Category: YNAB Basics
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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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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…
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My favorite day of the month
Tomorrow is June 1st. Ever since I got a month ahead in YNAB, the first day of the month has become my favorite. Here’s why. Once I’ve entirely funded a month, I choose to assign additional funds that come in to a category called Future Months. The alternative would be to flip ahead to a…
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Why it’s important to reconcile (and how to do it)
Once you’re in the YNAB groove, you stop looking at your bank balance and instead consult your budget when you’re deciding whether to spend money on something. Because you’re putting away money for True Expenses, your bank balance swells. But all that money is accounted for. (It’s what’s known as being YNAB Broke.) So you…
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Quick tip: The symbols in your account list
There are a few symbols in your account list in the sidebar that can be helpful to pay attention to. Here’s a little primer: I like to check my budget each morning and I always scan for the white dots and other symbols. It’s a quick way to keep my budget up to date without…
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Reconcile often
If you’re old enough, you might remember having a paper checkbook register, in which you jotted down every check you wrote and kept a running balance. Once a month, when your bank statement came in the mail, you would reconcile your checkbook, which meant making sure that your running balance matched your bank balance, taking…
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Always budget to zero
YNAB is a zero-based budget method. If you follow Rule One: Give Every Dollar a Job, you’ll budget every dollar to zero. It can feel tempting to leave money in Ready to Assign and bask in its green glow. It might give you a feeling of abundance. But it’s not helpful. In fact, it’s counter…
