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Dantu posted:So basically, the categories are like little virtual accounts, right? I've been getting really hung up on where the money physically is, for example I'd transfer to a savings account and it wouldn't let me assign it to a category unless I moved the savings account off budget, and I'd get frustrated. You should be able to "transfer" between on budget accounts. Because you already budgeted the money in the budget section under it's own "savings" budget, it's not going to affect anything.
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Jun 2, 2014 18:27
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Dantu posted:So basically, the categories are like little virtual accounts, right? I've been getting really hung up on where the money physically is, for example I'd transfer to a savings account and it wouldn't let me assign it to a category unless I moved the savings account off budget, and I'd get frustrated. You shouldn't need to assign a category to a savings transfer. Just book $X in your budget to a savings category. For example, I have $x in my emergency fund category and $y in my moving/life expenses saving category, and they both live in my SmartyPig account which has a balance of $x+y. I never flagged the transfers as a category because the accounts all on budget. I'm not sure that was clear, I hope it makes sense.
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Jun 2, 2014 18:32
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Dantu posted:So basically, the categories are like little virtual accounts, right? I've been getting really hung up on where the money physically is, for example I'd transfer to a savings account and it wouldn't let me assign it to a category unless I moved the savings account off budget, and I'd get frustrated. Exactly right. It doesn't matter where your money is - if you've got ^5000 in a savings account, all that means is ^3000 of that is set aside for disco powder and ^2000 is for rent boys, as per your budget. If you were to close that savings account and stuff all the cash into your mattress, you'd still have that ^5000 left to spend on
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Jun 2, 2014 20:12
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so I could say that I finally figured out what this god damned cube is doing. Get well Lowtax.
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Am I the only one that thinks Dropbox integration sucks? I couldn't use my personal account because apparently my work account takes precedence, and two different computers become un-synced all the time. I would still just be saving it in a skydrive folder, which worked flawlessly, but then I wouldn't be able to use the mobile app, which honestly doesn't seem worth the effort at this point.
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Jun 2, 2014 21:00
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You can still use the mobile app, you just need to sync it manually.
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Jun 2, 2014 21:03
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When I had the trial version, I thought having the mobile app was loving awesome and used it basically every time I bought anything, and was one of the major selling points with me. Now that I have bought the program, however, I almost never use the mobile app to log anything and just enter my purchases later that day.
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Jun 3, 2014 00:00
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The GPS payee tagger makes the mobile app fantastic.
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Jun 3, 2014 03:05
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An anecdote that may inspire people to get to Rule 4 as quickly as they can... A few months ago I had to take an emergency leave from work and lost a week's pay. This was at the end of March. Before Rule 4, this would have been a major hassle. I'd be counting on that paycheck for my groceries and utilities for the first half of April. And since I'd be at the end of the budget cycle and paying rent for April with my previous paycheck, then I'd be really strapped. Since it was last-minute, I wouldn't have been saving much. I've gone so long without using credit cards as a crutch, do I break that streak? It would just suck in general. But, I'm in Rule 4. So everything is great. Since this happened at the end of the month, it came in on an April paycheck, which means it affected May's budget. April's budget had already been earned. The money was already there. And since I learned of the emergency in early March, that meant I had two months to adjust budgets to compensate for the shortfall in May. And if push came to shove, I could have found a way to earn extra money in May, and then put off some May budget items until the first of June, when May earnings would be budgeted. That's what Rule 4 does. Living paycheck-to-paycheck sucks. Even if you live within your means, there's no room to relax and plan.
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Jun 3, 2014 15:00
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:The GPS payee tagger makes the mobile app fantastic. Yes, this is great. Once you build up your GPS database of places you commonly visit, it takes about 5 seconds to log an entry.
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Jun 3, 2014 15:25
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Oh poo poo I didn't even know about the GPS thing. just found it and turned it on. That'll be awesome.
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Jun 3, 2014 18:35
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Yeah I have no clue why it isn't on by default. Seems silly.
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Jun 3, 2014 20:20
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I'm just now starting to get into rule 4. I probably could have been there sooner, but instead, I have been dumping half of my checks into savings for the last 3 months. So, I have a really nice buffer/ oh poo poo/ fun money stash, but it's not reflecting in a buffer. It's a nice feeling knowing that, if I keep up this pace, I can have 10,000 saved by new years (or my birthday). 
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Jun 4, 2014 04:02
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How did I not know abut the GPS thing this is rad as heck
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Jun 4, 2014 04:15
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I'm very jealous of you Step 4 goons. I'm skin of my teeth paycheck to paycheck. I NEED YNAB because if I'm not super on top of my budget I'm hosed.
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Jun 4, 2014 07:22
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Sockser posted:How did I not know abut the GPS thing this is rad as heck This sounds cool. Unfortunately my phone is over three years old and opening apps is a pretty slow process. That's probably why I never use the YNAB app on my phone. I should probably upgrade soon. I have a section in my budget devoted to phone upgrade and there's over $300 in it. I'm just lazy I guess.
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Jun 4, 2014 13:08
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Any tips for reconciling cash accounts? I haven't really bothered yet because we keep the current account reconciled and I figured it would just be a pain in the hole. But we do pay with cash and make transfers between accounts for atm withdrawals. Now I'm finding double entries in the budget because the app will default to one of the cash accounts sometimes and then I'll find a "missing" transaction on the bank statement and add it in. I think reconciling will help narrow these down and keep us in line. The biggest problem is that we have some big coins here in Switzerland ($1, $2 and $5 more or less) so I have a coin jar with sometimes up to $500 in it and I can't be arsed counting it up to get my balance. Any advice?
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Jun 4, 2014 22:42
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Royal W posted:I'm just now starting to get into rule 4. I probably could have been there sooner, but instead, I have been dumping half of my checks into savings for the last 3 months. So, I have a really nice buffer/ oh poo poo/ fun money stash, but it's not reflecting in a buffer. You are already there, you just are storing the money in a savings account instead of checking if I am reading this right. This post really confuses me as how you are not already living rule 4. My story is my wife works at a remote job site for the next 2.5 years. She had to front about $7000 getting an apartment and stuff for it. Since we are well into rule 4 plus money on top of that for a 2 month emergency fund we had no problem waiting to get reimbursed (still owed $4k). I don't know what someone would do if they were paycheck to paycheck, hopefully the company would front the money.
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Jun 4, 2014 23:07
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spwrozek posted:You are already there, you just are storing the money in a savings account instead of checking if I am reading this right. This post really confuses me as how you are not already living rule 4. I'm not rule 4'ing by definition, because I'm still paying this month's bills with this month's income. I get paid weekly, so every payday, i pay 1/4 of rent (transfer to a separate account, off budget) and then whatever bills are up this week. Then I divvy up my everyday expenses, and anything left over goes into savings. To get to rule 4, I need to put that savings part to work on next month's bills; or maybe start small and do next week's, building up to a month out.
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Jun 5, 2014 02:25
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I was doing the same thing until one day in august I just said gently caress it and took half my savings to get fully buffered. I think it was a good decision, I just built the savings back up afterward.
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Jun 5, 2014 02:39
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I was doing the same thing until one day in august I just said gently caress it and took half my savings to get fully buffered. I think it was a good decision, I just built the savings back up afterward. If you think about it, Rule 4 is a month of emergency fund anyway.
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Jun 5, 2014 03:08
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Old Fart posted:That's what I did, too, also last August. It was a great decision. Exactly. That was my point. Money is money as long as it is liquid and you have easy access to it.
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Jun 5, 2014 04:09
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Old Fart posted:That's what I did, too, also last August. It was a great decision. Eh, not really. Rule 4 is accounting for a lot of things that I would definitely dump if I was in a super panic need to survive mode. IE, all my rainy day funds (amazon prime, drive a lot less, computer parts, home projects, presents ect) and I'd probably end up hacking a solid 80% of my personal expendatures budgets. I'd say it could end up being 2-4 months of emergency mode budget.
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Jun 5, 2014 06:42
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Rule 4 is about peace of mind more than anything else - enjoy being outside the payday cycle and not having to firefight your budget! The three months' expenses you can start accruing afterwards gives you a cushion, in case something comes along and pokes a hole in your little zen bubble of Enlightenment.
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Jun 5, 2014 18:58
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Agreed. My view of Rule 4 is that it's a month's worth of regular expenses, available and budgeted at the first of the month. Everything earned that month goes to the next month. If you have the money in "emergency" but aren't living a month ahead, I say use the emergency to get a month ahead, since it's the same thing anyway, but one way is a lot more relaxing. My emergency fund accounts for stripping down a fair bit, so Rule 4 really puts me two months ahead.
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Jun 5, 2014 19:05
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After using up most of the YNAB trial I've decided to bite the bullet and buy it. Was a little sceptical at first about the whole philosophy behind it, but I'm hooked now. I've had a "budget" before, but it's never been very detailed and I've never properly tracked spending either. Kicking up the level of detail a notch has been huge. Gonna buy it out of loose change I saved up and everything.
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Jun 6, 2014 16:10
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I'm trying out the Trial version of YNAB, and I'm wondering how people are handling things like an HSA? I have $250 being deducted from my paycheck every pay period, so I'd like to have that money reflected in my budget... However it can only ever be used for Medical expenses and the inflow is before tax/tax free so I'm not sure what the "normal" way of handling this would be.
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Jun 9, 2014 14:42
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If it's always a flat $250, just enter it as income separate from your paycheck directly into your HSA. Then budget it immediately into your medical category.
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Jun 9, 2014 14:46
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If you pay the medical expenses straight from the account, make an on-budget account, add a $250 inflow to it every paycheck and categorize that inflow as Medical Expenses. It has to be on-budget since you can't categorize off-budget transactions.
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Jun 9, 2014 14:49
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My HSA is employer funded, so I keep it off-budget and just manually do the transactions. Since it's reimbursement only, I just categorize the reimbursements as income. For my FSA, funded by me, is also off budget. I contribute a fixed amount like you do, but I just do the transactions manually and don't categorize them. I only really pay for co-pays and prescriptions with it, so it's not a big deal to keep it off-budget.
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Jun 9, 2014 16:58
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Steampunk Hitler posted:I'm trying out the Trial version of YNAB, and I'm wondering how people are handling things like an HSA? I have $250 being deducted from my paycheck every pay period, so I'd like to have that money reflected in my budget... However it can only ever be used for Medical expenses and the inflow is before tax/tax free so I'm not sure what the "normal" way of handling this would be. I have a flex account, and I didn't track it the first time around when I spent everything because I didn't know YNAB well enough, but now I do so this is what I do now; You set up your HSA as an on budget account. Every Time you contribute into it you can add that $250 deducted from your total paycheck, and have it transfer into the HSA oon budget account. Then, when you incur a medical expense, instead of taking it from your checking, you instead do the drop down and take it from your HSA. If you have an HSA investment you can also track gains and losses from it. 100 HOGS AGREE posted:If you pay the medical expenses straight from the account, make an on-budget account, add a $250 inflow to it every paycheck and categorize that inflow as Medical Expenses. poo poo I should read all the posts before I go and write out how I do it.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:17
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I don't bother splitting my paychecks up into my 401k because I'd have to account for all that money that's going to taxes and poo poo I'm not seeing anyway. I just give myself my net income for the month and make a separate inflow into my 401k. Same thing here, it's just easier.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:49
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What are the differences between a budget account being on or off anyway?
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Jun 9, 2014 18:07
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Veskit posted:What are the differences between a budget account being on or off anyway?
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Jun 9, 2014 18:15
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On-budget accounts directly affect your spending (your everyday bank account and credit card), off-budget accounts affect your net worth (pension pot, investment account). I think that's what it boils down to. Remember, YNAB is all about giving your money a purpose. If you don't want to give it a specific purpose - I'm not in any hurry to grab my pension fund, for instance - then it doesn't form part of your budget, and therefore won't affect your Available to Budget figure.
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Jun 9, 2014 18:19
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So wouldn't it be better to have your HSA as an off budget account if your medical things are mostly rainy day? Then if you have persistent medical expenses you make it an on budget account and budget accordingly?
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Jun 9, 2014 18:47
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Sounds good to me. I keep my HSA off-budget, personally.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:03
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crimedog posted:Sounds good to me. I keep my HSA off-budget, personally. I keep my HSA off-budget and then reconcile the balance every month. That way, there's no need to do a transfer since all expenses coming out of that is basically Medical anyway.
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Jun 10, 2014 00:09
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spinst posted:My HSA is employer funded, so I keep it off-budget and just manually do the transactions. Since it's reimbursement only, I just categorize the reimbursements as income. 100 HOGS AGREE posted:I don't bother splitting my paychecks up into my 401k because I'd have to account for all that money that's going to taxes and poo poo I'm not seeing anyway. I just give myself my net income for the month and make a separate inflow into my 401k. Same thing here, it's just easier. I keep 401k off budget and HSA on budget. I also contribute to my HSA sometimes, hopefully I won't do that in another year and a bit, once I have enough in there to cover my OPM (not the fun OPM, but rather out of pocket max.)
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Jun 10, 2014 01:10
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My employer funds part of the HSA, but the rest is what I contribute. It's also not a rainy day fund for me, at least right now, which is why I wanted it on budget. I've only had it for a short period of time and I'll probably end up needing to spend more than the max yearly contribution this year at least, maybe going into the future as well. I'm looking at probably 10-20k in dental work in the near future and trying to make sure I can budget for that appropriately. Perhaps I could just keep the HSA off budget and have an additional Medical budget item that I throw post tax dollars at.
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Jun 10, 2014 05:52
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Started splitting income between this and next month, feels good man. It's way better than feeling flush with a big buffer category. I think this is a better rule 4 method, I'll keep you guys posted.
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Jun 13, 2014 16:42
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