Fun story - got a call for an unexpected bill on our propane tank lease. I told the kind lady it was no problem because we had the money and I would just move some money around in our budget. Then we got chatting about YNAB and 20 min later she was thanking me so much for telling her about YNAB and she said she was also definitely going to share with her adult children. lol. That’s how great YNAB is in our life and how we share your awesomeness.

I'm 2 weeks into YNAB and loving it. I've been binge watching these videos like crazy. So helpful! My wife is probably starting to get a little jealous of Hannah at this point.

Best lesson I learned was to reconcile my accounts every single morning. Takes me about 5 minutes over coffee - a little longer on paydays (playdays!) - and I always know exactly where we are with everything.

The credit card management is my favorite part of YNAB. I couldn’t imagine not using a credit card category.

YNAB is more strict that Ramsey's "Every Dollar" app by not allowing money to be earned that month to be assigned to the budget yet. As the resident household Budget/Finance, I really appreciate this about YNAB. With "Every Dollar" I have to worry about cash flow and making sure I have enough in the bank before I spend. This is not a problem with YNAB, yay, one less thing to worry about!

oh man trying to use a credit card as a "checking account" type would make things way way too difficult for my brain. i love how ccs are handled!

YNAB saved my sanity. Went from broke to ballin in a matter of months ❤

I'm two months in to using YNAB. My thing I learned is sorting the categories by how often I'll need to check them. It makes it so easy to fund all of my monthly bills and then collapse the category. I had to learn this the hard way because my budget before YNAB was oriented around groups like "necessary for life" and "for fun." That's how I had set up my category groups in YNAB initially, but it quickly got annoying to scroll all the way past all my monthly bills in the same group to check on other things. Now, everything is sorted by how often I'll spend from them, so I can easily check how much I have for groceries or food delivery and quickly roll with the punches from those categories. And I can collapse my "monthly," "yearly," and "occasional" groups to get them out of the way day to day.

When I started YNAB a couple years ago, I binged watched all of Hannah's videos. I love this one yet again for the great info AND the outtakes 😆

I don't use the auto import because it is too inconsistent in frequency, so I manually import qfx files, which makes me happy. Took me a year to realize you can have it automatically assign categories based on text contained in the payee. Now I have to go and fix all my payee accounts (at least 1000). I wish the "payee manager" was more powerful.

Biggest mistake I made as a YNAB newbie (Ynoob?) is I ignored a 9 cent discrepancy between my checking balance in YNAB and in my bank because it seemed like “no big deal.” Fast forward six months and it was a $900 discrepancy 😅 RECONCILE PEOPLE!!

The thing that bugged me at first was the timing of my paychecks. I had spent a couple years forecasting, but I get paid at the end of every month. So the paycheck I'll get April 30th is going to fund May. But right now, on the income/expense report, it looks like I've had all my expenses but no income, which used to stress me out a bit! Took a little while for me to wrap my head around that and realize I didn't have to fudge any dates, because the YNAB plan isn't really by month. The True Expenses thing was a real mind-bender/game-changer, though. When I was doing cash flow forecasting, or planning on a spreadsheet, I didn't have any concept of saving up for much of anything (also didn't have hardly any money to save, but that's another story), but now I have a ton of things I'm saving up for. So much easier to set aside ten-twelve bucks every month and then have cash on hand to renew my Amazon Prime when it comes due. But yeah, it was weird at first.

YNAB has been a pretty big mind shift, but probably for the better in the long run. Couple of the things I ran into: 1. Learning how to transfer money from one account to another, eg for savings or credit card payment. 2. Create a cash account, otherwise money withdrawal from an ATM just disappears 💸

Hospitality!! That's the category I have been missing. Was just trying to think up a name for such a category for stuff that's not necessarily donations or charity, but meals or supplies, serving others. Thanks Hannah!

The credit card/checking folks drive me nutty. They were confused with the credit card function and went back to the “old” way of managing their credit card. They also encourage new users to do the same thing even though they haven’t tried using credit card categories in YNAB in the last 3 years. To me, credit cards are the easiest function in YNAB.

I love Hannah videos. They are my favourite YNAB videos

Something I wish I hadn't done was completely delete my earlier budgets when I wanted to start over organizing. After I'd categorized a couple years' worth of purchases, it would have made things like finding all my 1099 expenses WAY easier for taxes if I hadn't gone scorched earth 😭 We love a refresh, but maybe don't purposefully delete all your data??

The biggest challenge my wife had was trying to reconcile the budget to the bank accounts. It took quite some effort the help her wrap her head around the budget not caring about actual accounts or where the money is stored. The $$ in groceries category is irrelevant to where the $$ reside, it’s just that the $$ are there

Enjoyed as usual! Would really love to see a video on reconciling YNAB with itself. Balancing the account side with the budget side. I had to do a fresh start last year because I didn't think through how to do this and lost confidence in my budget. I now balance both sides every month. Also, a balancing report would be real handy. Thanks. -Ed

The "savings lump" was the one that took me the longest to work out (my first 2.5 years of YNAB!). But I was really grateful for the push to think about my future and how to prepare for it. Thanks, YNAB!

You’re the best Hannah! Thank you always!

Thank you, Hannah! Doing a budget based on MY needs and not based on what the world tells me (ie: the 50/30/20 rule) really hit home. Your presentation is so warming!

I love these videos! Keep going! The only thing which is better than the app, is your ynab method :3

First off, I love your videos Hannah! I have been using YNAB for a couple years now but admit that I am one of those people who have always lumped my checking & credit card entries together. I found it difficult to reconcile these 2 accounts. (imagine that!) After watching this video and then the one “Using Credit Cards with YNAB: The Complete Guide”, I thought I would try doing it the “right way” and setup a credit card account. My checking account automatically pays off my credit card every month (yay!) so I set it up with that in mind. It is fun to use more of the features of the software so hopefully it will all work out well.

The credit card functionality is absolute genius, just takes a little getting used to. No more mental math. I just record my transactions knowing YNAB keeps track of the credit card payment - every couple weeks or so I make the payment YNAB says and bingo, never lose track or run a balance. My brain thanks you for lightening the mental load. Also after a year of YNAB I simplified my bank accounts (one checking and one savings, two credit cards - closed all the rest) and started a new budget so I wouldn’t have to see the old mess. 🎉 🥂

Thanks for this wonderful video! I had the hardest time with money transfers between my different cash accounts and properly recording those transfers in my transactions. After transferring money, I always had to reconcile my accounts to make sure I did it right.

Great video, Hannah!! I second the “too few” categories problem! At one point I tried implementing the Ramit Sethi 4 categories system, starting with actually 7 I think for insurance, trips, and gifts to be separated out. I kept having to add more in because it was too confusing, I’m right back where I started now, with possibly more categories honestly 😂

These insights are spot-on! Managing finances effectively is all about being proactive and avoiding common pitfalls like budgeting future income or waiting for specific dates. It's crucial to break down savings into specific categories for better financial clarity.

Last year I decided my budget was a little stale so I simply started a new one from scratch, only using my old budget as a reference for the fixed/recurring expenses. Was surprised at how it didn’t take long to be up to speed in the new budget & how refreshing it was to be making new categories that match where I am now in life. Felt so good I’m considering doing it again, 1yr on! Let your budget evolve folks, and don’t be afraid to start over (-8

There is one part of the YNAB screen capture where the gmail address isn't blurred out. Just a heads up!

In other news, that was a great video especially the advice at the end.

I've been with YNAB for nearly a year and it has been a financial lifesaver! And I have an uber-detailed plan! Five categories under Auto alone! 😁

I was that person that had a random category called “personal emergency” with $10k sitting in it. I already had categories for various deductibles and home repairs so I moved some of the money to finish my new house fund and the rest to new car. I finally realized that if my life implodes, we probably won’t be doing either of those things so I’ll have some cash lol

12:02. What did I learn over time? I learned to listen to Hannah! She knows what's best for me (YNAB-wise) :)

I’ve been a Ynabber for a few years and still struggle with how the credit card works in the system.

Is it strange that you are my favorite youtuber? 😅

They should teach this program in schools 🎉

As a Parks and Rec fan, I appreciate the "Food n Stuff" easter egg. 😂

The CC issue (interest/fees) is the most confusing. I can't remember who in your Help department finally helped me, but since I no longer use the cards, just paying them off, I can set them up as Tracking accounts. And yes, that's more simple, but every month I still want to have my Credit Card Accounts with an Interest category. I've only been doing this a few months, so hopefully after I've mastered everything else 🤣 I can go back to using the Credit Card Accounts. If you have time, would you be able to give me some hints in order to make it a little more understandable? I've watched the videos and read the blog posts, but I just feel too dense to absorb the concept.

I’d like to see a video explaining the difference between assigned and available. It’s not intuitive enough.

My hubs and I love YNAB, it makes budgeting fun! That is the true genius of this software. I have never used anything that works for us as well as YNAB and our budget evolves as needed. I mean, can a budget really be complete if you can't add categories with emojis?!! I think not.

love YNAB… Hannah’s outros give Jenny Slate vibes and I’m here for it

Please make a video about the new changes to targets in 2024! I'm so confused!

You're funny Hannah. Quirky some might say but entertaining none the less. Keep em coming. BTW: It took 41M bricks. lol

The savings categories and the credit card stuff is mind-boggling to me still. I quit YNAB multiple times over it. I understand the logic behind it. However, I don’t fully understand the mechanics of it. Still. 😂

7th common mistake: Not having a fully funded category for Disc Golf!

I learned to reconcile at least a few times a week, otherwise it's two weeks later and a confusing disaster 😅

Subscriptions is a headache for me -- any new features for it?

Biggest mistake I made was not understanding how important reconciling is or what it even meant exactly. I had to do like 14 for starts before I figured out the problem and solution 😂

Any new videos due Hannah? I'm a couple months in and have binged all the HFHs, including ones on tax refunds (which i don't receive), renovations (which I'll never do) and babies (had those 30+ years ago). I've enjoyed them all - the videos not the babies, tho they were pretty cool too, but now I'll have to start at the beginning again while I wait for another one. Again, videos not ...

I'm really struggling with the savings one. I don't really know what I'm putting money aside for, just that I should be doing it. I budget for it, it goes into my savings account at the end of the month and I just don't think about it otherwise. What am I supposed to do with it? 😂

Okay, but when I started in the middle of the month it actually was a little awkward to have my targets that I had already met and paid before I started YNAB look at me with their sad yellow colors... 😢 😉

Instead of too few categories, TOO MANY categories right off the bat from starting my journey with YNAB!! LOL 🤣🤣

How can I display these emojis?

How did that big coffee cup survive your flying arms? 😅

Um, Hannah, you're amazing. That's all. As you were.

credit cards are such a PITA in ynab. i switched all mine off because it always was a bigger hassle than it was worth

Disagree on #3. When I can pay my cc balance anytime due to high bank account balance, it makes no difference which method to use. I tested both for a while and couldn’t find a single difference either way

I feel like im the only one who understands this app, and i am also messing up

I’m that guy who uses the checking account type instead of the Credit Card account type. Way easier to manage as long as you aren’t in debt.