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What's the best way to deal with some extra, variable, income that I get? I go on-call for my job a couple of times a month, and I get extra money from that, but I want to budget based solely on my guaranteed income (i.e., my regular paycheck amount.) I guess just put it in as an "Inflow" for my primary checking account, and make an "on-call pay" category, instead of labeling it as "Income for [Month]"? Right now, I have it as a split transaction, both just saying Income for [Month], and in the memo, indicating one is my base pay and the other is on on-call pay. Then I just take the extra amount and add it to the budget I have set up for my Emergency Savings fund, and then do a manual bank transfer from my checking to my savings for the extra amount (in addition to the automatic transfer I have set up for every paycheck that's based on my base income/budget.) It's not elegant, but it works.
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Jun 2, 2015 20:46
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Why bother? Budget for what you bring in. If you get extra for the month just shove [the difference] into the emergency savings fund or vacation fund or something. There's no reason to break it out like that. Don't worry about which bank account its in, YNAB (and you) only care about categories.
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Jun 2, 2015 21:31
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If the problem is you're unsure of whatever you'd like that money to do, just assign it to a generic "buffer" category or something until you do decide.
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Jun 3, 2015 14:25
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What I love about YNAB (or any sensible budget software I guess) is that the money really doesn't go away from that category unless I let it. I used to get the occasional cash gift which just got subsumed into my current account. I maybe bought one nice thing before it got tapped for bills. Now it stays separate from all other bills, and I don't need to justify spending it when it might need to pay for food or utilities.
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Jun 3, 2015 17:14
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I have three buffer categories I usually use for extra income. The first is an "Emergency Fund" which is basically a big pool of money earmarked that I could live off of if I lost all my income for period of time. (Unemployed, Disabled, Etc). The second is just a "Cash Savings" fund where I put money once the first "Emergency Fund" is topped up to X months of living expenses. I separated them out because I wanted one category that was clearly "This is for important poo poo don't touch it" and another that was "Here's extra reserves you can tap if you want/need to do something big (buy a car, go on lavish vacation, dog needs exotic 3d-printed dog brain, etc)". The last is labeled "Investments" and I try to balance this with cash savings. My retirement and investment accounts are all off-budget, and transfers to them are categorized as spending from this account. The idea is after there's good enough buffers on the first two, extra cash in a deposit account is better used as an investment. A couple extra notes: - I don't spend from Savings/Emergency budget category. I negative budget and then budget extra for the actual category spending. So If I have a surprise 3k medical bill it's classified as "Medical" so I can still go back in reports instead of mystery "Cash Savings" - I have separate categories still for infrequent spending, like Christmas, Insurance Bills, etc. Even if they are only paid out a few times a year I don't want to spend the other months without allocating the money, because otherwise it's all in an opaque and mysterious "Cash Savings" pile.
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Jun 9, 2015 17:19
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I need some help on what I'm doing wrong. As of right now, I have $50 left in my account. This is where I'm having issues. My budget shows I've got more than that available in my categories. Is it counting other available funds like Credit Cards? My understanding is my budget should always match my available. Am I doing something wrong?
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Jun 12, 2015 17:02
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Credit cards should never be available funds. They're always 0 or negative unless you might have overpaid your bill. It sounds like there's a reconciliation problem. Have you done that to all your accounts recently? I try to do it weekly.
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Jun 12, 2015 17:40
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porksmash posted:Credit cards should never be available funds. They're always 0 or negative unless you might have overpaid your bill. It sounds like there's a reconciliation problem. Have you done that to all your accounts recently? I try to do it weekly. Ok. The Credit cards might be my issue. For instance, I have a store card that's paid off. Should I move it to off budget and just keep track of the balance?
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Jun 12, 2015 17:52
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That doesn't sound quite right either... if you plan to use the card, keep it on budget. It should be classified as 'credit card' account type for sure. When you spend money with it it will add to your owed balance and also subtract from your budget categories. I think I might be missing something. Your actual account has $50, but the balance at the top of the month says more than that? Are there any other accounts that are not credit cards? I think the first thing to verify is that the actual account balance in YNAB matches your bank exactly to the cent. porksmash fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 18:00
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Irritated Goat posted:Ok. The Credit cards might be my issue. For instance, I have a store card that's paid off. Should I move it to off budget and just keep track of the balance? No, keep it on budget. When you use it, and record the transaction under the credit card in YNAB, the balance of the credit card will show negative (money you owe). First thing you need to do is make sure all your balances match up. Does your Savings account in YNAB match whats in your bank? Does your checking account in YNAB match whats in your bank? Do your credit cards match what you owe today? Once all of that matches, there should be no way the budget itself would show you have more money that you actually do. The budget is based of what is in your accounts today. If they aren't matching, and you can't figure out why, you will have to do a reconciliation that will put a single entry in to the accounts forcing them to match whats in your bank (so if you only have $50 in your bank, but the budget shows you have $200, you reconcile, telling YNAB you only actually have $50 and then it will add a transaction for minus $150 to equal the $50 you do have).
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Jun 12, 2015 18:07
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porksmash posted:That doesn't sound quite right either... if you plan to use the card, keep it on budget. It should be classified as 'credit card' account type for sure. When you spend money with it it will add to your owed balance and also subtract from your budget categories. Just a savings account I move my wife's taxes to for repayment later since she's a contractor and my car note.
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Jun 12, 2015 18:24
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Dustoph posted:No, keep it on budget. When you use it, and record the transaction under the credit card in YNAB, the balance of the credit card will show negative (money you owe). First thing you need to do is make sure all your balances match up. Does your Savings account in YNAB match whats in your bank? Does your checking account in YNAB match whats in your bank? Do your credit cards match what you owe today? My budget accounts section is correct and matching my bank account. It's the actual budget that shows more than is financially possible. i.e. Food shows 64.42 availabe and Spending Money shows 62.35 available but if I reduce those down, the Available to Budget has excess in it.
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Jun 12, 2015 18:31
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Irritated Goat posted:My budget accounts section is correct and matching my bank account. It's the actual budget that shows more than is financially possible.
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Jun 12, 2015 18:33
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Can you post a screenshot? I'm having a hard time understanding the problem.
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Jun 12, 2015 18:43
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ilkhan posted:Is the difference sitting in savings or a different account somewhere? Nope. If I subtract savings from what is available in those 2 categories, I'm still left with excess. I'll keep looking if all those are supposed to match up.  Warning: Image is big Irritated Goat fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 18:43
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Are any of your budget lines negative? That can cause that as well, as when a budget line goes negative, it doesn't reduce the available budget amounts. So if something is negative, you need to make it not negative by pulling from other budget lines.
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Jun 12, 2015 18:47
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First glance at the screenshot. 900 vs 844 on that first blanked cc might be the variance. Plus the rest of those not quite matching. Why is a cc positive in the first place? Budget accounts matches budget, so the money is in there.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:05
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ilkhan posted:First glance at the screenshot. It's positive because it's paid off and usable if we need it. As far as the discrepancy, I have no idea. I'm not able to change that amount to match what it should be. Would it be better to re-watch the CC video and change all of those? Alternately, do a fresh start and fill in the current amounts on everything?
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Jun 12, 2015 19:12
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The way you have YNAB set up is... not right. Why is it positive if the credit line is available? That's not your money. In what scenario do you imagine it being at exactly 0? Because going by that logic it would be when the amount of money you owe on it (the balance) is equal to the credit limit. Which is obviously not what you are doing on your other CC's. I also don't think you should have your car loan as an on-budget account.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:19
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Irritated Goat posted:It's positive because it's paid off and usable if we need it. As far as the discrepancy, I have no idea. I'm not able to change that amount to match what it should be. Would it be better to re-watch the CC video and change all of those? My point was saying the total balance numbers match, so the places for the dollars may not match, but the totals do. Overpaying on a cc just seems silly unless you are buying something specific for more than your limit.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:20
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Rurutia posted:The way you have YNAB set up is... not right. Why is it positive if the credit line is available? That's not your money. In what scenario do you imagine it being at exactly 0? Because going by that logic it would be when the amount of money you owe on it (the balance) is equal to the credit limit. Which is obviously not what you are doing on your other CC's. The positive is because that card is 100% paid off. Should this be $0 instead? The others are owed on so the negative is the amount owed. I'll move the car loan to off-budget.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:21
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I've not used YNAB for quite some time now, is there an easy way to start over with everything but keep the categories that I made up?
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Jun 12, 2015 19:22
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Irritated Goat posted:It's positive because it's paid off and usable if we need it. As far as the discrepancy, I have no idea. I'm not able to change that amount to match what it should be. Would it be better to re-watch the CC video and change all of those? Fresh start might be the best idea. A CC is never positive because it is not actual money. Hell that way of thinking is what gets people in trouble to be begin with. A CC should be 0 with a very temporary negative balance because ideally you already have money on hand to pay for whatever you use the CC for. Obviously when you're trying to get out of debt that isn't the case but moving forward only use a CC for what you can already pay for with your checking account.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:22
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Irritated Goat posted:The positive is because that card is 100% paid off. Should this be $0 instead? The others are owed on so the negative is the amount owed. I'll move the car loan to off-budget. Yes it should be $0. The number for your account should be the balance of your CC. As I was saying earlier, going by the logic that it is positive if it's 100% paid off it would be 0 when the amount of money you owe on it (the balance) is equal to the credit limit.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:23
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Irritated Goat posted:The positive is because that card is 100% paid off. Should this be $0 instead? The others are owed on so the negative is the amount owed. I'll move the car loan to off-budget. Yes. It should only be positive of you overpaid and you have a credit on your account (as in the bank owes you). As you have it now YNAB thinks you have $800 more that you do, so your budget is inflated by $800.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:24
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I highly suggest signing up for their free training. Not only does it go over how to use YNAB but also their methodology the Four Rules. I also suggest moving the car loan to off budget or just not showing it in YNAB. It's making me super depressed looking at it EDIT: VVVVVVVVV It's nice to be there. However, in this case getting rid of the CC debt is more important. To me seeing a red 5,000 instead of 20,000 makes the goal seem much closer. gariig fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 19:31
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Step 4 is a pretty nice feeling but I think I'll only be truly happy when that little networth line is above $0
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Jun 12, 2015 19:38
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I did a fresh start. Moved my savings to off-budget since I never want to spend that money. Put all my current balances as of today back in. Everything seems better now. I think I've got a better understanding now. I appreciate the help guys 
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Jun 12, 2015 20:12
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HardDisk posted:I've not used YNAB for quite some time now, is there an easy way to start over with everything but keep the categories that I made up?
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Jun 12, 2015 20:18
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I never used it before and I'm at work right now, so I can't check. Won't that wipe out my categories, though? EDIT: It's a FAQ on the site  https://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/fresh-start
Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 20:21
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Irritated Goat posted:I did a fresh start. Moved my savings to off-budget since I never want to spend that money. Put all my current balances as of today back in. Everything seems better now. I think I've got a better understanding now. I appreciate the help guys
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Jun 12, 2015 20:45
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ilkhan posted:Savings belongs on budget. Meh, I'd say that is debatable depending on what the "savings" are. Is it an emergency fund that shouldn't be touched until an actual emergency (House burnt the gently caress down, car exploded, you are hospitalized for some rare disease)? Is it your 6 months of "OH GOD I LOST MY JOB" money? Those I consider as off budget as they're not part of your available cash. If it's just back up money or short/small emergency funds (Car engine breaks down, washer breaks down, you need a plumber or new air conditioner... which should be budgeted for but yeah), those stay on budget.
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Jun 13, 2015 02:59
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It's Steam Sale time, so YNAB will likely be on sale sometime soon. If I see it, I'll post.
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Jun 13, 2015 03:43
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Blinkman987 posted:It's Steam Sale time, so YNAB will likely be on sale sometime soon. If I see it, I'll post. Not this sale unfortunately. https://twitter.com/ynab/status/608703435303739392
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Jun 13, 2015 05:26
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Why is my "available to budget" so high? It clearly comes from my initial bank balance but I would be broke soon if I budgeted and spent 20x my income in one month. Why doesn't "available to budget" come from my income instead? The number just isn't useful to me right now. How do I make it more useful?
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Jun 14, 2015 02:51
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baby puzzle posted:Why is my "available to budget" so high? It clearly comes from my initial bank balance but I would be broke soon if I budgeted and spent 20x my income in one month. Why doesn't "available to budget" come from my income instead? The number just isn't useful to me right now. How do I make it more useful? Your "available to budget" is money that you have on hand at that current moment since that is all you can really budget for. If you have $5,000 available to budget and only use $2,500 in a month then you budget for that then either use the rest to save or put towards future months. If you don't have enough money to cover for the entire month then budget the soonest and highest priority bills until more money comes along that allows you to budget more and more. George H.W. Cunt fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Jun 14, 2015 |
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Jun 14, 2015 03:17
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baby puzzle posted:Why is my "available to budget" so high? It clearly comes from my initial bank balance but I would be broke soon if I budgeted and spent 20x my income in one month. Why doesn't "available to budget" come from my income instead? The number just isn't useful to me right now. How do I make it more useful? If you have 20x your income in the bank, budget 19x of it into a category called "savings" or whatever and budget one months income into whatever bills are due for the rest of the month, plus spending money on whatever else.
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Jun 14, 2015 03:28
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Ok. I guess was ONLY thinking about month-to-month budgeting. I suppose I'll just dump the surplus into a savings category.
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Jun 14, 2015 03:52
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ilkhan posted:Savings belongs on budget. Actually, like Gothmog kind of said, it's money I never want to touch. My wife's a contractor so that savings account is how we're paying her taxes next year.
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Jun 14, 2015 03:56
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Irritated Goat posted:Actually, like Gothmog kind of said, it's money I never want to touch. My wife's a contractor so that savings account is how we're paying her taxes next year. Still, having a category "taxes" is superior to having the account off budget
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Jun 14, 2015 14:58
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