

- #YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK UPGRADE#
- #YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK SOFTWARE#
- #YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK TRIAL#
- #YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK PLUS#
Over time, as you age your finances further, you’ll facilitate the creation of a nice, multimonth emergency fund. This rule is more aspirational than the other three - YNAB warns new users currently living paycheck to paycheck that they won’t get there overnight.Įventually, however, this rule finds you covering this month’s bills with money earned last month - technically, 30 days ago or longer. If you overspend in one category for any reason, just move unused funds from another category to make up the shortfall and end the month in the same place. When it happens to you, this rule asks you to adjust your budget on the fly. We’ve all been guilty of overspending at times. These “contributions” sit in your bank account until the associated expense comes around, at which point you pay them with set-aside funds and move on without racking up credit card debt or turning to personal loans. This rule asks you to turn less frequent expenses, such as car or home repairs, into “bills.” This means allocating a fixed monthly “contribution” - really, a set-aside that you don’t spend - to each infrequent expense even if you expect not to incur that expense for months at a time. The idea is to create a solid, sustainable plan for how you’ll cover your expenses, essential and discretionary - not simply to spend money as you earn it. In essence, “giving every dollar a job” means allocating every dollar you earn to a specific expense category, be it groceries, housing, transportation, entertainment, or whatever else. This is the basis for YNAB’s budgeting model.

Here’s the short version of each rule: 1. YNAB’s secret sauce is its Four Rules, common-sense principles that collectively comprise its take on the zero-based budgeting method. All users can take advantage of the same features, functions, and capabilities. You Need a Budget doesn’t have a tiered or plan-based subscription model. Why go through the trouble? To answer that question, let’s review the key features and capabilities that set YNAB apart from its competitors. This makes the YNAB learning curve more manageable. YNAB advises new users to embrace a clean slate: to let go of any preconceived notions and past experiences with budgets - including failures - that might color their perceptions of the budgeting process.

#YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK PLUS#
More than 100 educational workshops, plus a full-length book, complement robust desktop and mobile money management apps for individual and joint budgets. Unlike competing “set it and forget it” products that rely on extensive automation and don’t do much to teach their users about building sustainable budgets, YNAB is as much an educational resource as a practical one.
#YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK TRIAL#
In addition to the free trial period, student users enjoy this budgeting app free for 12 months.Īll things considered, this is a small price to pay for a steady hand on the financial till.

Annual plan users pay $84 per year - a $59 savings - and can also cancel at any time. Monthly plan users pay $11.99 per month after a 34-day free trial period and can cancel at any time. YNAB: The BasicsĪfter a generous risk-free trial period, YNAB does require a paid subscription. Using the popular and reliable zero-based budgeting method and four simple rules for effective budgeting, YNAB empowers users to take control of their finances and keep more of their money where it belongs: in their pockets.
#YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK SOFTWARE#
Of these popular budgeting software programs, You Need a Budget (YNAB) is one of the very best.
#YOU NEED A BUDGET BOOK UPGRADE#
All represent an upgrade from old-school spreadsheets, which are time-consuming and tedious to maintain. More than a dozen legitimate alternatives to Mint offer a variety of takes on the budgeting process. If you’re in the market for a new budgeting tool, you have no shortage of choices.
