Interface looks good. Community group support is available. Oh, and the customer service is also amazing, free classes, responses to email, free updates! The price has gone up a bit since I bought mine, but it's still worth every penny. Basically you can save up money for a future expense, or just increase your savings. When I saw this section in the video tutorials on the YNAB website, I was sold on the spot -- this meant that I no longer have to keep such things in my head or cringe at my credit card bill when a big expense was due. Before buying YNAB, you must understand what it is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not. YNAB is not an accounting system, it's a *household* budgeting system.
The confusing part is that sometimes not placing an item in a category is the correct thing to do, even though most of the time it's not. That's actually caught me a time or two.
It's perfect. This software also comes with a great community of budgeters who are good with their money and can help you be the same way.
If knowing that there are sometimes large expenses in this category, you had set 50 a month there for the last 10 months, you will already have 500 of that ready to go. You will spend $900 in that category to repair the problem. I have had the same large credit card debt for the last ten years that I could never escape from. Thanks to YNAB and the debt snowball method, I have managed to pay off about 40% of that and will have it paid off completely within the next two years (I know the exact date it will be paid off).
The success of YNAB is in its approach (the 4 rules, which are key to its success) and the customer service (which is pretty much unrivaled in my experience). And there's a pretty fabulous forum community as well (shout out to all my fellow YNAB users).
Users are eager to help explain the four rules or provide general financial advice in terms of budgeting. Jesse, the creator of YNAB, frequently visits the forums to answer questions, and it impresses me how much user input from the forums he takes and puts directly into the software. I was able to understand how the software works and have an idea of whether I would like it or not before I even bought it. There was a good bit of setup to do initially and I had to figure out how I would handle the cash envelope system that I use (Financial Peace University Principles) but once I understood how on-budget and off-budget accounts work I was able to understand what to do.
The inbuilt flexibility allows you to quickly move funds around to cope with unexpected expenses, but the real joy is having those funds available to move, rather than resorting to a credit card or other borrowings. A little less than 6 months later we still have a mountain of debt (it wasn't built overnight and this is no magical cure) but the levels of pay day stress have reduced considerably as we have slowly but surely built reserves and cushions against the many financial bumps life throws at us all.
I'm old, so it was confusing at first to figure out the program, but it works. Bottom line, you won't make any more money per payday, but you won't waste your money, and still "have it all," plus allot more left over.
For a while, I learned to write macros in Excel and started creating my own envelope system spreadsheet, but I was always searching for something else to make things simpler. Apparently the Quicken 2008 will allow for a more envelop budgeting experience, but I'm not going back.
The confusing part is that sometimes not placing an item in a category is the correct thing to do, even though most of the time it's not. That's actually caught me a time or two.
It's perfect. This software also comes with a great community of budgeters who are good with their money and can help you be the same way.
If knowing that there are sometimes large expenses in this category, you had set 50 a month there for the last 10 months, you will already have 500 of that ready to go. You will spend $900 in that category to repair the problem. I have had the same large credit card debt for the last ten years that I could never escape from. Thanks to YNAB and the debt snowball method, I have managed to pay off about 40% of that and will have it paid off completely within the next two years (I know the exact date it will be paid off).
The success of YNAB is in its approach (the 4 rules, which are key to its success) and the customer service (which is pretty much unrivaled in my experience). And there's a pretty fabulous forum community as well (shout out to all my fellow YNAB users).
Users are eager to help explain the four rules or provide general financial advice in terms of budgeting. Jesse, the creator of YNAB, frequently visits the forums to answer questions, and it impresses me how much user input from the forums he takes and puts directly into the software. I was able to understand how the software works and have an idea of whether I would like it or not before I even bought it. There was a good bit of setup to do initially and I had to figure out how I would handle the cash envelope system that I use (Financial Peace University Principles) but once I understood how on-budget and off-budget accounts work I was able to understand what to do.
The inbuilt flexibility allows you to quickly move funds around to cope with unexpected expenses, but the real joy is having those funds available to move, rather than resorting to a credit card or other borrowings. A little less than 6 months later we still have a mountain of debt (it wasn't built overnight and this is no magical cure) but the levels of pay day stress have reduced considerably as we have slowly but surely built reserves and cushions against the many financial bumps life throws at us all.
I'm old, so it was confusing at first to figure out the program, but it works. Bottom line, you won't make any more money per payday, but you won't waste your money, and still "have it all," plus allot more left over.
For a while, I learned to write macros in Excel and started creating my own envelope system spreadsheet, but I was always searching for something else to make things simpler. Apparently the Quicken 2008 will allow for a more envelop budgeting experience, but I'm not going back.
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My favorite part is that it is so flexible that it can handle an inconsistent income. CHEAP SOFAS.
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