spending and save for an electric bicycle. The bike was $600, quite a big ticket item for a 9 year old, but together they came up with a plan and created a target in YNAB to assign money toward that goal each month. And when the day came a few months later to make the purchase... she didn't want it.   The burning desire for the bike had passed, and the clarity of the tradeoffs she would have to make to buy it set in. At the...

What is a good estimate of how much a post seminary girl beis yaakov Lakewood (leaning towards higher end balebatish) would typically spend on clothes and accessories in a year? I'm trying to budget for this and need a good idea of what to expect...

You're Bad With Money. Here's How to Fix It The average person is bad at money. Actually, most people are bad at money! Living paycheck to paycheck, with little to no savings and a lot of debt is the norm. But you don't have to be. Learning to spend well is the key to learning to be good with money, because all things finanical flow from spending. YNAB teaches you just how to do that.   Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow   Got a...

Hi everyone, I’m looking to set up a budgeting system that uses separate cards for different spending categories (e.g., groceries, clothing, household items, etc.). The goal is to transfer a fixed amount of money to each card each month, ensuring that I don’t overspend in any of these categories. I’m specifically looking for advice on how to set up such a system with low or no fees, while using a safe and secure platform. Ideally, I’d prefer to keep everything within the traditional banking system. If you have any suggestions, personal experiences, or recommendations for services that offer this kind of setup, I’d really appreciate hearing from you! Thanks in advance for your help!

Want to Stop Worrying About Money? It's All About Timing       Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com (<mailto:askjesse@ynab.com>)   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com   Follow YNAB on social media: Facebook: @ynabofficial Instagram: <a...

How Savers Become Spenders Everyone is familiar with the "savers and spenders" dichotomy: some people identify as savers and others spenders, the implication being that spenders are irresponsible with money and savers are wise and frugal. As Jesse has argued, it's a false dichotomy. In fact, YNAB's overarching goal is to help everyone become a "spender" -- a wise spender whose spending is in alignment with their priorities. A good spender knows exactly what he or she is spending for; she gives every dollar a job.  ...

More Money = Less Stress? Think Again It's a common trap to think that making more money is the answer to your financial worries. Many people think that if they just had a bigger income, then they'd be able to afford everything they needed and wanted, and they wouldn't have to worry anymore. But a recent experience reminded Jesse that this simply isn't true.   Jesse spoke at an event with wealthy business owners, and he posed a simple question to the audience: "who here is worried about money?" Every hand went up. Now, these...

#760 - Buy Or Rent? The Real Question You Should Be Asking...     Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com (<mailto:askjesse@ynab.com>)   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com   Follow YNAB on social media: Facebook: @ynabofficial Instagram: <a...

What's a good tool for tracking expenses? Context: I've tried YNAB, but my wife does most of the spending and isn't yet willing to put in the effort to plan monthly budgets right now. It feels like our expenses vary quite a bit month to month, and we don't have clarity on where our money is going. As a first step, I just want to report our expenses so I can look back at the end of a month (or year) and see where our money went. Hopefully this will help us want to budget down the line. What tool would you suggest?

On months like this—where the last week spills a few days into the next month—how do people handle weekly grocery spending in YNAB when the grocery category is basically used up already? I know that there is money for this spending, but it's just not in the bucket

👋 Hello, team!

Do This Now for a Better December Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays! We hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Now that it's January once more, it's time to tally up the damage from the holiday season... that is, if you didn't plan for the damage already!    Unfortunately, Christmas and New Year's is a season where many folks go into debt. Some are still carrying debt from the prior year. Holiday spending doesn't have to be a surprise, however. If you start now, you can set aside a little bit each month so...

because you lose all your historical data

Seeing the Whole Picture When You Spend One of the interesting effects of using YNAB is how it shapes your vision of money through multiple viewpoints. There's the spending you are doing now, when you make a transaction, then there's the tradeoff that spending causes in the future, becuase the spending you do now impacts the spening you will do in the future.   Jesse gives the example of a man going out for sushi. The $30 he spends now on the sushi is $30 that he isn't spending on Christmas presents several months from now. The...

Start Where You Are, Not Where You "Should Be"     Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com (<mailto:askjesse@ynab.com>)   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at: www.youneedabudget.com   Follow YNAB on social media: Facebook: @ynabofficial Instagram: <a...

Money Destroys Relationships... But It Doesn't Have To Money is the source of many relationship conflicts. It's the number one reason cited for divorce, for one. Money can, frankly, destroy relationships, but it doesn't have to. You can claim ownership of your money, and rid yourself of money stress -- and by extension, reduce your relationships stress to.       Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: <a...

You're Not You When You Are Worried About Money Remember those Snickers commercials about people acting out because they were "hangry?" We could say the same thing happens to people who are stressed about money. Maybe you're shorter with your kids, maybe you feel pressure to work more hours, to move faster, maybe you argue with your spouse more -- however your money stress manifests, it still... manifests.   There's another way. You can learn to become good with money, to gain control over it rather than feeling like it controls you, and...

started using codex with ynab-cli to help manage my budget. Codex has a pretty generous free tier on free chatgpt (albeit with 5.2) it can help with reconciling, figuring out how to divy your RTA, categorizing, etc.

this is what I call a balanced budget! (filtered for only those 2 categories)

Who Could You Become If You Weren't Worried About Money? It's an interesting question, isn't it? Imagine for a second... your credit cards are paid off, you have cash in the bank, your bills are on autopay and you don't even know when they will hit because you already have the money in your account. In fact, you get to the first day of the month and all your bills for that month are already paid for. What would this do to your stress? Your relationships with your friends and family? How would it affect the way you look at your life, your goals and...

What My Kids Think About Money After 21 Years of YNAB For a lot of people, money carries a lot of negative connotations and emotional baggage. But when you ask kids about money, before they have had a chance to develop negative associations with it, you can hear a different story. Jesse asked his kids what they thought about money and shares some of their answers. He also discusses how the Mecham family has introduced the concept of money to their kids and helped guide them to developing good habits and skills with it.    Watch The Jesse Mecham...

The Unfair Advantage of Being Good with Money At YNAB we often talk about how getting good with money can help you reduce stress, improve your confidence, improve your relationships, and generally bring you a sense of peace and security -- which is true! There are also some hard mathematical advantages to getting good with money. Jesse points out how getting good with money, learning to set money aside for future expenses can net you great deals. In today's age of ubiquitous consumer credit, paying for things upfront becauase you already...

How much does ynab cost?

A new feature I just discovered in YNAB. when an Amazon purchase shows up in your spending, it is linked to the order in your Amazon account. (I don't remember connecting them, but so cool and somewhat nerve wracking)

The Moment You Realize You're Good With Money Jesse recalls his experience as a young missionary in Germany struggling to learn the language. Every day he would take notes of words or phrases he didn't know, and every evening he would study those words. Then one day, he had a conversation with a man in Stuttgart, and he answered completely in German, without thinking or translating. It just clicked.   Money is a skill, like language, and it can just click too. But often that comes after many days and weeks and months of following the...

Writing a Letter to Your Past Self Jesse offers a thought experiment (or a real experiment if you choose to actually do it, which you should!): write a letter to your past self -- you get to decide how long ago -- teaching him or her about money. Tell them about the things you've learned, some of the mistakes you've made, and what kinds of things they have to look forward to as they learn to get good with money. Jesse actually did write a letter to his past self, and he shares it on the podcast.   Watch The Jesse Mecham Show...

Writing A Letter from Your Future Self     Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com (<mailto:askjesse@ynab.com>)   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at: www.youneedabudget.com   Follow YNAB on social media: Facebook: @ynabofficial Instagram: <a...

looks like ynab now lets you upload images