The YNAB Blog

  • Look before you spend

    Look before you spend

    YNAB is a terrific money tracking tool. If you enter (or import) and categorize all your transactions, you’ll have a great record of your spending. And that can be very informative. But YNAB starts to become life changing when you actually change your behavior and start checking your budget before you make an expenditure. Notice…

  • YNAB Broke – it’s a thing

    YNAB Broke – it’s a thing

    After I’d been on YNAB for a year or more, I experienced the phenomenon known as “YNAB broke.” This happens when you have a bank account full of money — in my case more money than I’d ever had in my bank account — and still feel like you have no money to spend. YNAB…

  • How I paid a large tax bill without going into debt (thanks to YNAB)

    How I paid a large tax bill without going into debt (thanks to YNAB)

    On April 17, the day before the tax deadline, my CPA give me some bad news. We owed $8903 for federal, state and local taxes for 2022. In addition, I needed to pay $4900 in estimated taxes for the first quarter of 2023.

  • Give EVERY dollar a job, including savings

    Give EVERY dollar a job, including savings

    Rule One of YNAB is Give Every Dollar a Job. And that means every dollar in every on-budget account. Even savings accounts. We’re accustomed to thinking of savings accounts as something important everyone should have. And that’s true. But “savings” isn’t really a job. By all means, have a savings account, especially if it’s an…


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