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How often do you stick to your overall monthly bud...
# budgeting
b
How often do you stick to your overall monthly budget? (1 = Almost never, 5 = Almost always. Please consider your total spending, not individual categories.)
m
Im assuming this is for non YNAB users? Bc the way budgeting works in YNAB this doesn't really apply.
s
What happens if you spend more money than you allocated in YNAB?
m
When you are using YNAB, if you want to spend money in a category you don't have enough money in, you need to cover that spending from another category. This is an intentional process, and it's not a negative, bc you are simply re-alligning spending towards your values. At that time, I valued A > B, so I reallocated my money from group A to B.
s
That's what you are supposed to do, but YNAB can't stop you from swiping your credit card just because you didn't allocate funds
so what happens in that case?
m
you still have to pull from another category, so you still aren't overbudget, there is no "budget" to go over. you are just reallocating funds
s
I don't understand what you mean. Let's say your income is $5k for February and you spent $6k? That means you overspent, right? I don't see how YNAB means you can't spend more than you were supposed to
m
you had to of decided to pull from savings buckets. If you arent' doing that, you just aren't using YNAB. The tool can't force you to use it, but if you are not reconciling around your spending, you are doing "retroactive reporting" and not budgeting from a YNAB perspective. https://frum.finance/budgeting/why-ynab/
like obviously just linking your accounts doesn't mean you are using the software
if you are saying you had no savings, made 5k and spend 6k, then you are definitely not using YNAB in any sense.
a YNAB user doesn't think about spending in the way you are presenting it though. It's not income vs expenses. You assign your values at each transaction.
so if you are asking how often i spend more in one of my categories than what I targeted for? Very often How often do I go over budget? Not possible.
s
Ok, I think I see our misunderstanding. I was considering spending from savings above your planned expenses was going off budget. You were not
👆 1
b
@mysterious-tomato-10057 I think your getting too technical... The point of the question is how often do we not stick to our original plan
s
Well, I was not really asking about moving from groceries to clothing and the like, because I think that expected and doesn't affect overall spending
m
@broad-australia-98095 I am doing this incredibly intentionally, because when I see people being successful here is when they are able to switch how they think about it. I am being technical for an important reason.
Ok, I think I see our misunderstanding. I was considering spending from savings above your planned expenses was going off budget. You were not
If I chose to pull from savings, that is not a negative thing at all. It's actually another example of aligning values with spending
b
I don't see how giving different definition to terms changes how people think about it
s
My question is still valid, because if you keep spending from savings, instead of sticking to what you planned on spending, you run out of savings or go into debt
b
No, pulling from savings is a problem
if after x months you'll run out
m
The point of the question is how often do we not stick to our original plan
@broad-australia-98095 This is exactly the problem. Sticking to the original plan shouldn't be the goal
s
I think it is a goal to keep total expenditures under a threshold
m
That is definitely not the way I have seen families reach success
⁉️ 1
s
category to category switching is not really relevant to financial health
m
I've seen this fail time after time
b
I don't follow. If in your financial plan all you could spend monthly is x amount and you go over it, you went over your budget
👆 1
You didn't hold yourself accountable
s
@mysterious-tomato-10057 enlighten us
m
We have too many people telling me I am wrong in different ways that I'm not sure which point to respond to lol
b
Is two too many lol
m
But I can tell you that people come in with the perspective you guys are stating and I have to break them out of it
@broad-australia-98095 well each of you have multiple disagreements 😛
b
lol
s
It's just one way. It sounds like you are saying you can spend whatever you want every month as long as you planned it, regardless of your actual income, and not worry about depleting your savings
👆 1
m
Let's take this slowly and think through all the repercussions together. What is wrong with depleting your savings if that is what you want to do?
b
the point is you don't wnat to do that
but you do it anyway
m
you didn't answer my question
b
I disagree with your premise
No one is talking about that
m
I am not being heard. I didn't give a premise. I asked a question to setup a discussion
s
Nothing is wrong, but your net worth is going down. You can also just use your credit cards and pay minimum payments
I was assuming we are attempting to maximize net worth. what are you optimizing for?
m
🙂 Now you see where I am going
I do NOT want to optimize for net worth at all
s
...
m
You want to optimize for value/meaning of life. Not net worth.
sometimes that means spending a lot more than what came in
but you need to be incredibly intentional, which ynab lets you do
s
ok, but part of that is being able to cover current and future expenses
which depleting your savings or going into debt makes difficult
m
you are missing the part where the person intentionally decided to pull from one of their long term savings buckets, that means that the thing they want now provides more value to them than the thing in the future
s
got to go, but hope to return to the discussion later
m
👍
This convo is KEY!
Excited to continue
And I do understand I am using shocking or surprising language, but thinking about this as values optimization vs net worth is really critical. That includes not trying to stay "within budget"
b
where the person intentionally decided to pull from one of their long term savings buckets
I think this is a big assumption
m
I think this is a big assumption
It was my starting premise of being a YNAB user
b
Yes, I think the point is that YNAB is not being utlized correctly
it's bucket approach is being abused
m
If someone isn't a YNAB user, then I fully agree with what you guys are saying
b
That's what happens to me in YNAB
It most def is not my intention to pull from savings
but so it goes
m
understood, but you get that means you skipped a step as a user of the tool
so you know what you did and why it happened
b
Yes but I assumed the Poll was assuming that as well
I would be surprised if the current respondents said they did it as intentionally as you made it out to be, even if they're YNAB users
m
idk i go over budget all the time by the traditional sense of the word
and i don't think its a bad thing
but i am being intentional about it
b
I understand. It sounds like you would prefer the poll question to be rephrased to "How often do you ignore YNAB in your spending" (not speaking for Shaul, that's how I read it)
m
i imagine that is what he meant by it, but I wanted to utilize the opportunity to make it clear that if you actually used YNAB, this problem would disappear.
b
Ok now I understand your point. Yes, if we all spent intentionally then going overbudget (i.e. spending more than the original plan) is not an issue
unless our intentions are out of wack lol
m
💪
b
Wow that was a lot 😀. When I took the poll I was taking it as the way Ari was as well. That being said I understand your point of the intentions and that's really what's key here. Great convo and back and forth.
❤️ 1
m
I had assumed everyone would have taken it the way ari took it, and just wanted to utilize this as a learning opportunity! 🙂
b
Mission accomplished 👍
❤️ 1
r
YNAB has moved away from "budgeting" to "aligning your spending with your values" unfortunately, they picked the wrong name for their product and are stuck with it 🙂
💯 1
b
YNAYSWYV doesn't have the same ring to it
m
you just need a creative way of pronouncing it
s
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audio_message.m4a
🙌 1
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