Comments on: Four Rules to Budget By from YNAB

By: Ana

Ana — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

This is great advice. I hear them almost everyday from my parents, but never knew how hard it is to implement until recently. I devised a “funnel system” this past 2 months so that on the last day of the previous month I would just transfer money from my savings to my checking to pay for the upcoming month’s bills. This way all my deposit goes to savings and its much less tempting to use it. Makes me feel not so poor!

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Rolling with the punches is tough when you are living paycheck to paycheck or already deep in debt! We have finally socked some cash away to ride out the ups and downs. My stress level is so much lower. Thanks for sharing the tips.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Are you trying to say that I should give you all of my lotto winnings? Cuz I will if you want, but I’m afraid you’d have to pay me back in beer Although at this rate we’re not even filling up a 6 pack!

By: Jo/GaelicWench

Jo/GaelicWench — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I have YNAB 3 (beta), and I cannot say enough about this budgeting software. IMO it is the BEST user-friendly budget software I’ve ever bought. It’s worth every penny. I think the four rules are the foundation from which to go by when starting a budget.

I think my favorite approach he discusses is the importance of building one month’s worth of your income, so that you can easily stay ahead of the game. That is truly an excellent strategy; when spending below one’s means and setting aside what is left over, it is easy to achieve this.

I highly recommend YNAB, especially his latest upgrade.

By: C Edwards

C Edwards — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Great advice. I especially like the information on saving for a rainy day.

By: PT

PT — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I guess you do!

By: Keith Morris

Keith Morris — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Me too, Michael.

I spent some time with YNAB this week, and I think it’s fantastic. I prefer it to a system like Mint, because it’s a very proactive, rather than reactive, way of budgeting. I tried Mint, and it’s so automated that I found myself not using it at all. I need to be mindful of what my money is doing in real-time, rather than simply tracking and then looking back at all the mistakes I made over the month. Maybe that has more to do with my mindset than the software, but YNAB makes it easier in my opinion.

There’s a lot of helpful information on budgeting over at LifeTuner as well.