The YNAB Blog
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What does it mean to be a month ahead?
YNAB has long espoused the benefits of aging your money and getting a month ahead in your budget. With the recent revamp of the YNAB method, the Resilience question, “What can I set aside for next month’s spending?” replaced Rule 4: Age Your Money. The message and goal are unchanged: You want to break the…
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Creating a values-based template
On New Year’s Day, I revamped my category groups. I was inspired by Nick True’s excellent 2025 Getting Started Guide YouTube video, which mentioned having the option of having a values-based template for your spending plan. That really appealed to me, so thought I’d give it a try. I started by doing a Fresh Start,…
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Pinned tabs for multiple budgets
I actively manage two budgets that I interact with multiple times a day. One is our household budget (called Janine and Barry’s budget) and the other is the budget for my business, Peace of Mind Organizing. I have a third budget I manage for my brother but it doesn’t require a lot of attention. I…
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Introducing Peace of Mind Spending
Last week, YNAB made a big announcement. They revamped the way they’re teaching YNAB. Gone are The Four Rules. Only Rule One, Give Every Dollar A Job, was retained and it is now the whole method. Give Every Dollar a Job is now backed up by five carefully thought out questions. If this is the…
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Spending mindfully this Black Friday
Sales abound this week, at least here in the U.S., as shoppers have come to expect great deals on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Over the years I have made more than my share of impulse buys on Black Friday, some of which did not serve me well. That contributed to clutter, self-recrimination and…
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Registration is open for YNAB Fan Fest in San Diego!
Today, November 18, registration opened for the next YNAB Fan Fest, which will be held in San Diego, California, on April 26, 2025. It’s the first of three Fan Fest scheduled in 2025 (the other two are in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 9, 2025, and New York, New York on a date to be announced).…
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How many accounts should you have?
As a professional organizer, I’m sometimes asked how many of a certain thing a person should have. My standard response is, “As many as you need and no more.” The same holds true for the number of bank accounts and credit cards you should have. The more you have, the more complicated YNAB becomes. Many…
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Pay close attention at the turn of the month
You’re a smart YNABer if you pay close attention to your budget on the last day of the month and the first days of a new month. In fact, it’s so important that I’m offering a drop-in “Close Out the YNAB Month” Zoom party for clients on the last day of the month. The first…
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Handling annual subscriptions in YNAB
One of the miracles of YNAB is Rule Two: Embrace Your True Expenses. Annual subscriptions are great examples of true expenses. When you’re following Rule Two, you put away one-twelfth of the annual expense every month. When the bill comes due, the money is waiting. In my life, these bills are often autopaid and easily…
Are there YNAB and budgeting topics you’d like me to write about?