This all means that you WILL build up an accumulation of money in your bank account, as items get assigned to categories in YNAB. While you set that $50 a month aside for auto repairs in YNAB, the money does not actually move, so you will accumulate that additional money in your bank account.
The software is just that good and has become just that important in my life. And, the community on the YNAB website forums is the friendliest and most encouraging folks you could ever meet, and they come from all walks of life and from almost every part of the world! This might sound a little illogical, but it makes it a lot easier to recover psychologically from months where you couldn't stay on your budget. Interestingly, this is the only rule that the software enforces, but if you are keen on having a negative balance, you can actually override this yourself by budgeting the shortfall as a negative amount for the following month. When it comes down to it, that's what I need - help controlling my spending so I can get out debt and out of the rat race sooner rather than later. Before YNAB, it was as if I was walking through a dark cave with a very dim flashlight and I could only see things when they were right in front of me.
Other than that, nice product (at least until its slow response times really get on my nerves and I stop using it altogether) I'm a YNAB believer now. It really does work.
This is all stuff that is freely acknowledged by the creator of the software. This software is strictly for creating a budget. None of them were easy to use or gave me the information I was looking for in a budget program -- which was budgeting my existing dollars with an eye to the following month. I even created my own excel spreadsheet for my budget that I used for almost a year. If I lost my job I would be in serious trouble two weeks later. Finally, after reading the reviews and recommendations for YNAB I decided to try it out. If you take the time to really learn the program then there's a good chance you'll like it. YNAB provides a generous trial period when you can get your money back if you don't like it.
The instruction manual answered any questions I had after setting up my budget. I like that I can add or subtract categories and sub-categories according to my personal plan, as well as develop a budget a year at a time, but still make adjustments as life happens. I wasn't expecting much - I've used an Excel spreadsheet, Quicken and Mvelopes before, and didn't have much "success" with them. Those programs worked fine, but I needed to BUDGET my finances, not track where I spent my money after the fact. I can easily import transactions from my bank and categorize them to come out of the correct budget accounts. Oh, I'm also a fan of Dave Ramsey and am working on my debt snowball (almost done, too!) and the zero-based budgeting and "rainy day" savings philosophies of this software support the Dave plan. It's a shame, because all the bits and pieces are there to make this a great personal accounting program - but the YNAB rules and lack of reports make it unusable, if you know what you are doing and don't need to be led by the hand. And if you aren't very familiar with keeping track of your finances, YNAB is so complex and inflexible it would be very hard to get it to work as it is designed.
The paycheck I deposit on November 1 will not be spent until December 1 at the earliest. That means that all of the money I am spending in November is money that I received the month before, in October. But really, who plans for a car breaking down" Who plans for family emergencies"
The software is just that good and has become just that important in my life. And, the community on the YNAB website forums is the friendliest and most encouraging folks you could ever meet, and they come from all walks of life and from almost every part of the world! This might sound a little illogical, but it makes it a lot easier to recover psychologically from months where you couldn't stay on your budget. Interestingly, this is the only rule that the software enforces, but if you are keen on having a negative balance, you can actually override this yourself by budgeting the shortfall as a negative amount for the following month. When it comes down to it, that's what I need - help controlling my spending so I can get out debt and out of the rat race sooner rather than later. Before YNAB, it was as if I was walking through a dark cave with a very dim flashlight and I could only see things when they were right in front of me.
Other than that, nice product (at least until its slow response times really get on my nerves and I stop using it altogether) I'm a YNAB believer now. It really does work.
This is all stuff that is freely acknowledged by the creator of the software. This software is strictly for creating a budget. None of them were easy to use or gave me the information I was looking for in a budget program -- which was budgeting my existing dollars with an eye to the following month. I even created my own excel spreadsheet for my budget that I used for almost a year. If I lost my job I would be in serious trouble two weeks later. Finally, after reading the reviews and recommendations for YNAB I decided to try it out. If you take the time to really learn the program then there's a good chance you'll like it. YNAB provides a generous trial period when you can get your money back if you don't like it.
The instruction manual answered any questions I had after setting up my budget. I like that I can add or subtract categories and sub-categories according to my personal plan, as well as develop a budget a year at a time, but still make adjustments as life happens. I wasn't expecting much - I've used an Excel spreadsheet, Quicken and Mvelopes before, and didn't have much "success" with them. Those programs worked fine, but I needed to BUDGET my finances, not track where I spent my money after the fact. I can easily import transactions from my bank and categorize them to come out of the correct budget accounts. Oh, I'm also a fan of Dave Ramsey and am working on my debt snowball (almost done, too!) and the zero-based budgeting and "rainy day" savings philosophies of this software support the Dave plan. It's a shame, because all the bits and pieces are there to make this a great personal accounting program - but the YNAB rules and lack of reports make it unusable, if you know what you are doing and don't need to be led by the hand. And if you aren't very familiar with keeping track of your finances, YNAB is so complex and inflexible it would be very hard to get it to work as it is designed.
The paycheck I deposit on November 1 will not be spent until December 1 at the earliest. That means that all of the money I am spending in November is money that I received the month before, in October. But really, who plans for a car breaking down" Who plans for family emergencies"
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The fact that there are a lot of online tutorials really helped. bicycle generator.
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