As you may recall, YNAB used to have four rules and Rule One was Give Every Dollar a Job. Now YNAB. has Five Questions that support the whole method. And the method is Give Every Dollar a Job.
I’ve noticed in clients a temptation to leave money in Ready to Assign (RTA) when their immediate needs have been taken care and they don’t know where they want to assign the money. I think they feel more secure if they have some money in RTA. But that’s a mistake. I hate to be bossy, but I’m telling you to trust the method and assign all the money.
You can use the Five Questions to decide where to assign it. If you don’t need it for this month’s expenses, perhaps you need it for future expenses or goals. Go ahead and assign it to those categories, safe in the knowledge that you can move money around if your priorities change.
Remember that YNAB will not allow you to assign money you haven’t yet received. If you end up with a red Ready to Assign you’ll want to fix it on the spot by moving assigned money to RTA until RTA is back to zero. (Just click on the Fix This button to get started.)
A green RTA can feel great, but it’s a temporary high. For me, the real high comes from seeing all the green bubbles in my plan. Assign all your money, get it to zero and you can enjoy basking in the green glow of your funded categories.
Green or red RTAs should be temporary. At the end of a YNAB session, make sure your Ready to Assign is a nice grey $0.00.
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