Hannah's a good trainer. She's competent but just goofy enough to keep things interesting. The editing is also nice. This keeps me engaged so that I rarely fast forward and I generally finish the whole video once I start. Well done guys!
I think we ALL should have that category! Between Julip, her Roomba, The Wish Farm(s)...she's giving us ideas for categories we didn't know we needed #It'sHannah'sFault #BlameHannah!
Was just binging your guys content, never thought id be this early! Edit: working on getting a month ahead on bills I've got only $200 more to go! Have a 10k emergency fund and 6k towards a down-payment on a house so far just trying to keep the momentum going by watching as much finance content as I can!
@@chrism8180 Welcome to Earth Chris, where unexpected things are an absolute certainty. We are all thankful for YNAB helping us prepare for such things.
Me, too! Watching tons of budget videos gave me more inspiration and some anxiety too. ^_^ But it gives me more clarity on how I want to set up mine that works best for me. This YNAB video resonated with me so much. Good luck on your financial goals!
Love how slow and steady Hannah is with her speech cadence. Time for this small brain of mine to keep up, track what she is saying, and mull over how it fits me. 😊
Come for the budgeting advice, stay for the outtakes. XD I actually have my Categories organized into Needs, Wants, and Savings Based on Warren's book All Your Worth. It helped me really figure out where my money should and could go in my earliest days of budgeting, and it's been a great fit ever since!
Same! It works well for me too. After watching this, I realized it's more or less an adaptation of the Fixed and Flexi approach. Like Hannah mentioned in the video, I like being able to collapse the NEEDS category groups to resist moving from those categories when I need to move money around. I have one more breakdown I do: - NEEDS: Monthly - NEEDS: True Expenses - WANTS: Monthly - WANTS: True Expenses Having one more level that introduces frequency keeps my brain organized.
Fixed vs flexi is how I'm going to do mine. And I just want to thank you for the time stamps. I watched the whole thing and now that I'm ready to reset up my budget, it's so nice to be able to just go where I need to go. Also, bless this woman. She's so good at this. But I hope that isn't your real budget, cause if so YNAB owes you a huge raise.
Oh, you're so welcome for the timestamps!! I find em so handy too!! And no worries, I always use a dummy budget for demonstrations :) Otherwise people would question whether Julep is the head of the house or me. 🙃 -Hannah 🌻
I do the same, except on category groups, and order them from most flexible to least flexible: ♻️ Fun Money ♻️ Living Expenses (groceries, transportation, hygiene, wellness, etc.) ⚠️ Unexpected Expenses (stuff I forgot to budget for) ⚠️ Savings Goals ⚠️ Non-monthly expenses ⚠️ Emergency ⛔️ Debt ⛔️ Immediate Obligations (rent, bills, etc.) ⛔️ Taxes 📈 Financial Independence (pay yourself first 😁)
Okay, I have a wild idea here that might be a whole mess, but what if you could tag budget categories in more than one category group, then filter by "category group styles" that you predefine and save as a sort of "budget layout"? That way you could use each of the methods above, and just filter by "category group styles" you've created that correspond for topical method, fixed v. flexi method, pay check 1 & 2 method, etc. For me having these multiple "views" available would help me get a much more robust understanding of my budget!
I have no idea why it never dawned on my to lay out my budget based on paychecks. I'm trying to get out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle and this is such a game changer. And the kitties are absolutely getting their own category now. Thank you for such a great video.
HANNAH!!! I’ve been struggling with spending my entire monthly grocery budget in the first 2 weeks of the month and wasn’t sure how to deal with that. I wanted to do weekly but couldn’t figure out how to do so in YNAB. Thank you!!!!!!!! 💗 💗 💗
WOO HOO! Hope this helps. But man, getting groceries under control is probably the eternal struggle for most of us. It's especially hard if you're single or kidless because it's hard to know how much to buy without wasting a ton of food! I feel ya, gurl. -Hannah 🌻
Also, you can pin individual categories to the top of your budget (and they still show up in their category group). And, you can drag to re-order category groups if you want to - very flexible and about your own unique personal style.
@@MightandMagic88 on the phone app, select a category…select details (the small “i”)…then you will see a small gray “push pin” push 📌 at the top right…click it once and it’s pinned to the top.
Finding a good backbone approach and tailoring it to suit your specific situation is so important, so it's so important reading up on the different options out there! Great video! :)
I do mine from most important/urgent to least important/urgent. That way, I can distribute money from top down and I know I don't have anything important buried at the bottom of a list. My top category is Needs (mortgage, groceries, utilities, etc), next is Upcoming Expenses (predictable long-term expenses like car registration, clothing, gifts, etc), then Savings (emergency fund and sinking funds for less-predictable expenses like home maintenance, vet bills, etc), then Goals (vacation, expensive event tickets, new puppy fund). After that I put my TV/music subscriptions in their own category because I wanted to be able to see how much I was spending per month. And last but not least, I have a category for Wants. It has dining out, "Treat Yo'self" aka fun money, and then any smaller wish list items I'm trying to fund individually, like a video game.
Love YNAB. But one thing it’s missing is bi-weekly targets for bi-weekly bills. Yes, there are work arounds but I feel like this would be a nice addition. I have a bi-weekly category group.
Hey Darcy! Bi-weekly targets is a feature we've been working on a long time! Shockingly it's more complicated than you might think. But rest assured, we're working on it! 🌻 Hannah
I had tried this last year for about a month. It didn't work for me because I would do my grocery shopping the weekend after payday and have no money in the budget for the following week. So I budget my groceries bi-weekly.😁
JULEP!! Your snout is so cute! More Julep, please! Also, I use the frequency method, but only for my true expenses. I think I have 4 or 5 true expenses category groups. Most of life is true expenses, I think…
Thank you so much for YNAB & your fun engaging video on budgeting. I needed to get back on a purposeful budget & reconcile frequently & be back in control. I am switching to YNAB as it makes the most sense and I know will help me get back on track as I put in the effort. Thank you & Happy Thanksgiving!
YAY! I love this!! Thank you so much for your kind words, and we have literally ALL been where you are right now. In fact, this time of year is where my budgeting has tended to get a little sloppy in the past-so many one-off expenses that come with the holidays, but this year I'm sticking to my YNAB guns! 🌻 Hannah
I only watched this video because I was doing something else while watching one from the most recent email. I'm not sure how I missed this one before, but it was extremely helpful! I still have everything set up with the defaults, and that never really made sense to me. In fact, I didn't stay very consistent when I set it up, and I've never fixed it. Now I really want to make it work in a way that makes sense to me. Somehow, it just didn't occur to me that I could personalize it so thoroughly. Thank you!
Oh friend, absolutely make your budget layout your own! Mine has shifted SO much over the years. I personally use the Fixed vs Flexi method, but also a little bit of the topical method. My new budget that I just started with the husband has 10 category groups: Bills (Fixed), Flexi, Just for Fun, Groceries, Julep (dog), True Expenses, Subscriptions, Wish Farm, Credit Card Payments, and Debt Payments! We made it work for us :) -Hannah 🌻
It was so good to finally see Julep! This video was very helpful. I’m going to have to think through my current YNAB organization and see if the other structures might work better.
Well, the beauty is that you can change it whenever you want! When I try new things in my budget, I screenshot my current budget before I make any changes so that if I don't like it, I know exactly how to get back. I also LOVE tinkering with my budget, so I don't mind spending a bunch of time beautifying and reorganizing it 😊 -Hannah 🌻
After watching this video and seeing these three cool ways to organise your budget I think maybe it would be nice that YNAB had a views feature so I could see my categories organized in different ways so to be able to get different perspectives and insights on my money.
Oooooh! Now there's an idea! Feel free to submit that to our customer feature request form: youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek?typeform-source=docs.youneedabudget.com 🌻 Hannah
So helpful!! i have struggled to figure out what makes the most sense to me in terms of organizing the budget, and this gave me several solid new ideas! Thanks!
Two of my Category Groups: DOT and Burst Damage. Damage Over Time group has categories like : mortgage, HOA fee, groceries, lawn maintenance, subscriptions. Burst Damage are: home maintenance/repairs, furniture, medical, car maintenance. The Burst Damage group is stuff that I know I'll eventually need to spend but it's unpredictable and comes in bursts. I still prefer the old skool YNAB approach of budgeting one month ahead. I.e. I only spend money that has already been budgeted from the previous month (or still leftover in that category from previous months). Before YNAB, my budgeting was just two categories: Xbox and miscellaneous. Game related went into Xbox and everything else was miscellaneous.
I love this! I’ve been using the topic method for a while now and I feel it isn’t serving me in the best way might switch it up and try the fixed balance flexi method!
Fixed vs Flexi is my method!! Would HIGHLY recommend! It's nice to get all of your fixed expenses taken care of and then get it out of the way. I don't tend to look at trends or reports as much, so I don't mind having "topics" split up among fixed and flexi. Give it a shot, and the beauty is: if you don't end up liking it, you can always go back! -Hannah 🌻
Long time computer nerd here. I have never paid for virus software and been hit by a virus. Windows 10 has a strong virus protection software built in :) I found having a password management software is a better security measure to take! My new kitten has her own category now. I feel this now.
I would like to understand how to resolve the following situations: If encountering "You assigned more than you have", what would you recommend for the following two approaches? (1) Adjust the assigned items for each month to ensure the Ready to assign value is not less than 0 (allowing some items to be overspent) (2) Keep the "You assigned more than you have" value as it is, even if it is negative, without any adjustments, with the goal of finding ways to earn money to cover the over budget amount.
and 4th one I'm playing with now... by priority... because it's easier for me to take decision on what is really important when I make my review, instead of in the moment...and the temptation to borrow from another category has been strong. so seeing my priorities really helps stick to the plan.
I love how you can customize YNAB to meet your needs. I was a hard time finding an app that allowed me to categorize based on paycheck. I do the paycheck budget method and YNAB was the only one that I found that had great features where I can create a category for each paycheck. So all my first paycheck bills are under the first paycheck category and has its own home. Once those are paid I don’t have to look at them until next month. Also I pay my bills using a separate specified checking act and also my credit card so with YNAB I can make separate categories for that as well.
Oh, I LOVE that!! YNAB truly meets any pay cycle, financial situation, or approach to organization right where you're at. Way to find a unique system that works for YOU instead of following someone else's system! Sounds like you have a really solid financial routine worked out. We love that! 🌻 Hannah
I wish YNAB used tags rather than categories. I want the benefits of each of these approaches, not just one, and not parts of some and parts of the other. Yes, I want to see how much I'm spending topically. Total amount spent on car, for example. But if I categorize that together, I lose the ability to see fixed vs. Flexi, and separately, necessary vs. Unnecessary. I could use those as category divisions instead, but then the topics are way split up, especially if I want to keep the budget in importance order.... being able to tag, solves these problems and more. Auto insurance: car, fixed, necessary Car wash subscription: car, fixed, unecessary Gas: car, flexible, necessary Automobile accessories: car, flexible, unnecessary. Another helpful tag would be commitments. If I'm committed 6 months to a gym membership or some app, I have to pay that each month, even though it's a discretionary expense. Anyway, just saying, I've felt the constraints of trying to use only categories and groups. Consider making it tags!
I agree - I wish I could use all of these methods. But instead of tags I think it would be cool if we could save category group layouts and easily switch between them. So for example all the categories are the same you just have a layout that shows them by time and another layout that shows by topic.
@@gaullaura that's the same thing haha. If it remembers multiple "categories" for a single transaction, which it needs to to show these different "layouts", then the transactions have tags! You can still call them categories if you want, but the difference is that "tag" means you have multiple rather than a single required one per transaction. So your "layouts" could simply sort by a different set of tags.
@@MiguelDuarte42 perhaps that could be a useful gimmick for certain ways you might want to filter your data, but you wouldn't be *budgeting* around it the way you currently budget into categories.
Hello! I am a freelancer and I earn money on varied dates so it's hard for me (and my brain cells) to process everything. I figured out to budget every money coming in on a certain date and budget that money (alone) to some categories that I need to save for. It doesn't cover everything but it's clear how much money is coming in and have been budgeted. I'm still working on getting used to it but it works best for my situation.
I found out this month I need to add a category I hadn’t thought of or seen before. I am on the budget plan for my electric bill. This month was settle up month and I had forgotten about it. Imagine my surprise when I found out I owed 323 dollars extra this month. Going to put a category for yearly electric settle up in my bills. Then each month I will check my bill for any overrun and add that amount to settle up category.
Yes!! Wow! You could even make a "electric overflow" category and make the budgeting goal the amount you needed this year - $323. You know it'll probably be somewhere around there next year - maybe a little less, maybe a little more. A little more mindless (but secure) of a process, and crosses that one extra "to-do" off your list! -Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial great idea Hannah. Think I’ll make it for $400 and if it is less than that next year I’ll have some extra to put in my savings category.
I think my budget organization is a combination of all three? Essentially, top to bottom is by frequency/importance, but I have a couple of weird catch-all groups in the middle that are by topics that work for me. I also have it labeled which line items cannot be borrowed from, and each category has a mix of those. I'm planning to stick with this set up for the next year at least, and who knows what style will catch my fancy then. Fixed expenses (rent, utilities, car, etc) Variable expenses (groceries, personal, household items, misc) Monthly subscriptions Annual subscriptions Just for fun (dining out, books, clothes, donations) Wish farm (which also works as a goal timeline) Big stuff (tuition, new computer, and where I put savings for my nephew) Emergency funds (income replacement, and where I list accounts I don't touch) Sinking funds (I actually dip in and out of here plenty, but I like the money at the bottom so I'm not thinking about it much)
New to the app (like 20 hrs) and nerding out. I'm going Fix/Flex method BUT, I am also interested in that category data. Is there a way to tag/label categories for reporting purposes? You can do that in mint (kind of... it's complicated... like everything else in mint)
I use two checking accounts, so I have 3 categories. 1 for each checking account and cash I carry in my wallet. It's so I know how much should be in each account & on me when I balance my bank accounts at the beginning and end of the month.
After listening to this video, I feel I'm a bit extra (and not in a good way. Lol) I use a method that combines all 4 major styles listed here. Where I guess tracks: I'm also the person that has their closet organized by color, length of sleeve, thickness of material, how much secondary color or screen print is on it, and still a couple more subcategories.
Starting to sound like I need a separate category for each of my streaming services because there is no "one day" that my Netflix, Disney+, and Apple Music come out. I was trying to streamline by making them all in one category but .. hmm. The "put bills in chronological order" makes a lot of sense to me though, so it seems worth it.
I actually get a lot of satisfaction out of having a separate category for each bill and subscription! It just feels like more green checkmarks saying "Hey, you did it!" So who knows, you might get a little rush from it like me 🤪 -Hannah 🌻
Great question! I add $50 to each of the first weeks, and $75 to the last week (because depending on the month it may have 10 days! I organize it like this: CATEGORY GROUP: 🍇 Groceries CATEGORIES: 🍓 (1st-7th) - $50 🥕 (8th-14th) - $50 🍌 (15th-21st) - $50 🥑 (22nd-31st) - $75 So whenever I need to enter a groceries transaction, I just type an opening parenthesis into the "Category" field and then select whichever week the purchase date falls in. BUT, you can also have ONE groceries category (like most people do) and assign it a $50-a-week weekly spending goal, so it will prompt you to put more money in in the months with 5 "weeks." I hope that helps! -Hannah 🌻
Love this breakdown! Right now I'm focused on my debt which should be completed in January. When that happens I plan to switch to the category-based budget. From a reporting perspective, would it be better to start over and create a new budget, or will the reports still be accurate if I rearrange my categories?
Hmmm... that's a good question. I guess it depends on what kind of data you're looking for and what you'll actually be changing about your budget. If the categories themselves are all staying the same but you're just rearranging them into difference category groups, I would think you could probably keep the same budget? Because you can go into each individual category to get it's reporting/trending data-the only thing that will be thrown off is your *category groups* reports. But, if your categories themselves will be changing into whole new categories, and if you heavily rely on reporting, I might do a fresh start to preserve your old data but then start a new clean report with your newly organized data. That way you still get to keep the "old" but have total confidence that the "new" will be reporting and organized the way you want. Does that make any sense?! I second guessed myself like 4 times when I was writing up this response. 😂 🌻 Hannah
Honestly, operationally, I budget the paycheck-wise (but I do that on a post-it note)....but my category template is almost the default YNAB template - but I did split-out food as a separate category and pet expenses separately.
Woo hoo! Come back here with any questions, and I'd be happy to answer them! Let me know if there's any topics I haven't covered that you would like to learn more about!! Congrats on giving YNAB a shot! We're rootin' for ya :) -Hannah 🌻
Hi! I have a question. Sometimes I set up a Category that has a very specific, temporary purpose - like "Moving Expenses". I recently tried to delete a category like this but it told me that all those expenses would need to be reassigned to a different category. So it seems like my options are, assign thing to larger, more general categories that I won't need to delete, or end up with dozens of defunct, old categories cluttering up my budget. How do you guys recommend dealing with this?
You can "hide" categories that you don't need anymore so they don't show up. The advantage is that those expenses are still categorized correctly as "moving expenses" and also if you do end up moving again you can UNhide the category to use it again.
I have a "Rare/One-Time" Category Group that I typically keep hidden wherein I collect these dead categories. If you need to see them again, unhide them, do your business, then re-hide. Simple and clean.
You hit the nail on the head with the possible solutions. Try to keep categories general as a rule, so that you don't end up with lots of one-off categories. Try to think of things holistically. To take an example from the video, I would never put "passport renewal" as its own category, that's completely absurd. It falls under travel expenses. Moving is tricky, I haven't figured out a broader category it could fall into so it is its own category in my budget. Hiding it may help you declutter your budget.
Currently, no! With every new budget, you are set up with the default categories, but you can tweak and edits all categories as needed. Delete any categories or category groups, add more, change the titles-make it what you want it! -Hannah 🌻
That would be handy! Unfortunately right now you can't collapse categories groups in the mobile app, but that is feedback I'll make sure gets back to the team! -Hannah 🌻
I'm seeking help trying to link my discover cc. when i attempt to link it it always pops up "something went wrong", but not that my credentials weren't valid. so I do not know if it is on your end or discovers. I have been able to link my others. thank you.
Hey Yvonne!! That sounds like a situation our support team could handle for you! You can reach out to them at www.ynab.com/help 👌🏻 Click the question mark in the bottom right-hand corner to start a live chat with them! 🌻 Hannah
Thanks. I think I'm going to sructure mine based on the account the category's funds are in. That way my account balances will match up with the group category total.
Bryan, these stickers were a gift from a co-workers wife! They're not for sale, but keep an eye on future swag sales! You never know what we might make next 😎 -Hannah 🌻
Awe Julep is soo cute. Yes, I am assuming this even though I didn't see her entire body. It would be nice it YNAB gave me a percentage amount on the category headers. Keep me aware that some categories may be an outrageous percentage of my budget.
Oh, she is. You are absolute 100% correct on her cuteness. I like idea on percentage amounts! We love customer feedback and ideas!! If you want, you should pitch that idea using our feature request form! I'll link it here: youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek?typeform-source=docs.youneedabudget.com 🌻Hannah
Help! @youneedabudget I love the way you divided groceries each week, but now that I'm in a new month I'm confused on how to reset for the next week. Do I need to delete the old weeks and transfer the transactions to this month???? How do you set up the "monthly" "weekly" or "by date" category for each of your grocery weeks? I love your videos Hannah, they are so helpful and fun!
Hey Grace! A few options here: You can create four separate categories (one for each week) and set a monthly spending target on each of them (for the first days of each week-the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd) for the amount you wish to spend in one week. I fill up each category each month to meet that target, and any money left over in those categories at the end of the month will carry over into the next month. If you *don't* want that money to carry over into the next month, just click or tap the "Available" amount in that category and move that money to another category you'd rather have it like (like Miscellaneous or Fun Money). If there's anyoverspending (say, in Week 1) I cover that with money with the Week 2 category, and then try to stick to that smaller Week 2 category total the next week when I'm spending. The other way you can do it is create ONE category titled "Groceries" and set the spending target to "weekly" instead of "monthly". Tell the target type how much money you want in a WEEK for groceries, and it'll prompt you to put that money aside according to your target. If you overspend on groceries in week one, that overspending will come from week two. Make sure to check your budget before shopping to see how much money you have left to spend on groceries that week! Same rules apply at the end of the month-any extra money will carry into next month, and if you *don't* want that extra money in that future month, just click or tap the "Available" amount and move it to another category instead. No need to delete categories or targets from month to month! I hope this helps! If you're still a bit unsure or I didn't answer your question, always feel free to reach out to our support team! They love helping people understand the best ways to navigate their budgets!! 🌻 Hannah
Hey Ren! That option is currently not available in YNAB, but... just between you and me... the ability to do that is coming soon 😉 In the meantime, you can use "weekly" spending targets! Just pick the day of the week it's usually do, set a spending target to monthly, and fill it up two weeks (or two bars) worth at a time! With spending targets, YNAB does set back your progress when you spend the money. So you could budget $50 for your water bill for the first two weeks of the month (by setting a $25-a-week target), pay that bill off, then a few days later budget $50 dollars for your second bill of the month (or $25 a week), and pay it off when that second due date rolls around. As long as you're budgeting for those weekly targets, YNAB doesn't care when you spend the money. I hope this helps! 🌻Hannah
I can't help giggling about the music licensing fee since y'all only use one song 😅 Also I continually marvel that you can spend so little on groceries. I remember struggling to get by on $35/week for groceries 34 years ago (and I didn't even eat my special weird diet then). I was eating $1 frozen Budget Gourmet for lunch most days...
I am new to budgeting (just realized to have 3 Prime and 2 Audible subscriptions in 4 countries...so you see that I really badly need things to be organized). I have no emojis in my software and am setting targets, instead of goals. Are these videos up to date or do I need to pick fresher ones? It is December 28, 2022. Thank you
Hi Hajnalka! You might find this video helpful, as it kinda covers everything "YNAB setup and theory from head to toe: ua-cam.com/video/CFXIJcyv-Pc/v-deo.html Also, you can understand the YNAB Method that underlies the whole app by watching this video, which may help you as you're navigating your mindset about the budget: ua-cam.com/video/R4VbZCxDDvY/v-deo.html Let me know what other questions you have, and I can try to point you to videos or help docs that will answer your questions! Since this video you watched is about a year and a half old, some of the layout or small features of YNAB may have changed, but much of it is the same! 🌻 Hannah
Hi Hannah, Thank you for your generous offer. Since I watched your videos the whole day, and it feels like we'd be neighbors, I ask you everyinthg, you will know, which videos to solve my problems. Situation: 1. I am a freelancer, paid a different amount every month by a different amount of clients. These payments come to a professional account (from which I do the downpayment for the "company car"). The rest of the money I move to my 2. personal checking account, which I use as a regular person: to do groceries, farmacy, to pay for the summer camp, Netflix, Audible and other 53 things. What I don't need here, I move to a 3. savings account (linked to my checking account). Here I save for taxes, for emergency, I practically keep the money here, until I definitely need it (I put here every cent I don't need, this is my budgeting right now) 4. I have one credit card, also linked to my checking account. 5. I also have various insurance funds, which I pay yearly, so the money is more every year, but I can't really take out money from them. Now: After I set up a template successfully, I imported 3 months of bank statements from my checking account by file and cathegorized all the expenses. This was the first shock: although I have a date for the expenses, all of them funded the current month, or so it seemed. (I paid 3 times Netflix between October and December, but I have not seen my Netflix expense funded for the 3 months, it was a mess really.) My questions: 1. How can I assign a payment to a specific month by assigning a cathegory to a payment I made in the past (file import)? Does it have any sense at all to import at the end of the month all my expenses and cathegorizing them, or is it better to grab the phone every time I pay something (which seems for me a big problem, I am very often away with my kid, I don't really want to grab my phone every time I pay). 2. Which is the best way to teach YNAB that the money outgoing from my professional account is the same incoming money to my checking account (and some of the outgoing money on my checking account appears as a credit card downpayment or on my saving account? 3. After I assigned the money in the app, where should I put it (the money I mean)? Should I leave it on the checking account? Should I move it to the savings account? Should I look at my bank statement at all to not get confused about how much money I have? Should I only leave as much money on my checking account, as much I need in a month? Right now, as you see, I am quite confused and feel like entering the Matrix. I will sleep on it, hopefully you will understand my questions and can send me some videos to get better in budgeting.
Thanks for all the details!! So first up... 1. You said you recently started your brand new budget by importing the last three months of expenses. However, those days have already happened and you spent that money long ago! We don't need to record PAST transactions when starting a brand new budget since that money is already long gone. We only need to record transactions that happen today and onward. This is why you're having trouble assigning your dollars to your past expenses-YNAB only wants you to deal with the money you have *now* and the expenses you have *now* and onward. So, if I were you, I would delete all the transactions you imported for October, November, and December (or you can simply go to the YNAB dropdown menu and click "Fresh Start" to begin a clean budget while stil maintaining your same category groups, category names, targets, etc). Log into your bank accounts and look for the *cleared balance* for January 2nd (which is today, or whatever day you decide to do this). Update your bank account totals in YNAB to match the cleared balance you have in your actual bank accounts TODAY (i.e. if your checking account has $4,500 in it, change your checking account total in YNAB to be $4,500 as well). Using this money you have in the bank TODAY, assign those dollars (in the "Ready to Assign" category at the top of your budget) out to all your different categories, or as many as you can. If you have fully funded all of your categories for January and still have money left over, you can click ahead into February and start assigning any money you see in the "Ready to Assign" category for February to your February categories. This is funding the budget. NOW as you go about and spend money or pay bills, record or import all transactions once they happen, assigning them to their specific categories. What we're doing is deciding at the beginning of the month *how* we want to spend our money (i.e. setting aside $2,200 for the monthly mortgage payment, $850 for groceries this month, $300 for fun spending money, etc) and then recording in YNAB each time we spend, making sure to "subtract" the money from the appropriate category. So, to answer your question, you do *not* want to wait to import all your transactions till the end of the month. Doing this would be just be "expense tracking"-aka, looking back after you've spent your money and seeing how you've spent it. This doesn't help us know when we've reached our budget limits, allows us to easily overspend, and doesn't give us a sense of where we stand with our money. The best way to budget is to quickly record each transaction as it happens. I do this when I get back to my car after purchasing groceries at the grocery store, or once I sign the receipt at the restaurant. I also "pre-schedule" all my bills and recurring expenses (like mortgage payments, internet bills, subscription payments, etc) so that they are automatically added into the budget each month instead of me having to add it manually. You can also "link" your bank account, which sounds VERY handy in your situation because whenever a transaction is cleared at the bank, it sends it over to your YNAB account FOR you so all you have to do is categorize it into the right category. Much less work, very accurate, and takes less time than manually inputting. Let's say I have $500 in my groceries category. If I go to the grocery store and spend $100 on groceries, when I record that spending to my budget, my groceries category will drop from $500 to $400, telling me I have $400 left to spend on groceries for the rest of this month. If you didn't record that spending until the END of the month, you wouldn't actually know how much you have left to spend on groceries... your budget would tell you all month long that you have $500 to spend on groceries, because you never would have told it that you already spent $100 of that $500. If you don't want to record transactions EVERY time you pay for something (I understand kids are a handful), try to sit down every few days and update the budget so that all your spending is recorded and all of your budget categories reflect their true total. This is a long explanation, but I hope it helps make a little more sense of how YNAB works and operates to help us have total control over and understanding of our money! 🌻Hannah
2. Anytime you physically move money from one account to another at the bank (like moving money from your professional account to your checking account), we also want to record that money movement in YNAB for *both* accounts. Let's say you want to move $5,000 from your professional account and into your checking account. Go to your professional account in YNAB and create an *outflow* transaction for $5,000, making the payee "To/From: Checking" (or whatever your checking account name is. This "to/from" option should be one of the very top options in the payee drop down box when you click the "payee" box). This is telling YNAB that you're sending $5,000 OUT of your professional account and INTO your checking account. Now, YNAB is smart and knows what is happening here, so it'll automatically generate a $5,000 *inflow* transaction in your checking account with the payee being "To/From: Professional" (or whatever your professional account is called). Once this is completed, there should be $5,000 less in your professional account and $5,000 more in your checking account. If you want to ensure that $5,000 goes to specific expenses in your budget, go ahead and assign that $5,000 to your desired budget categories right away. This is also the same way credit cards work in YNAB. When you pay your credit card, you'll want to record an *inflow* transaction for the payment amount to your credit card account (to represent "paying" your negative credit card balance back up to $0), and YNAB will automatically generate an *outflow* transaction from whatever account you paid the credit card from (usually checking, unless you choose to pay your credit card with another account, like savings). Also, make sure when you add your credit cards to YNAB that you add them specifically as a "Credit Card" account, as this will generate a "Credit Card Payment" category for you that makes it SUPER easy to use your credit card, follow the budget, and never overspend money you don't have, since it takes money from the category you spent from (i.e. groceries) and moves it into your credit card payment category so the money is ready and waiting to pay off your credit card bill. No more debt or spending money we don't have! Woo hoo!! 🌻Hannah
3. YNAB is a zero-based budgeting app, meaning we want to take EVERY dollar we have and give it a job. When you add all your bank accounts to YNAB (checking, savings, professional, etc), you want to assign those dollars to the various tasks you want them to do for you. If you like for your checking account dollars to fund your living, your eating, your fun, and the like, add any new paychecks or inflows of money into the checking account and assign them to THOSE categories (rent/mortgage, utilities, groceries, fun money, your gym membership, etc). If you like for your savings account dollars to fund your emergency funds, car repairs, vacations, downpayment on a future home, add any inflows of money into the savings account and assign them to these savings categories. My husband and I use our savings dollars to fund our home emergency category, auto repair category, vacations, a new car we're saving for, our annual insurance payments, etc. The funny thing about YNAB is once you create all the various categories you need for all the different spending you do in your life, your bank accounts themselves actually become semi-irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much you have in your checking account vs your savings account, because I can look at my budget and see all the money I've assigned to my categories for both SPENDING and SAVING. Let me link a helpful video that explains this concept a little better! Why We Budget Our Savings: ua-cam.com/video/MUgDQgebFow/v-deo.html 🌻 Hannah
you might have figured it out - YNAB automatically saves. there are some great tutorials on site that walk you through step by step how to start an initial budget
No you don't need seperate accounts, the categories are virtual envelopes to visualise what you want to do with your money. Your actual money can be all in one account. So if you move money in your budget around, you are just changing your plan for the money - not actually moving it from one account to another. I keep two accounts - one for long term savings and expenses that come up only once or twice a year, and one for all the rest of the expenses which come weekly or monthly. Check out YNAB getting started for a really clear explanation.
Hannah's a good trainer. She's competent but just goofy enough to keep things interesting. The editing is also nice. This keeps me engaged so that I rarely fast forward and I generally finish the whole video once I start. Well done guys!
This is an astute description. 🔥
This is my take too.
I have a category named "I can only remember so much"
respect!
🤣🥰🤩🧘♀️
Sure, but why? You don’t need to remember anything, and that’s not “a job for those dollars”…
Patty it's my buffer for I know I can't remember ever little thing. It's my category for me to say oh yeah the kids need a year book. Lol
I have one named "cushion", because i like the peace of mind it gives. As I get better with my budgeting, I'll decrease the cushion amount.
Now I need some peanut m&m's. First I need to create a category to put them in...maybe call it "It's Hannah's Fault" 😂
🙃
-Hannah 🌻
I know, right? And I'm allergic, but they look so good!
This 💯
I think we ALL should have that category! Between Julip, her Roomba, The Wish Farm(s)...she's giving us ideas for categories we didn't know we needed #It'sHannah'sFault
#BlameHannah!
I literally went out to Costco and bought the BIG container of peanut M&Ms after this. #BlameHannah
I love how YNAB is not one size fits all. It really enforces the idea that you need to find what works for you.
Agreed! It’s been what has moved me to YNAB and dropped some other, more restrictive budgeting methods.
Yesss, ironically it FORCES you to have FREEDOM
Was just binging your guys content, never thought id be this early!
Edit: working on getting a month ahead on bills I've got only $200 more to go! Have a 10k emergency fund and 6k towards a down-payment on a house so far just trying to keep the momentum going by watching as much finance content as I can!
Woo hoo Emma! Keep that momentum up, you'll feel so great when you cross that full month ahead milestone! Sounds like you're making great progress! :)
Wait till one trip to the emergency room or a totalled vehicle wipes out in an instant what took years to accumulate
@@chrism8180 Welcome to Earth Chris, where unexpected things are an absolute certainty. We are all thankful for YNAB helping us prepare for such things.
Me, too! Watching tons of budget videos gave me more inspiration and some anxiety too. ^_^ But it gives me more clarity on how I want to set up mine that works best for me. This YNAB video resonated with me so much. Good luck on your financial goals!
@@chrism8180 at least she won’t be in debt for it
Love how slow and steady Hannah is with her speech cadence. Time for this small brain of mine to keep up, track what she is saying, and mull over how it fits me. 😊
😂 GLAD to hear that!! So much to say, such little time!
🌻 Hannah
Come for the budgeting advice, stay for the outtakes. XD I actually have my Categories organized into Needs, Wants, and Savings Based on Warren's book All Your Worth. It helped me really figure out where my money should and could go in my earliest days of budgeting, and it's been a great fit ever since!
Same! It works well for me too. After watching this, I realized it's more or less an adaptation of the Fixed and Flexi approach. Like Hannah mentioned in the video, I like being able to collapse the NEEDS category groups to resist moving from those categories when I need to move money around.
I have one more breakdown I do:
- NEEDS: Monthly
- NEEDS: True Expenses
- WANTS: Monthly
- WANTS: True Expenses
Having one more level that introduces frequency keeps my brain organized.
What book was that ?
Fixed vs flexi is how I'm going to do mine. And I just want to thank you for the time stamps. I watched the whole thing and now that I'm ready to reset up my budget, it's so nice to be able to just go where I need to go.
Also, bless this woman. She's so good at this. But I hope that isn't your real budget, cause if so YNAB owes you a huge raise.
Oh, you're so welcome for the timestamps!! I find em so handy too!!
And no worries, I always use a dummy budget for demonstrations :) Otherwise people would question whether Julep is the head of the house or me. 🙃
-Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial Hannah everybody knows Julep is in charge! LOL.
I use a traffic light system against each category - red dot means I can't take from that budget, orange/amber - maybe - green is Flexi
This is what I use the little colors/emojis help lol
I do the same, except on category groups, and order them from most flexible to least flexible:
♻️ Fun Money
♻️ Living Expenses (groceries, transportation, hygiene, wellness, etc.)
⚠️ Unexpected Expenses (stuff I forgot to budget for)
⚠️ Savings Goals
⚠️ Non-monthly expenses
⚠️ Emergency
⛔️ Debt
⛔️ Immediate Obligations (rent, bills, etc.)
⛔️ Taxes
📈 Financial Independence (pay yourself first 😁)
Great idea! I never thought of that!!
Me too! Super helpful to see at a glance which categories I can touch or not.
We need an updated Hannah budget method 🎉
We need to see more Julep
Okay, I have a wild idea here that might be a whole mess, but what if you could tag budget categories in more than one category group, then filter by "category group styles" that you predefine and save as a sort of "budget layout"? That way you could use each of the methods above, and just filter by "category group styles" you've created that correspond for topical method, fixed v. flexi method, pay check 1 & 2 method, etc.
For me having these multiple "views" available would help me get a much more robust understanding of my budget!
Hey Warren! You can actually share your idea with YNAB developers! Drop your brainstorms here :)
youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek
-Hannah 🌻
Genius! I hope they can make that happen
I have no idea why it never dawned on my to lay out my budget based on paychecks. I'm trying to get out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle and this is such a game changer. And the kitties are absolutely getting their own category now. Thank you for such a great video.
Oh, there are SO many ways to organize the budget!! Glad we gave you a new idea to try! Let us know how it goes for you!!
🌻 Hannah
Same!!
HANNAH!!! I’ve been struggling with spending my entire monthly grocery budget in the first 2 weeks of the month and wasn’t sure how to deal with that. I wanted to do weekly but couldn’t figure out how to do so in YNAB.
Thank you!!!!!!!! 💗 💗 💗
WOO HOO! Hope this helps. But man, getting groceries under control is probably the eternal struggle for most of us. It's especially hard if you're single or kidless because it's hard to know how much to buy without wasting a ton of food! I feel ya, gurl.
-Hannah 🌻
I'd love to see sub-groups! (Group > Sub-Group > Category)
Also, you can pin individual categories to the top of your budget (and they still show up in their category group). And, you can drag to re-order category groups if you want to - very flexible and about your own unique personal style.
how do you do that?
@@MightandMagic88 on the phone app, select a category…select details (the small “i”)…then you will see a small gray “push pin” push 📌 at the top right…click it once and it’s pinned to the top.
The part which kept me glued to the video was watching her selecting an emoji for different categories 😄
Finding a good backbone approach and tailoring it to suit your specific situation is so important, so it's so important reading up on the different options out there! Great video! :)
Getting in comment 2 on a HIFH is GOALS!! Julep looks like a super sweet pup, also.
I do mine from most important/urgent to least important/urgent. That way, I can distribute money from top down and I know I don't have anything important buried at the bottom of a list. My top category is Needs (mortgage, groceries, utilities, etc), next is Upcoming Expenses (predictable long-term expenses like car registration, clothing, gifts, etc), then Savings (emergency fund and sinking funds for less-predictable expenses like home maintenance, vet bills, etc), then Goals (vacation, expensive event tickets, new puppy fund). After that I put my TV/music subscriptions in their own category because I wanted to be able to see how much I was spending per month. And last but not least, I have a category for Wants. It has dining out, "Treat Yo'self" aka fun money, and then any smaller wish list items I'm trying to fund individually, like a video game.
Love YNAB. But one thing it’s missing is bi-weekly targets for bi-weekly bills. Yes, there are work arounds but I feel like this would be a nice addition. I have a bi-weekly category group.
Hey Darcy! Bi-weekly targets is a feature we've been working on a long time! Shockingly it's more complicated than you might think. But rest assured, we're working on it!
🌻 Hannah
What an awesome idea to make a category for each week - for groceries! I love it!
I had tried this last year for about a month. It didn't work for me because I would do my grocery shopping the weekend after payday and have no money in the budget for the following week. So I budget my groceries bi-weekly.😁
Didn't expect this to be as informative as it was, so thanks for that! Might have to go re-evaluate my category groups.
Hannah is the best. YNAB rules.
Now we finally know what Julep looks like!!
JULEP!! Your snout is so cute! More Julep, please!
Also, I use the frequency method, but only for my true expenses. I think I have 4 or 5 true expenses category groups. Most of life is true expenses, I think…
Cutest snout in the world 🐶 More Julep, comin' right up!
-Hannah 🌻
At first, I thought you wrote “sparkle” for the special category, so that’s what mine will be called now. 🤣❤️
Ha! I missed this! That's amazing!! 😂🤣
Special things do add a little ✨sparkle✨to life. It works!
-Hannah 🌻
The way you divided up your grocery category really clicked for me. Thank you!!
Oh, yay! I still do it that same way! We love it. Helps us really visualize how much we have.
-Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial I wish there was a way to do this but at the same day each week and without a 10-day week at the end of the month...
I just wanna say how excited I was to finally see Julep!
Thank you so much for YNAB & your fun engaging video on budgeting. I needed to get back on a purposeful budget & reconcile frequently & be back in control. I am switching to YNAB as it makes the most sense and I know will help me get back on track as I put in the effort. Thank you & Happy Thanksgiving!
YAY! I love this!! Thank you so much for your kind words, and we have literally ALL been where you are right now. In fact, this time of year is where my budgeting has tended to get a little sloppy in the past-so many one-off expenses that come with the holidays, but this year I'm sticking to my YNAB guns!
🌻 Hannah
I only watched this video because I was doing something else while watching one from the most recent email. I'm not sure how I missed this one before, but it was extremely helpful! I still have everything set up with the defaults, and that never really made sense to me. In fact, I didn't stay very consistent when I set it up, and I've never fixed it. Now I really want to make it work in a way that makes sense to me. Somehow, it just didn't occur to me that I could personalize it so thoroughly. Thank you!
Oh friend, absolutely make your budget layout your own! Mine has shifted SO much over the years. I personally use the Fixed vs Flexi method, but also a little bit of the topical method. My new budget that I just started with the husband has 10 category groups: Bills (Fixed), Flexi, Just for Fun, Groceries, Julep (dog), True Expenses, Subscriptions, Wish Farm, Credit Card Payments, and Debt Payments! We made it work for us :)
-Hannah 🌻
Hannah is so awesome…I feel like we could be friends! Thanks for another helpful vid!!
I want one of those YNAB stickers!
Now I feel like I need to redo my entire budget! In a good way!
It was so good to finally see Julep!
This video was very helpful. I’m going to have to think through my current YNAB organization and see if the other structures might work better.
So I'm hearing we need more Julep?? Okay, note taken :)
🌻 Hannah
I really respect the fact you budgeted / listed tithing - good for you!
Um, I'm still using the default category groups from when I started YNAB, lol. I both want to play now, and am also like "it ain't broke...".
Well, the beauty is that you can change it whenever you want! When I try new things in my budget, I screenshot my current budget before I make any changes so that if I don't like it, I know exactly how to get back. I also LOVE tinkering with my budget, so I don't mind spending a bunch of time beautifying and reorganizing it 😊
-Hannah 🌻
After watching this video and seeing these three cool ways to organise your budget I think maybe it would be nice that YNAB had a views feature so I could see my categories organized in different ways so to be able to get different perspectives and insights on my money.
Oooooh! Now there's an idea! Feel free to submit that to our customer feature request form:
youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek?typeform-source=docs.youneedabudget.com
🌻 Hannah
So helpful!! i have struggled to figure out what makes the most sense to me in terms of organizing the budget, and this gave me several solid new ideas! Thanks!
Two of my Category Groups: DOT and Burst Damage. Damage Over Time group has categories like : mortgage, HOA fee, groceries, lawn maintenance, subscriptions. Burst Damage are: home maintenance/repairs, furniture, medical, car maintenance. The Burst Damage group is stuff that I know I'll eventually need to spend but it's unpredictable and comes in bursts.
I still prefer the old skool YNAB approach of budgeting one month ahead. I.e. I only spend money that has already been budgeted from the previous month (or still leftover in that category from previous months).
Before YNAB, my budgeting was just two categories: Xbox and miscellaneous. Game related went into Xbox and everything else was miscellaneous.
The warlock in me greatly approves of these category names
I love this! I’ve been using the topic method for a while now and I feel it isn’t serving me in the best way might switch it up and try the fixed balance flexi method!
Fixed vs Flexi is my method!! Would HIGHLY recommend! It's nice to get all of your fixed expenses taken care of and then get it out of the way. I don't tend to look at trends or reports as much, so I don't mind having "topics" split up among fixed and flexi. Give it a shot, and the beauty is: if you don't end up liking it, you can always go back!
-Hannah 🌻
Love how you can rename category groups, and this was really helpful.
YAY, oh I'm so glad! My husband and I definitely make our budget our own. Emojis evvvvverywhere. 😂
🌻Hannah
Hanna is amazing teacher. Thank you 🙏
Aww, so kind!! Thank you so much! Now I'm craving peanut M&Ms.
🌻 Hannah
Thanks! YNAB is the epitome of a thing done well.
I got super excited at 8:20
Me too, Adam. Me too 🐶
-Hannah 🌻
Love the frozen group idea!
These are all great ideas / budget templates!
Long time computer nerd here. I have never paid for virus software and been hit by a virus. Windows 10 has a strong virus protection software built in :) I found having a password management software is a better security measure to take!
My new kitten has her own category now. I feel this now.
I would like to understand how to resolve the following situations:
If encountering "You assigned more than you have", what would you recommend for the following two approaches?
(1) Adjust the assigned items for each month to ensure the Ready to assign value is not less than 0 (allowing some items to be overspent)
(2) Keep the "You assigned more than you have" value as it is, even if it is negative, without any adjustments, with the goal of finding ways to earn money to cover the over budget amount.
and 4th one I'm playing with now... by priority... because it's easier for me to take decision on what is really important when I make my review, instead of in the moment...and the temptation to borrow from another category has been strong. so seeing my priorities really helps stick to the plan.
Nice! Makes it easier to know where you can borrow money from and where it should stay put. I like it!
🌻 Hannah
I love how you can customize YNAB to meet your needs. I was a hard time finding an app that allowed me to categorize based on paycheck. I do the paycheck budget method and YNAB was the only one that I found that had great features where I can create a category for each paycheck. So all my first paycheck bills are under the first paycheck category and has its own home. Once those are paid I don’t have to look at them until next month.
Also I pay my bills using a separate specified checking act and also my credit card so with YNAB I can make separate categories for that as well.
Oh, I LOVE that!! YNAB truly meets any pay cycle, financial situation, or approach to organization right where you're at. Way to find a unique system that works for YOU instead of following someone else's system! Sounds like you have a really solid financial routine worked out. We love that!
🌻 Hannah
Lol! I made it through to the budget by paycheck before I hit the ah ha moment! Thank you so much! 💓
I wish YNAB used tags rather than categories. I want the benefits of each of these approaches, not just one, and not parts of some and parts of the other.
Yes, I want to see how much I'm spending topically. Total amount spent on car, for example. But if I categorize that together, I lose the ability to see fixed vs. Flexi, and separately, necessary vs. Unnecessary. I could use those as category divisions instead, but then the topics are way split up, especially if I want to keep the budget in importance order.... being able to tag, solves these problems and more.
Auto insurance: car, fixed, necessary
Car wash subscription: car, fixed, unecessary
Gas: car, flexible, necessary
Automobile accessories: car, flexible, unnecessary.
Another helpful tag would be commitments. If I'm committed 6 months to a gym membership or some app, I have to pay that each month, even though it's a discretionary expense.
Anyway, just saying, I've felt the constraints of trying to use only categories and groups. Consider making it tags!
I agree - I wish I could use all of these methods. But instead of tags I think it would be cool if we could save category group layouts and easily switch between them. So for example all the categories are the same you just have a layout that shows them by time and another layout that shows by topic.
I think you can do this by using hashtags on the Memo field. Hannah even mentioned this in a video recently
Yep I would love a due date column and amount column on the face of the budgwt
@@gaullaura that's the same thing haha. If it remembers multiple "categories" for a single transaction, which it needs to to show these different "layouts", then the transactions have tags! You can still call them categories if you want, but the difference is that "tag" means you have multiple rather than a single required one per transaction. So your "layouts" could simply sort by a different set of tags.
@@MiguelDuarte42 perhaps that could be a useful gimmick for certain ways you might want to filter your data, but you wouldn't be *budgeting* around it the way you currently budget into categories.
Those M&M’s look so good
Stuff I forgot to Budget For was a big one for me in my first year. I also used to need ‘Things That I don’t Know What They Are’. I’m past that now!!
Hello! I am a freelancer and I earn money on varied dates so it's hard for me (and my brain cells) to process everything. I figured out to budget every money coming in on a certain date and budget that money (alone) to some categories that I need to save for. It doesn't cover everything but it's clear how much money is coming in and have been budgeted. I'm still working on getting used to it but it works best for my situation.
I'm in the exact same position. I've gotten good at the initial stages after 3 months, but need help to level up. Time to go schedule a 1:1 with YNAB!
I’ll come back to this… once I have my scheduled night meds.
I found out this month I need to add a category I hadn’t thought of or seen before. I am on the budget plan for my electric bill. This month was settle up month and I had forgotten about it. Imagine my surprise when I found out I owed 323 dollars extra this month. Going to put a category for yearly electric settle up in my bills. Then each month I will check my bill for any overrun and add that amount to settle up category.
Yes!! Wow! You could even make a "electric overflow" category and make the budgeting goal the amount you needed this year - $323. You know it'll probably be somewhere around there next year - maybe a little less, maybe a little more. A little more mindless (but secure) of a process, and crosses that one extra "to-do" off your list!
-Hannah 🌻
@@YNABofficial great idea Hannah. Think I’ll make it for $400 and if it is less than that next year I’ll have some extra to put in my savings category.
I think my budget organization is a combination of all three? Essentially, top to bottom is by frequency/importance, but I have a couple of weird catch-all groups in the middle that are by topics that work for me. I also have it labeled which line items cannot be borrowed from, and each category has a mix of those. I'm planning to stick with this set up for the next year at least, and who knows what style will catch my fancy then.
Fixed expenses (rent, utilities, car, etc)
Variable expenses (groceries, personal, household items, misc)
Monthly subscriptions
Annual subscriptions
Just for fun (dining out, books, clothes, donations)
Wish farm (which also works as a goal timeline)
Big stuff (tuition, new computer, and where I put savings for my nephew)
Emergency funds (income replacement, and where I list accounts I don't touch)
Sinking funds (I actually dip in and out of here plenty, but I like the money at the bottom so I'm not thinking about it much)
7:43 lmao the timing of this is crazy cause of “I put $50 a week because I’m just one person” like damn… remember those times 😭
Lol. Sweeter times, back then. 🥲
🌻 Hannah
So smart to budget for your pets!
New to the app (like 20 hrs) and nerding out. I'm going Fix/Flex method BUT, I am also interested in that category data. Is there a way to tag/label categories for reporting purposes? You can do that in mint (kind of... it's complicated... like everything else in mint)
I use two checking accounts, so I have 3 categories. 1 for each checking account and cash I carry in my wallet. It's so I know how much should be in each account & on me when I balance my bank accounts at the beginning and end of the month.
After listening to this video, I feel I'm a bit extra (and not in a good way. Lol) I use a method that combines all 4 major styles listed here.
Where I guess tracks: I'm also the person that has their closet organized by color, length of sleeve, thickness of material, how much secondary color or screen print is on it, and still a couple more subcategories.
😂 Oh my worrrrrrd!! That's amazing! Hey, whatever keeps you organized and feeling in control! 😂
🌻Hannah
Starting to sound like I need a separate category for each of my streaming services because there is no "one day" that my Netflix, Disney+, and Apple Music come out. I was trying to streamline by making them all in one category but .. hmm. The "put bills in chronological order" makes a lot of sense to me though, so it seems worth it.
I actually get a lot of satisfaction out of having a separate category for each bill and subscription! It just feels like more green checkmarks saying "Hey, you did it!" So who knows, you might get a little rush from it like me 🤪
-Hannah 🌻
Hannah, how do you handle groceries for the months that basically have 5 weeks? I also grocery shop by the week
Great question! I add $50 to each of the first weeks, and $75 to the last week (because depending on the month it may have 10 days! I organize it like this:
CATEGORY GROUP:
🍇 Groceries
CATEGORIES:
🍓 (1st-7th) - $50
🥕 (8th-14th) - $50
🍌 (15th-21st) - $50
🥑 (22nd-31st) - $75
So whenever I need to enter a groceries transaction, I just type an opening parenthesis into the "Category" field and then select whichever week the purchase date falls in.
BUT, you can also have ONE groceries category (like most people do) and assign it a $50-a-week weekly spending goal, so it will prompt you to put more money in in the months with 5 "weeks."
I hope that helps!
-Hannah 🌻
Love this breakdown! Right now I'm focused on my debt which should be completed in January. When that happens I plan to switch to the category-based budget. From a reporting perspective, would it be better to start over and create a new budget, or will the reports still be accurate if I rearrange my categories?
Hmmm... that's a good question. I guess it depends on what kind of data you're looking for and what you'll actually be changing about your budget. If the categories themselves are all staying the same but you're just rearranging them into difference category groups, I would think you could probably keep the same budget? Because you can go into each individual category to get it's reporting/trending data-the only thing that will be thrown off is your *category groups* reports.
But, if your categories themselves will be changing into whole new categories, and if you heavily rely on reporting, I might do a fresh start to preserve your old data but then start a new clean report with your newly organized data. That way you still get to keep the "old" but have total confidence that the "new" will be reporting and organized the way you want.
Does that make any sense?! I second guessed myself like 4 times when I was writing up this response. 😂
🌻 Hannah
Honestly, operationally, I budget the paycheck-wise (but I do that on a post-it note)....but my category template is almost the default YNAB template - but I did split-out food as a separate category and pet expenses separately.
Great video! I love your personality. I'm about to download YNAB.
Good luck on your budgeting journey!
Woo hoo! Come back here with any questions, and I'd be happy to answer them! Let me know if there's any topics I haven't covered that you would like to learn more about!! Congrats on giving YNAB a shot! We're rootin' for ya :)
-Hannah 🌻
Hi! I have a question. Sometimes I set up a Category that has a very specific, temporary purpose - like "Moving Expenses". I recently tried to delete a category like this but it told me that all those expenses would need to be reassigned to a different category. So it seems like my options are, assign thing to larger, more general categories that I won't need to delete, or end up with dozens of defunct, old categories cluttering up my budget. How do you guys recommend dealing with this?
You can "hide" categories that you don't need anymore so they don't show up. The advantage is that those expenses are still categorized correctly as "moving expenses" and also if you do end up moving again you can UNhide the category to use it again.
I have a "Rare/One-Time" Category Group that I typically keep hidden wherein I collect these dead categories. If you need to see them again, unhide them, do your business, then re-hide. Simple and clean.
You hit the nail on the head with the possible solutions. Try to keep categories general as a rule, so that you don't end up with lots of one-off categories. Try to think of things holistically. To take an example from the video, I would never put "passport renewal" as its own category, that's completely absurd. It falls under travel expenses. Moving is tricky, I haven't figured out a broader category it could fall into so it is its own category in my budget. Hiding it may help you declutter your budget.
@@ivandiaz5791 housing?
How did y'all know I needed a video to brighten my day today?! TGIF
we need more cameo interruptions please
Agreed, agreed 🐶
-Hannah 🌻
Are there templates for all these categories? Just like the default one?
Currently, no! With every new budget, you are set up with the default categories, but you can tweak and edits all categories as needed. Delete any categories or category groups, add more, change the titles-make it what you want it!
-Hannah 🌻
Hannah... I can't help it I think I'm falling for you
How do I budget as a couple if I contribute with 40% and him with 60? Can I have visual cues for each expense like when you have on weekly expenses?
How do you minimize the categories in the app? I've looked for it and can't find how. Would be super handy!
That would be handy! Unfortunately right now you can't collapse categories groups in the mobile app, but that is feedback I'll make sure gets back to the team!
-Hannah 🌻
I love you, Hannah! :)
Love her outfits. Nice burgundy t-shirt
I'm seeking help trying to link my discover cc. when i attempt to link it it always pops up "something went wrong", but not that my credentials weren't valid. so I do not know if it is on your end or discovers. I have been able to link my others. thank you.
Hey Yvonne!! That sounds like a situation our support team could handle for you! You can reach out to them at www.ynab.com/help 👌🏻 Click the question mark in the bottom right-hand corner to start a live chat with them!
🌻 Hannah
Okay I was thinking it already but once the dog came in this 10000% should be titled "Jenna Marbles Teaches Budgeting"
lolololollllll... wow, I am so flattered. I receive this compliment with gladness. 🥰🐶
🌻 Hannah
Thanks. I think I'm going to sructure mine based on the account the category's funds are in. That way my account balances will match up with the group category total.
Ohhhh. That's pretty dope. Quick way to reconcile, there. Smart!
-Hannah🌻
Did I see a sneak peak at some possible YNAB SWAG!!!
More Julep please!
you cant do that with credit card debt. I tried to change them but it wouldn't let me
LOVE the YNAB sticker on your laptop. How can I get one?
Bryan, these stickers were a gift from a co-workers wife! They're not for sale, but keep an eye on future swag sales! You never know what we might make next 😎
-Hannah 🌻
Great video content and so funny. Keep them going.
hannah is so personable
Great video! Actually I love the very last one...dividing expenses between the two paychecks. I'm gonna give that one a try. Seems logical. :)
Nice! Lemme know how it goes! I've never used that method before!
🌻 Hannah
Hannah is wonderful!
Awe Julep is soo cute. Yes, I am assuming this even though I didn't see her entire body. It would be nice it YNAB gave me a percentage amount on the category headers. Keep me aware that some categories may be an outrageous percentage of my budget.
Oh, she is. You are absolute 100% correct on her cuteness. I like idea on percentage amounts! We love customer feedback and ideas!! If you want, you should pitch that idea using our feature request form! I'll link it here:
youneedabudget.typeform.com/to/Pt6cek?typeform-source=docs.youneedabudget.com
🌻Hannah
Such helpful ideas - thanks.
As soon as she said "tithing" she went from an 8 to a 10 in my book
Help! @youneedabudget I love the way you divided groceries each week, but now that I'm in a new month I'm confused on how to reset for the next week. Do I need to delete the old weeks and transfer the transactions to this month???? How do you set up the "monthly" "weekly" or "by date" category for each of your grocery weeks?
I love your videos Hannah, they are so helpful and fun!
Hey Grace! A few options here:
You can create four separate categories (one for each week) and set a monthly spending target on each of them (for the first days of each week-the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd) for the amount you wish to spend in one week. I fill up each category each month to meet that target, and any money left over in those categories at the end of the month will carry over into the next month. If you *don't* want that money to carry over into the next month, just click or tap the "Available" amount in that category and move that money to another category you'd rather have it like (like Miscellaneous or Fun Money). If there's anyoverspending (say, in Week 1) I cover that with money with the Week 2 category, and then try to stick to that smaller Week 2 category total the next week when I'm spending.
The other way you can do it is create ONE category titled "Groceries" and set the spending target to "weekly" instead of "monthly". Tell the target type how much money you want in a WEEK for groceries, and it'll prompt you to put that money aside according to your target. If you overspend on groceries in week one, that overspending will come from week two. Make sure to check your budget before shopping to see how much money you have left to spend on groceries that week! Same rules apply at the end of the month-any extra money will carry into next month, and if you *don't* want that extra money in that future month, just click or tap the "Available" amount and move it to another category instead.
No need to delete categories or targets from month to month! I hope this helps! If you're still a bit unsure or I didn't answer your question, always feel free to reach out to our support team! They love helping people understand the best ways to navigate their budgets!!
🌻 Hannah
How do I create a biweekly expense? It doesn't let me pick wvery two weeks as an option.
Hey Ren! That option is currently not available in YNAB, but... just between you and me... the ability to do that is coming soon 😉
In the meantime, you can use "weekly" spending targets! Just pick the day of the week it's usually do, set a spending target to monthly, and fill it up two weeks (or two bars) worth at a time! With spending targets, YNAB does set back your progress when you spend the money. So you could budget $50 for your water bill for the first two weeks of the month (by setting a $25-a-week target), pay that bill off, then a few days later budget $50 dollars for your second bill of the month (or $25 a week), and pay it off when that second due date rolls around. As long as you're budgeting for those weekly targets, YNAB doesn't care when you spend the money. I hope this helps!
🌻Hannah
greatly informative ~ thanks!
I can't help giggling about the music licensing fee since y'all only use one song 😅
Also I continually marvel that you can spend so little on groceries. I remember struggling to get by on $35/week for groceries 34 years ago (and I didn't even eat my special weird diet then). I was eating $1 frozen Budget Gourmet for lunch most days...
I am new to budgeting (just realized to have 3 Prime and 2 Audible subscriptions in 4 countries...so you see that I really badly need things to be organized). I have no emojis in my software and am setting targets, instead of goals. Are these videos up to date or do I need to pick fresher ones? It is December 28, 2022. Thank you
Hi Hajnalka! You might find this video helpful, as it kinda covers everything "YNAB setup and theory from head to toe:
ua-cam.com/video/CFXIJcyv-Pc/v-deo.html
Also, you can understand the YNAB Method that underlies the whole app by watching this video, which may help you as you're navigating your mindset about the budget:
ua-cam.com/video/R4VbZCxDDvY/v-deo.html
Let me know what other questions you have, and I can try to point you to videos or help docs that will answer your questions! Since this video you watched is about a year and a half old, some of the layout or small features of YNAB may have changed, but much of it is the same!
🌻 Hannah
Hi Hannah,
Thank you for your generous offer. Since I watched your videos the whole day, and it feels like we'd be neighbors, I ask you everyinthg, you will know, which videos to solve my problems.
Situation:
1. I am a freelancer, paid a different amount every month by a different amount of clients. These payments come to a professional account (from which I do the downpayment for the "company car"). The rest of the money I move to my
2. personal checking account, which I use as a regular person: to do groceries, farmacy, to pay for the summer camp, Netflix, Audible and other 53 things. What I don't need here, I move to a
3. savings account (linked to my checking account). Here I save for taxes, for emergency, I practically keep the money here, until I definitely need it (I put here every cent I don't need, this is my budgeting right now)
4. I have one credit card, also linked to my checking account.
5. I also have various insurance funds, which I pay yearly, so the money is more every year, but I can't really take out money from them.
Now:
After I set up a template successfully, I imported 3 months of bank statements from my checking account by file and cathegorized all the expenses. This was the first shock: although I have a date for the expenses, all of them funded the current month, or so it seemed. (I paid 3 times Netflix between October and December, but I have not seen my Netflix expense funded for the 3 months, it was a mess really.)
My questions:
1. How can I assign a payment to a specific month by assigning a cathegory to a payment I made in the past (file import)? Does it have any sense at all to import at the end of the month all my expenses and cathegorizing them, or is it better to grab the phone every time I pay something (which seems for me a big problem, I am very often away with my kid, I don't really want to grab my phone every time I pay).
2. Which is the best way to teach YNAB that the money outgoing from my professional account is the same incoming money to my checking account (and some of the outgoing money on my checking account appears as a credit card downpayment or on my saving account?
3. After I assigned the money in the app, where should I put it (the money I mean)? Should I leave it on the checking account? Should I move it to the savings account? Should I look at my bank statement at all to not get confused about how much money I have? Should I only leave as much money on my checking account, as much I need in a month?
Right now, as you see, I am quite confused and feel like entering the Matrix. I will sleep on it, hopefully you will understand my questions and can send me some videos to get better in budgeting.
Thanks for all the details!! So first up...
1. You said you recently started your brand new budget by importing the last three months of expenses. However, those days have already happened and you spent that money long ago! We don't need to record PAST transactions when starting a brand new budget since that money is already long gone. We only need to record transactions that happen today and onward. This is why you're having trouble assigning your dollars to your past expenses-YNAB only wants you to deal with the money you have *now* and the expenses you have *now* and onward.
So, if I were you, I would delete all the transactions you imported for October, November, and December (or you can simply go to the YNAB dropdown menu and click "Fresh Start" to begin a clean budget while stil maintaining your same category groups, category names, targets, etc). Log into your bank accounts and look for the *cleared balance* for January 2nd (which is today, or whatever day you decide to do this). Update your bank account totals in YNAB to match the cleared balance you have in your actual bank accounts TODAY (i.e. if your checking account has $4,500 in it, change your checking account total in YNAB to be $4,500 as well).
Using this money you have in the bank TODAY, assign those dollars (in the "Ready to Assign" category at the top of your budget) out to all your different categories, or as many as you can. If you have fully funded all of your categories for January and still have money left over, you can click ahead into February and start assigning any money you see in the "Ready to Assign" category for February to your February categories. This is funding the budget.
NOW as you go about and spend money or pay bills, record or import all transactions once they happen, assigning them to their specific categories. What we're doing is deciding at the beginning of the month *how* we want to spend our money (i.e. setting aside $2,200 for the monthly mortgage payment, $850 for groceries this month, $300 for fun spending money, etc) and then recording in YNAB each time we spend, making sure to "subtract" the money from the appropriate category.
So, to answer your question, you do *not* want to wait to import all your transactions till the end of the month. Doing this would be just be "expense tracking"-aka, looking back after you've spent your money and seeing how you've spent it. This doesn't help us know when we've reached our budget limits, allows us to easily overspend, and doesn't give us a sense of where we stand with our money. The best way to budget is to quickly record each transaction as it happens. I do this when I get back to my car after purchasing groceries at the grocery store, or once I sign the receipt at the restaurant. I also "pre-schedule" all my bills and recurring expenses (like mortgage payments, internet bills, subscription payments, etc) so that they are automatically added into the budget each month instead of me having to add it manually.
You can also "link" your bank account, which sounds VERY handy in your situation because whenever a transaction is cleared at the bank, it sends it over to your YNAB account FOR you so all you have to do is categorize it into the right category. Much less work, very accurate, and takes less time than manually inputting.
Let's say I have $500 in my groceries category. If I go to the grocery store and spend $100 on groceries, when I record that spending to my budget, my groceries category will drop from $500 to $400, telling me I have $400 left to spend on groceries for the rest of this month. If you didn't record that spending until the END of the month, you wouldn't actually know how much you have left to spend on groceries... your budget would tell you all month long that you have $500 to spend on groceries, because you never would have told it that you already spent $100 of that $500.
If you don't want to record transactions EVERY time you pay for something (I understand kids are a handful), try to sit down every few days and update the budget so that all your spending is recorded and all of your budget categories reflect their true total.
This is a long explanation, but I hope it helps make a little more sense of how YNAB works and operates to help us have total control over and understanding of our money!
🌻Hannah
2. Anytime you physically move money from one account to another at the bank (like moving money from your professional account to your checking account), we also want to record that money movement in YNAB for *both* accounts.
Let's say you want to move $5,000 from your professional account and into your checking account. Go to your professional account in YNAB and create an *outflow* transaction for $5,000, making the payee "To/From: Checking" (or whatever your checking account name is. This "to/from" option should be one of the very top options in the payee drop down box when you click the "payee" box). This is telling YNAB that you're sending $5,000 OUT of your professional account and INTO your checking account.
Now, YNAB is smart and knows what is happening here, so it'll automatically generate a $5,000 *inflow* transaction in your checking account with the payee being "To/From: Professional" (or whatever your professional account is called). Once this is completed, there should be $5,000 less in your professional account and $5,000 more in your checking account. If you want to ensure that $5,000 goes to specific expenses in your budget, go ahead and assign that $5,000 to your desired budget categories right away.
This is also the same way credit cards work in YNAB. When you pay your credit card, you'll want to record an *inflow* transaction for the payment amount to your credit card account (to represent "paying" your negative credit card balance back up to $0), and YNAB will automatically generate an *outflow* transaction from whatever account you paid the credit card from (usually checking, unless you choose to pay your credit card with another account, like savings).
Also, make sure when you add your credit cards to YNAB that you add them specifically as a "Credit Card" account, as this will generate a "Credit Card Payment" category for you that makes it SUPER easy to use your credit card, follow the budget, and never overspend money you don't have, since it takes money from the category you spent from (i.e. groceries) and moves it into your credit card payment category so the money is ready and waiting to pay off your credit card bill. No more debt or spending money we don't have! Woo hoo!!
🌻Hannah
3. YNAB is a zero-based budgeting app, meaning we want to take EVERY dollar we have and give it a job.
When you add all your bank accounts to YNAB (checking, savings, professional, etc), you want to assign those dollars to the various tasks you want them to do for you.
If you like for your checking account dollars to fund your living, your eating, your fun, and the like, add any new paychecks or inflows of money into the checking account and assign them to THOSE categories (rent/mortgage, utilities, groceries, fun money, your gym membership, etc).
If you like for your savings account dollars to fund your emergency funds, car repairs, vacations, downpayment on a future home, add any inflows of money into the savings account and assign them to these savings categories. My husband and I use our savings dollars to fund our home emergency category, auto repair category, vacations, a new car we're saving for, our annual insurance payments, etc.
The funny thing about YNAB is once you create all the various categories you need for all the different spending you do in your life, your bank accounts themselves actually become semi-irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much you have in your checking account vs your savings account, because I can look at my budget and see all the money I've assigned to my categories for both SPENDING and SAVING. Let me link a helpful video that explains this concept a little better!
Why We Budget Our Savings:
ua-cam.com/video/MUgDQgebFow/v-deo.html
🌻 Hannah
I do Fixed Cost and Variabel Cost
Requesting more Julep content, please!
Same. Same. Workin' it in...
-Hannah 🌻
I’m confused 🤔 just typing on app how does it save ? Do I need to open separate account for every category?
you might have figured it out - YNAB automatically saves. there are some great tutorials on site that walk you through step by step how to start an initial budget
No you don't need seperate accounts, the categories are virtual envelopes to visualise what you want to do with your money. Your actual money can be all in one account. So if you move money in your budget around, you are just changing your plan for the money - not actually moving it from one account to another. I keep two accounts - one for long term savings and expenses that come up only once or twice a year, and one for all the rest of the expenses which come weekly or monthly. Check out YNAB getting started for a really clear explanation.