This time I cruised around and stumbled on You Need A Budget (YNAB). The reports are less than stellar, the pie chart wants to show slices from every category and sub-category, rendering it almost useless. When you get some income (paycheck or birthday money), you give each dollar a "job" to do, and place it in a category for spending later. Then, when you are going to spend money, you check each category's balance to see if you have enough in there to buy what you want.
The success of YNAB is in its approach (the 4 rules, which are key to its success) and the customer service (which is pretty much unrivaled in my experience). And there's a pretty fabulous forum community as well (shout out to all my fellow YNAB users).
I needed to get away from Quicken as it just was not meeting my budgeting needs according to Dave Ramsey's FPU budgeting standards. I found this software and downloaded it directly from the YNAB website. Users are eager to help explain the four rules or provide general financial advice in terms of budgeting. Jesse, the creator of YNAB, frequently visits the forums to answer questions, and it impresses me how much user input from the forums he takes and puts directly into the software. It is fantastic software. After years of living in and out of credit I finally got the help I needed.
As things turned out, she was entitled to six months' severance pay under the terms of a merger agreement when her company was bought out. In addition, she found a new job with a 30% pay increase within two weeks of her severance date. This allows you to tell your money what it should be doing in advance, rather than finding out after the fact where it went. Unfortunately, the software doesn't enforce this rule, and if you don't enforce it yourself, your totals will never balance. I read Dave's book and didn't take the budgeting part to heart. I then found YNAB and I can't begin to say how much it has helped us! I've made YNAB Pro a partner in my efforts to become debt free and financially independent. While I have a way to go yet, I just cannot express in words the sense of freedom and the level of stress reduction I have come to enjoy in my life in the six short months I have been using the software.
Then, in December 2007, my wife lost her job, I was in a panic; now what would we do" How would we get by" This being the case, and this is where I was failing on this system for a while, you absolutely cannot look at your bank account to see how much you can spend on that new TV, as this will destroy the budget. You need to pay attention to YNAB instead. The online tutorials and help are great. After very little experience, the process is simple and easy to understand.
But with YNAB somehow I am paying off my credit card debt, saving, and being able to afford my life. The best thing about YNAB is that I know exactly how much money I have for everything. So I gave it a go. This package is delightfully user friendly.
The success of YNAB is in its approach (the 4 rules, which are key to its success) and the customer service (which is pretty much unrivaled in my experience). And there's a pretty fabulous forum community as well (shout out to all my fellow YNAB users).
I needed to get away from Quicken as it just was not meeting my budgeting needs according to Dave Ramsey's FPU budgeting standards. I found this software and downloaded it directly from the YNAB website. Users are eager to help explain the four rules or provide general financial advice in terms of budgeting. Jesse, the creator of YNAB, frequently visits the forums to answer questions, and it impresses me how much user input from the forums he takes and puts directly into the software. It is fantastic software. After years of living in and out of credit I finally got the help I needed.
As things turned out, she was entitled to six months' severance pay under the terms of a merger agreement when her company was bought out. In addition, she found a new job with a 30% pay increase within two weeks of her severance date. This allows you to tell your money what it should be doing in advance, rather than finding out after the fact where it went. Unfortunately, the software doesn't enforce this rule, and if you don't enforce it yourself, your totals will never balance. I read Dave's book and didn't take the budgeting part to heart. I then found YNAB and I can't begin to say how much it has helped us! I've made YNAB Pro a partner in my efforts to become debt free and financially independent. While I have a way to go yet, I just cannot express in words the sense of freedom and the level of stress reduction I have come to enjoy in my life in the six short months I have been using the software.
Then, in December 2007, my wife lost her job, I was in a panic; now what would we do" How would we get by" This being the case, and this is where I was failing on this system for a while, you absolutely cannot look at your bank account to see how much you can spend on that new TV, as this will destroy the budget. You need to pay attention to YNAB instead. The online tutorials and help are great. After very little experience, the process is simple and easy to understand.
But with YNAB somehow I am paying off my credit card debt, saving, and being able to afford my life. The best thing about YNAB is that I know exactly how much money I have for everything. So I gave it a go. This package is delightfully user friendly.
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