You Need A Budget (ynab)

Jesse answers a grab-bag of questions from listeners, including whether it's a good idea to track 401k investments in YNAB (it's not), how to budget for early retirement, good books for learning how to to invest, and more.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

It's a fact, you do. We know this because banks LOVE credit cards, and they're incentives for using credit cards rely on the fact that many people spend more money on credit than they would otherwise. Jesse meditates on the nature of credit card fees, incentives, and the game that banks play to get people to spend on credit.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse riffs on the idea that money has different "tenses," that is, money's purpose is to be spent, and spending can happen in the past, present, or future. Debt is past spending, savings is future spending, and so on. It's an interesting idea, one that might help you better visualize the purpose of money in your own life, and how it aligns with your priorities.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

For everyone listening in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving! Jesse encourages us this week to step back and make a list of everything we are thankful for. Taking a moment to express your gratitude for the things you have and the things that are going well in your life is not only good for your soul, it's good for your budget too! We tend to spend so much of our time in the weeds of categories and transactions, that a little time looking at the big picture and being grateful can help us get back in touch with our priorities. Is what you have enough, is it sufficient?   As Jesse says, you really can't be too grateful!   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse shares results from a recent survey of YNABers asking: "what's the biggest thing you've saved for with YNAB?" Vacations, cars, houses, college... there are some big line items indeed!   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

YNAB'er Allison asks: of all the metrics in the YNAB software, which is the most important one to track? To which Jesse answers... none of them! Jesse prefers to track net worth over time, which is not captured in YNAB since it's a calculation of the value of what you own minus what you owe. As Jesse explains, though, if you are working the Four Rules well, then you will create more opportunties to save and invest money and pay off debt, all of which will increase your net worth.    Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com  

Once you've started working the Four Rules, you start to realize that most of your money is kind of... spoken for. You need to pay the rent, the utlities, insurance, and so on. When you get through the list of non-negotiables, there's often just a few hundred dollars each month to play around with in the budget, and those dollars are where the real gains are made. Like David Bach's "latte factor," the small optional expenses we accumulate without budgeting properly can add up to big savings over a surprisingly short amount of time.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com  

Killian, a YNAB 4 user, asks about Rule Four and the "age of money" metric. How long should you age your money before you can relax a bit and not budget so stringently?   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse drops a reminder that Rule Three, when properly implemented, happens before you spend the money on that unexpected expense -- not after!   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse talks with domestic abuse survivor and now advocate, Dr. Kerry Roarke. Despite a successful career in pharmacy, Kerry found herself stuck in an increasingly abusive marriage, with very little say or power over how she spent or saved money. Since leaving that relationship and righting her financial ship, Kerry has volunteered to help other women find shelter and safety from domestic abuse, and identify the red flags that signal abusive relationships.   Without access to money, women have few resources to leave an abusive relationship, find shelter and food, and obtain legal help. There are many agencies, charities, and non-profit organizations across the country that can provide resources, but finding them can be a challenge. So, Kerry helped create the Safe House app, which compiles all the local resources available to people in a single place.    You can find the app, and other resources, at https://yoursaferplace.org     Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email at: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a

A listener, Tom, writes into the show to express some confusion over what constitutes "savings" in a budget following the YNAB method. During a call with his bank to discuss refinancing, Tom was asked how much savings he had on hand, a question which dumbfounded him. Technically, everything in the budget is savings, he reasoned, since every dollar had been subjected to Rule One, and was sitting in categories to be spent sooner or later. So... is all money just savings in that case?   Jesse offers a saying from one of the YNAB teachers, that all savings is really just... spending! Money exists to be spent -- sometimes now, sometimes tomorrow, and sometimes years in the future. But money that is not spent eventually is useless, so in that sense all "savings" is really just money waiting to be spent.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse invites YNAB Senior Support Manager Chrissy Sebald to the podcast to talk about her budgeting super skill -- saving for frequent travel with her family of six! And not just travel in and around the States. Chrissy has used YNAB to help her budget for two months of travel abroad with her family, on a middle class income.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com  

In today's installment of Money Stories, Jesse talks with YNAB Ambassador Christopher Campbell, a 33-year old marketing director living in Portland, ME. Christopher learned the value of budgeting from an early age, when his mother taught him and his siblings how to put aside money for things they wanted. She led by example, too, always setting aside money for Christmas and birthdays, for emergencies or unexpected expenses, on a middle class income.   Looking to build on the budgeting habits instilled by his mom, Christopher began using YNAB 4 in 2014, and fell in love with both the simplicity of the method and the precision of the software. Using YNAB, Christopher has been able to achieve many notable financial goals -- paying off his student loans and becoming debt-free while living in notoriously expensive Manhattan, purchasing a motorcycle he had wanted since he was a kid, and helping others improve their financial wellbeing through personal coaching and social media. Christopher also enjoys travel, and ha

Jesse invites entrepreneur and avid YNAB'er Jeremy Schneider on to the show to help de-mystify investing for YNAB'ers looking to get started. Jeremy built the successful internet startup RentLinx, sold the company in 2015, and retired a couple years after at the age of 36. Jeremy then spent two years playing video games, traveling, coaching beach volleyball, and learning about what to do with all of his money. When the pandemic hit, he needed something to fill his time, so he decided to build a resource for other people to learn the fundamentals of investing and how to build their own nest egg.   Jeremy's pretty clear that there's no magic to good investment strategy. To build wealth you need to spend less, save more, and then invest using a simple, reliable strategy, such as investing in broad market index funds. He recommends using YNAB to help with the spending less money part, then teaches the rest in his Personal Finance Club.   Jeremy has a FREE 60-minute investing basics course as well as some fun and

Jesse chats with Ben, a YNAB employee and "The Dollar Scholar" on TikTok, where he educates college students and grads on the intricacies of student loans. Ben walks through the recently announced student loan forgiveness program, how much debt can be forgiven for students or graduates with Pell grants and with traditional Federal student loans, and some of the forthcoming changes to income-based repayment plans.   Ben also reminds us that not all the details of the plan have been worked out yet, and there are still open questions regarding the legality of the program, as well as potential income tax implications at the state level. Consequently, he reminds us, don't count on those forgiveness funds until they actually hit your bank account!   Follow Ben the Dollar Scholar on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedollarscholar?lang=en   Did you YNAB is FREE for college students? Sign up here: https://www.youneedabudget.com/college/   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com

School is back in session, and it's a good time to tune up the budget. Want to really nail it this year? Go back to the Four Rules, Jesse says, and simplify. Now is the time to close those extra bank accounts, the multiple credit cards, the three different brokerage accounts. Budgeting is all about helping you make better decisions, after all, and simplifying helps you do that too.   Did you YNAB is FREE for college students? Sign up here: https://www.youneedabudget.com/college/   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com

A listener writes the show to ask: what should he and his family do with a life-changing windfall? The listener has a mortgage, and a HELOC, and some savings goals such as saving for his kids' college education. The windfall amount is enough to payoff all these things, and in addition he has recently earned a large raise. While the windfall is a huge gift, he wants to be calm, reasonable, and disciplined with allocating it towards the family's financial goals. Jesse helps walk through the problem, and identify some emotionally driven questions one should ask in this situation.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse shares a few book titles he has been working through lately, and how the lessons from Jocko's Exteme Ownership have been working their way through the Mecham household and YNAB. It's not all business books this time! Topics range from leadership to the history of money to science fiction.   Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-ebook/dp/B0739PYQSS/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=jocko+willink+extreme+ownership&qid=1660506517&s=books&sprefix=jocko+willink+ex%2Cstripbooks%2C69&sr=1-1   Debrief to Win by Robert “Cujo” Teschner https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1732929815/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0   Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies by Nik Bhatia https://www.amazon.com/Layered-Money-Dollars-Bitcoin-Currencies-ebook/dp/B08T7T47HC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZYVYV927YTEG&keywords=layered+money&qid=1660506593&s=books&sprefix=layered+money%2Cstripbooks%2C60&sr=1-1   Dune by Frank Herbert h

A listener writes Jesse to ask what he should do with his first real job and first real paycheck -- pay off debt, or start investing? This is a popular question with a few answers, and in Jesse's mind, the answers are all valid! What matters most is where you picture your life five years from now, whether you are happy with that picture, and whether your current trajectory is going to get you there.   Some people get a lot of satisfaction from having a big nest egg, even while carrying debt. Others prize the freedom they feel from not having debt more than the size of their investment accounts. And of course, some people prefer to be somewhere in between.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

There's a moment that happens when you run across something you really want -- it's like an itch that wants you to whip out the credit card and scratch it! In these moments, we're probably not very clear on our priorities and Rule One, so Jesse reminds us that the budget is the thing that helps us answer the question: can I afford this? Am I going to be OK after I buy this? And the budget answers those questions for you by bringing clarity to your priorities and the jobs you have assigned to your dollars.   Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: askjesse@ynab.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com