Before YNAB, I was keeping track of categorical spending on my own spreadsheet. It was OK, but YNAB hits the nail on the head.
YNAB does keep a register of all your accounts and balances, but it doesn't show your net worth. Yodlee does for free everything I did with Quicken, which was keep all the account balances in one place and tell me how much money I spent.
I don't have to worry about wiring my mortgage payment to my bank so it gets posted in time, because the money is already sitting in my checking account. If I lose my job, I have at least the next 30 days' worth of expenses paid for. Bottom line: If you're most concerned with keeping track of your financial history, as Quicken is, then you'd be better served by Quicken or a similar product. YNAB is not that product.
When you get some income (paycheck or birthday money), you give each dollar a "job" to do, and place it in a category for spending later. Then, when you are going to spend money, you check each category's balance to see if you have enough in there to buy what you want. I used to worry that the number in my checking account may not be enough to make everything come together. I can unequivocally state that now, I just don't care. Try saying that about Intuit (Quicken) or Microsoft (Money)! In tough times like these, more Americans are embracing cost control, budgeting, and trying to gain some financial breathing room, and YNAB Pro really enables those things to come to pass. In many systems, once you spend that 900 to repair the car, as you only had 500 in there, this would put the balance of that category at -400. This would mean that at 50 a month, it will be another 8 months before you start building up a buffer again!
Anyway, at first it seemed a bit confusing, but I quickly adapted to it by watching the tutorials and wonderful help offered at www.youneedabudget.com. After getting some lessons, I quickly adapted to this wonderful zero based accounting method.
I think I'm going to buy a copy for one of my other sisters as well. Again I can't say enough about how good this package is. I have learned to save for upcoming bills, vet care, insurance, car repairs, and all of life's other little surprises. I am no longer living paycheck to paycheck. As a software developer myself, I am amazed at the attention to detail and effort put into the application on top of the base functionality. The program not only does what it was designed to do, it does it almost to perfection.
I have been budgeting for the last 5 years. Previously, I used MS Money for my accounts & a homemade Excel Spreadsheet for the budget. I consider myself fairly financially savvy. I understand financial concepts very well and have worked in finance for some time.
I have been using YNAB for coming up on two years now and it, combined with Dave Ramsey's teachings (Total Money Makeover) has literally changed our lives. We had managed to get ourselves in a bunch of debt and weren't sure how we were going to make it out of the big hole we dug.
YNAB does keep a register of all your accounts and balances, but it doesn't show your net worth. Yodlee does for free everything I did with Quicken, which was keep all the account balances in one place and tell me how much money I spent.
I don't have to worry about wiring my mortgage payment to my bank so it gets posted in time, because the money is already sitting in my checking account. If I lose my job, I have at least the next 30 days' worth of expenses paid for. Bottom line: If you're most concerned with keeping track of your financial history, as Quicken is, then you'd be better served by Quicken or a similar product. YNAB is not that product.
When you get some income (paycheck or birthday money), you give each dollar a "job" to do, and place it in a category for spending later. Then, when you are going to spend money, you check each category's balance to see if you have enough in there to buy what you want. I used to worry that the number in my checking account may not be enough to make everything come together. I can unequivocally state that now, I just don't care. Try saying that about Intuit (Quicken) or Microsoft (Money)! In tough times like these, more Americans are embracing cost control, budgeting, and trying to gain some financial breathing room, and YNAB Pro really enables those things to come to pass. In many systems, once you spend that 900 to repair the car, as you only had 500 in there, this would put the balance of that category at -400. This would mean that at 50 a month, it will be another 8 months before you start building up a buffer again!
Anyway, at first it seemed a bit confusing, but I quickly adapted to it by watching the tutorials and wonderful help offered at www.youneedabudget.com. After getting some lessons, I quickly adapted to this wonderful zero based accounting method.
I think I'm going to buy a copy for one of my other sisters as well. Again I can't say enough about how good this package is. I have learned to save for upcoming bills, vet care, insurance, car repairs, and all of life's other little surprises. I am no longer living paycheck to paycheck. As a software developer myself, I am amazed at the attention to detail and effort put into the application on top of the base functionality. The program not only does what it was designed to do, it does it almost to perfection.
I have been budgeting for the last 5 years. Previously, I used MS Money for my accounts & a homemade Excel Spreadsheet for the budget. I consider myself fairly financially savvy. I understand financial concepts very well and have worked in finance for some time.
I have been using YNAB for coming up on two years now and it, combined with Dave Ramsey's teachings (Total Money Makeover) has literally changed our lives. We had managed to get ourselves in a bunch of debt and weren't sure how we were going to make it out of the big hole we dug.
About the Author:
One of my majors in college was accounting so I know and like working with numbers. cheap yoga clothes.
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