#92 - Are You Doing YNAB? Tracking Expenses vs YNABing
06/12/24 • 37 min
It's a common story: a person finds YNAB and starts using the software, only realize months (sometimes years) down the road that they weren't actually following the YNAB method. They were just tracking expenses using YNAB's software. Tracking expenses is not a bad thing -- tracking brings awareness of your spending habits and where your money and energy is going -- but the magic of YNAB is in the method, encapsulated in the Four Rules:
- Give every dollar a job
- Embrace your true expenses
- Roll with the punches
- Age your money
Here's a primer on the Four Rules if you are new to this way of thinking about money.
Most personal finance tools are all about tracking your expenses. What the Four Rules do, however, is make you feel tradeoffs. Tradeoffs occur all the time whether we know it or not. By choosing to spend on one thing, we choose not to spend on other things, or we go into debt because we did not make a tradeoff! When we only track expenses, though, we only discover the tradeoffs after they have already happened. You get the spending report at the end of the month, only to realize that you had overspent your restaurant category, for instance, by the end of week two. Tracking expenses after the fact does not give you enough information to make decisions going forward.
As Ben and Ernie explain, YNAB asks you to assign your current money to spending in the future. In this way, you save up money in categories for expenses you anticipate ahead of time. Instead of going to a fancy restaurant and hoping that you have enough money to pay for your other bills afterwards, or worse putting it on the credit card and taking on new debt, YNAB would ask you to assign dollars to the meal ahead of time (Rule One). If you don't have enough cash lying around to assign to this, then you will have to pull money from another category to cover it. In doing so, you have made a tradeoff. Importantly, you made the tradeoff ahead of time, so you can determine if it's worth it to you, rather than potentially regretting the decision later.
YNAB is all about tradeoffs, and bringing awareness to the tradeoffs you make every day in your spending. By following the Four Rules, you can move beyond tracking expenses and finally get ahead with your money. Most importantly, the Four Rules can help you spend with less stress and anxiety, and more joy.
Budget Nerds episodes referenced in this show:
Find the Money First: https://youtu.be/InTcf78558A?si=FqaIb6fc2t5wGvkj
YNAB Is All About Tradeoffs: https://youtu.be/tfIk5UTYDtg?si=ACLRM3rC_6775gCf
Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie!
Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube:
It's a common story: a person finds YNAB and starts using the software, only realize months (sometimes years) down the road that they weren't actually following the YNAB method. They were just tracking expenses using YNAB's software. Tracking expenses is not a bad thing -- tracking brings awareness of your spending habits and where your money and energy is going -- but the magic of YNAB is in the method, encapsulated in the Four Rules:
- Give every dollar a job
- Embrace your true expenses
- Roll with the punches
- Age your money
Here's a primer on the Four Rules if you are new to this way of thinking about money.
Most personal finance tools are all about tracking your expenses. What the Four Rules do, however, is make you feel tradeoffs. Tradeoffs occur all the time whether we know it or not. By choosing to spend on one thing, we choose not to spend on other things, or we go into debt because we did not make a tradeoff! When we only track expenses, though, we only discover the tradeoffs after they have already happened. You get the spending report at the end of the month, only to realize that you had overspent your restaurant category, for instance, by the end of week two. Tracking expenses after the fact does not give you enough information to make decisions going forward.
As Ben and Ernie explain, YNAB asks you to assign your current money to spending in the future. In this way, you save up money in categories for expenses you anticipate ahead of time. Instead of going to a fancy restaurant and hoping that you have enough money to pay for your other bills afterwards, or worse putting it on the credit card and taking on new debt, YNAB would ask you to assign dollars to the meal ahead of time (Rule One). If you don't have enough cash lying around to assign to this, then you will have to pull money from another category to cover it. In doing so, you have made a tradeoff. Importantly, you made the tradeoff ahead of time, so you can determine if it's worth it to you, rather than potentially regretting the decision later.
YNAB is all about tradeoffs, and bringing awareness to the tradeoffs you make every day in your spending. By following the Four Rules, you can move beyond tracking expenses and finally get ahead with your money. Most importantly, the Four Rules can help you spend with less stress and anxiety, and more joy.
Budget Nerds episodes referenced in this show:
Find the Money First: https://youtu.be/InTcf78558A?si=FqaIb6fc2t5wGvkj
YNAB Is All About Tradeoffs: https://youtu.be/tfIk5UTYDtg?si=ACLRM3rC_6775gCf
Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie!
Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube:
Previous Episode
#91 - Windfalls, Learning to Invest, and YNAB 4: Jeremy Schneider of Personal Finance Club
Ben and Ernie chat with Jeremy Schneider, an entrepreneur turned personal finance teacher who aims to demystify the confusing world of investing with simple, unbiased information. In his early 20's, Jeremy founded an internet startup and ran it for 12 years, never taking home more than $36k/year -- while living in San Diego, CA! This experience required him to get surgical with his spending, and during this time he became an avid YNAB'er (using the old YNAB 4 software). At the age of 34, Jeremy sold his company and became a multimillionaire. After this windfall, Jeremy continued to work for a few years while figuring out how to manage his newfound wealth. This experience, along with his YNAB habits, drove him to found Personal Finance Club, a site with simple, easy to understand information for beginners learning to invest their money.
In this episode, Jeremy shares his tidy YNAB plan, with possibly the fewest categories of any guest so far! As a long-time YNAB'er, Jeremy organizes his categories using some of the logic from YNAB 4, but he also shares how his categories have evolved over time and how he has simplified his budget as he became more comfortable with his financial position.
Find more about Jeremy Schneider and the Personal Finance Club:
- Nectarine Investing Advice: https://hellonectarine.com
- Personal Finance Club: https://www.personalfinanceclub.com/author/jerschneid/
- Personal Finance Club IG: @personalfinanceclub
YNAB Fan Fest - September 21, 2024
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Next Episode
#93 - Dream Bigger Than Your Bills!
Today Ben and Ernie are joined by returning guest and YNAB Lead Educator, Erin Lowell, who posed the idea of thinking bigger with your money. Many people come to YNAB seeking a way to escape the paycheck to paycheck cycle, pay down debt, build an emergency fund, and reduce their stress and anxiety around money. These are wonderful goals! However Erin reminds us that there are things you can do with your money beyond paying the bills, and she wants you to experience those things. Paying bills and handling unexpected expenses with cash for the first time is a thrilling feeling, but it's not the highest use of your money. Dream bigger than your bills!
Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie!
Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube:
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