re: I'm a YNAB geek.

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saved up money to pay off my 11k car note after getting divorced in roughly a year and save up 5500 for an emergency fund and 1200 into a Roth I started recently, while making ~45k a year. I'm very, very happy with how things have gone over the last 2 years and love how much YNAB has helped me get a grip on my finances. I tell anyone who will listen about it

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This is what I'm looking to do (minus the divorce) on roughly the same salary. Any specific advice? I have been very diligently budgeting for 1 month now and already brought my credit card debt from about $5,700 to $3,300.

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Save before spending, dont just spend and save what's left over.

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The biggest life lesson I have learned in my short time of being a working professional.

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wow. that is fantastic. I am at 60% now. Striving to get it higher. Wife just laid off so may be awhile especially with this obamacare garbage.

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Its really awesome. Sub 3.5% mortgage helps as well. We just live way below our means. We bought a $325k home in a nice suburb and our kids go to public school. I drive a paid for 2007 Volvo sedan with 104,000 miles on it. I could pay cash for a brand new one. But why would I?

I don't have any expensive hobbies, not that there is anything wrong with it, but not being interested in expensive things helps.

We take what I feel are great vacations, albeit modest in price. We did Disney for about $2500. That was the most expensive vacation we have ever taken. Yes, we could have spent $10,000, but we had a great family vacation.

There are families that we know that make significant less than we do that have country club memberships, drive two new cars and take expensive summer and winter vacations every year while living in a $500k+ house. There is no way they are not doing this on debt.

What are the advantages of using YNAB over free websites like Mint?

Doesn't YNAB charge a monthly fee now?

I should probably give it another shot. Currently, I have my AMEX limits set to $5 for notifications. Every time I get a text, I login to AMEX and make the payment. I essentially use it like a debit card but with points.

Then I just reconcile my spreadsheet every Monday morning.

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What are the advantages of using YNAB over free websites like Mint?

Doesn't YNAB charge a monthly fee now?

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It's $50 a year. I have no problem paying for a good product. There is a 34 day free trial. Sometimes you can find links that double this.

YNAB's advantages over Mint are that it makes you focus on the future, not just the present. You have to engage with the software to get the benefit. If you want a spending tracker, Mint or a simple Excel sheet will do just fine. YNAB helps you to change bad financial behavior.

This is what I tell new YNAB users. It really takes three months to see the system working. With me, once I figured out that the check I receive at the end of January should be paying for March expenses (rather than January [CC float] or February [paycheck to paycheck]), it started snowballing.

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YNAB's advantages over Mint are that it makes you focus on the future, not just the present. You have to engage with the software to get the benefit. If you want a spending tracker, Mint or a simple Excel sheet will do just fine. YNAB helps you to change bad financial behavior.

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how hard was it to get your spouse to use it? this is the problem I run into. My wife likes the concept but forgets to enter expenses, or will use generous classifications (i.e. girls night out comes out of food, as opposed to her fun budget).

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Personal finance is 90 percent personal.

My wife was on board from the beginning. It helped the process.

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my wife is fully on board with it, she just doesn't bother to do it.

I am currently tracking everything. And keeping our old budgeting system in place. My plan is to go back and review what we spent on in the previous year, so she gets a feel.

I would like to be more proactive on it. I just don't see her doing it.

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I'm torn as I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

How can this be? I mean, seriously ... how can this be?

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I'm going to try and keep this short. But I've been working with a couple that my wife and I are very close with to help with the finances. A little background on them. Both college educated, but first generation college grads. Combined income of right at $90k. No children.

Both sets of parents are divorced, never managed money well themselves, and essentially passed on these poor habits to their children. For instance, a bonus check would come in and they'd trade in a lease early for a newer model. In the day to day life, it was about instant gratification (gifts for every holiday, occasion, etc.).

Here's an example of what our friends have done/did before I got involved:


- Leased a vehicle with a 1,000 mile/mo. average for the term. When they live 20 miles from work and take multiple trips home (1,300 mi one way drive) to visit family. So now they rent a car for the trips home, get suckered into the full coverage and don't shop for the best deal. Just go down the street to the Enterprise or Hertz and tell them they need a car.

- Moved from a 1 BR apartment to a 2BR at the same complex because the 2BR had hardwood instead of carpet and the dogs were tearing up the carpet. This is a $120/mo increase on a 12 month lease when the maximum damage deposit was $750.

- Got a second dog (from breeder) when they were already struggling to pay for vet care for the first when it had some issues.

- Parents took out student loan in their name to pay for college tuiton with no explanation to their son at the responsibilites involved in repaying them. Crazy high rates that he ultimately defaulted on.

- Refused to work OT even when available because it would interfere with his team's NFL, NBA, etc. games. She was unwilling to find a second job to pay down the debt because it would interfere with their time a home together (they both work non-traditional hours).

I can keep going, but you get the idea. I know they didn't have $1k available before I started helping them straighten their shite out.

Does YNAB read/categorize well the way I work my money? My bank account steadily just says Amex Payment. Nothing after that. I think maybe that was why it didn't work for me. Autodraft stuff was fine. I think all of my AMEX charges threw it off. Does that sound right?