So, by the end of October, you have enough to live on for the entire month of November. YNAB is built with the goal of helping you “age your money” and stop living paycheck to paycheck.īy age your money, they mean they want you to get an entire 30 days ahead of your money. (You can sign up for your free YNAB trial here.) It’s not the ideal, but if it’s where you are now, then it’s where you are now. This is called living paycheck to paycheck. Just write down how much money you have right now and in what ways you need to spend it until you have more money. You just connect your bank account and go.Īfter all, the best way to start budgeting is to… just start. I like that YNAB doesn’t overcomplicate starting a budget. If you budget more money than you have, it’ll turn red. If you enter $100 in groceries, the number will go down to $548.48 “to be budgeted”. This is what will appear on the top of your budgeting form. Say you have $648.48 in your bank account on the day you start your free trial with YNAB. Whether you’re going to use the software manually or connect it to your accounts, you just start with whatever amount of money you have right now, and go from there. ( If you want to know why you should track your spending, read this.) Both our bank account (debit/ checks/ cash) and our credit card accounts are tied to our budget in YNAB.Įvery 5-10 days, I login online, click “import,” and categorize all the transactions into various budget categories. It’s easiest with a debit card, but my husband and I both use credit cards on the same credit card account. YNAB offers you the option of securely connecting to any type of account or you can enter your spending manually. Here’s how YNAB works and how to use YNAB for your personal budget. As of 2019, we’ve been using YNAB for 5 years and have recommended it to countless friends and family members. We have tried several budgeting systems and tools over the years: Mint, Everydollar ( my complete Everydollar review here), spreadsheets, random apps, and now YNAB. In 2016, YNAB moved from being a downloadable software program to being an online (web-based) budgeting program. I’ll first list our 10 favorite features, then the 2 cons (which are barely cons) of YNAB.

This YNAB review is meant to answer that question. YNAB costs $6.99/ month (billed annually), and the most frequently asked question I get about it is, “Why pay when there are free budgeting tools available like Mint? Is YNAB worth the money?” YNAB is by far, our favorite online budgeting tool for tracking spending and money management. See my entire disclosure policy for all the boring details. When you make a purchase through an affiliate link, I earn a commission at no cost to you. Some of the links on this page are affiliate links.

Ynab budgeting credit card