Category: Best Practices
-
Tracking hobby spending
Sometimes I think the most fun part of starting a new hobby is acquiring all the things you need to do the hobby. At least that was the case for me when I started knitting 20 years ago. Or coloring ten years ago, which morphed into hand lettering seven years ago and became Bullet Journaling…
-
Treat your credit card like a debit card
One of the genius things about YNAB is the way it handles credit cards. Let’s say you spend $50 on food at the grocery store. In the credit card account, you categorize that $50 into the groceries category. Assuming you have the money in your groceries category, YNAB will move $50 from your groceries category…
-
Be careful when approving transactions
Once you’ve been using YNAB for a little while (if you use direct import), YNAB might suggest a category for each transaction. It’s basing the suggestion on past transactions from the same payee. I want to urge you to take a moment to consider YNAB’s suggestion before clicking Approve. If you approve blindly, you may…
-
Can you trust your budget?
Trusting that your spending plan is accurate is the key to creating peace of mind with your finances. Luckily, YNAB makes it easy. All you need to do is a YNAB check up (which used to be known as a budget audit). I suggest doing it on the first day of each month. Here’s how:…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
The dreaded red Ready to Assign
It is startling to open your budget and see a negative Ready to Assign (RTA) at the top of the screen. Instead of the soothing grey or the buoyant green RTA you probably expect, the red one is like an ugly alarm. And this is the time of the month that it usually happens, because…
-
Keep an eye on your direct import
Linking your bank and credit card accounts to YNAB can make it very easy to keep up with your transactions. They’re entered for you; all you have to do is categorize, recategorize or approve each transaction. But sometimes the direct import link breaks. And when it does, you need to pay attention. Recently I’ve had…
