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Ur Getting Fatter posted:YNAB's philosophy has been a good north star, but their "best practices" heavily depend on you being a perfectly spherical budgeter in a frictionless vacuum. thats me
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Jan 15, 2020 02:02
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:being perfectly spherical I doubt this is going to be a problem for most goons.
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Jan 15, 2020 06:04
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YNAB has made me question purchases and be slightly worried that I'm spending too much when I buy something and that's a big change for me. I'm probably still not using it 100% correctly but I'm better off than I was ever before.
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Jan 15, 2020 17:42
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Admiral Joeslop posted:YNAB has made me question purchases and be slightly worried that I'm spending too much when I buy something and that's a big change for me. I'm probably still not using it 100% correctly but I'm better off than I was ever before. This. Yet I had 1600 saved up and when I did some research for vacations the other, YNAB reminded "hey it is possible to pay 1 week sunny vacation with this money. and you DO have it in your account right now." It allowed me to say "It is OK."
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Jan 16, 2020 21:01
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I'm trying to budget better in the new year so I'm giving YNAB a shot. One issue I'm having is that my bank and investment account are constantly 18-24 hours since last update. Combined with how slow payments are to process with my bank, my YNAB is about 4 days behind my actual accounts. Support told me basically like that's just the way it is and that if I want to I can manually enter transactions on my accounts if I need them sooner (which no I can't. That's exactly the type of work that I want to pay to avoid). To me this is defeating the whole purpose of budgeting--I don't need up-to-the-minute transaction information but currently the latest my account has transactions for is Monday night. When it's 4 days behind, it makes it feel disconnected from my actual current financial situation and like I don't even know if I have enough in my dining out budget to go out with friends tonight. Is this really just the way YNAB is? Because if so I think I might look elsewhere.
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Jan 17, 2020 16:22
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That’s just kind of how banks are You shouldn’t be importing things directly into your budget, though. You should be entering them manually as you spend money and then using the import to reconcile them with your bank every week or couple days or whatever.
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Jan 17, 2020 16:33
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Sockser posted:That’s just kind of how banks are I'm sorry but that's way too much work. I know budgeting isn't effortless but, when it gets to the point of "If you go out with friends, you need to remember/get a receipt for every transaction then enter it manually into this thing then reconcile it a few days later," then it's just too much. If I wanted to do that, I could do that with an Excel spreadsheet and not pay these people extra.
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Jan 17, 2020 16:42
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Rosalind posted:I'm sorry but that's way too much work. I know budgeting isn't effortless but, when it gets to the point of "If you go out with friends, you need to remember/get a receipt for every transaction then enter it manually into this thing then reconcile it a few days later," then it's just too much. If I wanted to do that, I could do that with an Excel spreadsheet and not pay these people extra. Once you get used to entering transactions as you make them, it doesn't take very much effort at all. You'll find it's much easier doing this in the app on your phone than trying to juggle a Google spreadsheet or Excel document on the go. The entire program and process is built around being aware of where your budget is before you spend money, and entering transactions as you make them so you are aware of what's going on. If you aren't tracking what you're spending, you're not going to be following your budget very well.
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Jan 17, 2020 16:55
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Rosalind posted:I'm sorry but that's way too much work. Then you’re not looking for budgeting software, you’re looking for spending history reports. Your bank probably has that in their web interface.
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Jan 17, 2020 17:06
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And they'll still be 2-3 days behind because banks don't give a poo poo about human time scales
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Jan 17, 2020 17:09
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Ok you've convinced me that this isn't for me then. Canceling my trial. Thanks for making it clear before I spent money on it.
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Jan 17, 2020 17:21
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Sockser posted:That’s just kind of how banks are I usually check my category balance and if it's not close to 0 I let my transactions trickle in via the bank's timeline. It's only near the end of the month or if I make a big purchase or if my budget is getting close to zero that I do things manually.
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Jan 17, 2020 18:12
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Sockser posted:You shouldn’t be importing things directly into your budget, though. You should be entering them manually as you spend money and then using the import to reconcile them with your bank every week or couple days or whatever. Disagree. The entire point of having auto import is so I don't have to do this. I spent some time early on getting to know my transactions by entering them all manually, and now I don't need to do that anymore. My bank also lags a few days behind and it's super annoying, but it's definitely the bank's fault, not YNAB's. My bank doesn't even post transactions on their own website the day of. My old CU was awesome and updated transactions more or less in real time and YNAB pulled them over as soon as they were available. I miss them...
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Jan 17, 2020 18:28
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There's no point in budgeting, if you don't put the effort in. I mean, what the hell?
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Jan 17, 2020 18:58
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Combat Pretzel posted:There's no point in budgeting, if you don't put the effort in. I mean, what the hell? I can remember the purchases that I made in the past few days and know whether I'm close to going over budget or not. If I'm not sure I just log into my bank account; this is less effort than manually entering transactions and works for me. 
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Jan 17, 2020 19:25
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A lot also depends on how strict your budgeting is. I use it more for the long term goals and have generous limits on monthly things because we make much more than we spend.
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Jan 17, 2020 19:56
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Combat Pretzel posted:There's no point in budgeting, if you don't put the effort in. I mean, what the hell? Agreed! I used to spent maybe 30 minutes a week on mine and I was shocked how little effort it took to change my behavior enough to save thousands of dollars. Oh and the feeling of spending a large sum knowing you've got the cash for it, and it was specifically for that is awesome.
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Jan 17, 2020 20:17
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I actively look forward to the 3 minutes it takes in the morning to import and categorize any spending that my bank or CCs finally processed. It's the opposite of a burden.
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Jan 17, 2020 20:22
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Plus, once you manually put a transaction, it GPS tags your location, so next time you're at the same store, it auto-fills in everything but the amount. It's super easy and takes like 7 seconds to enter a transaction.
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Jan 17, 2020 20:23
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Combat Pretzel posted:There's no point in budgeting, if you don't put the effort in. I mean, what the hell? This reminds of the show my 600lb life. Where they say they want to lose weight and put in the work but then get furious when the weight loss surgery doesn't make hem skinny over night and that they actually have to make changes in their life like food intake, exercise, and therapy. They all just want a magical pill to solver all their problems. In this case, this person just wants to spend, and have YNAB do all the budgeting for them.
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Jan 17, 2020 22:38
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StormDrain posted:Agreed! I used to spent maybe 30 minutes a week on mine and I was shocked how little effort it took to change my behavior enough to save thousands of dollars. One of the first times it really struck me how much ynab had changed me I was paying for my annual national rail pass. It was $3500, which was a lot for me then, and my credit card got declined and I was just like NUH-UH, RUN IT AGAIN and it went through. I would never have been able to do that before, I just would have gone home with my tail tucked between my legs.
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Jan 17, 2020 23:46
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Neat - I got an email from YNAB giving me another month on my free trial because their system messed up and they hadn't been sending me the introductory how-to-budget emails. At this point I'd hope I don't need them, but I'm not going to complain, whatever the reason. (I gave up on Pocketsmith after about ten minutes, we did not agree about several design decisions)
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Jan 18, 2020 02:21
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I have been manually inputting my transactions since 2012 and I don't intend to stop now. I Will Never Use Autoimport.
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Jan 18, 2020 11:48
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Manually entering transactions gets pretty... automatic after a little wellw.
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Jan 18, 2020 13:45
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I have been exclusively using autoimport for several years, and it works really well for me 
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Jan 18, 2020 17:52
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I have been manually inputting my transactions since 2012 and I don't intend to stop now. I Will Never Use Autoimport. Yeah, this is me. The whole point is to know accurately what’s left in accounts/categories and waiting days for the bank to sort that out isn’t my jam. (Plus, I’m still on YNAB4 so I can’t do that anyway.)
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Jan 18, 2020 18:20
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This is one of those arguments that can never be won, even though it is objectively better to use the auto import because it accomplishes everything that manual input does, only better. Like even if your bank sucks, just leave it on, input everything manually and let auto import match up on its own, this way you can catch charges you don't expect. Yes you can do this with reconcile, but you won't have to type in the transaction.
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Jan 18, 2020 20:15
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Happiness Commando posted:I have been exclusively using autoimport for several years, and it works really well for me I like how multiple people say that this is how we do it and everyone just ignores us
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Jan 18, 2020 21:19
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FateFree posted:This is one of those arguments that can never be won, even though it is objectively better to use the auto import because it accomplishes everything that manual input does, only better.
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Jan 18, 2020 22:35
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Auto import also doesn't catch cash transactions, which is the payment method that has the least chance to have a paper trail like receipts and such. Also I doubt my country's banks is supported by YNAB so it's not like I have the option for it anyway.
Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Jan 18, 2020 |
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Jan 18, 2020 23:03
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Combat Pretzel posted:The point of manual entry is to be able to be current with finances, and check actual balances on the go as to whether you still can afford that Latte or whatever. Someone that's in debt and needs to turn every cent around twice before spending it sure can't afford to wait three days for his bank and credit card statements to catch up. So I don't see how it's "objectively better". The only thing it does is catch stray transactions that you missed or forgot, or if some company is fleecing you without your knowledge. Because these two things aren't mutually exclusive. You can input every single transaction manually AND catch stray transactions. Maybe this is the thing people miss: if I input a transaction manually, and auto import is on, ynab will match the automatic tx later on with the one I entered manually, based on date and amount (and even fill in missing fields like the payee). If it doesn't match, it will bring your attention to a mistake or an unknown charge. FateFree fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jan 18, 2020 |
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Jan 18, 2020 23:15
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I'm too paranoid to trust my bank login with anyone else, even though at some level I know it's fine because I'm not hearing about constant hacking and PR disasters from the providers. My country isn't supported in YNAB anyway. OFX imports once a fortnight or so are slightly fiddly but harmless. Plus it's good to set aside a bit of time to check over the budget anyway.
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Jan 19, 2020 00:04
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I do both and match the manual ones later when they import. I love the system, especially with how flexible it is for how you use it.
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Jan 19, 2020 00:44
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Legit jealous of all of y’all who’ve convinced your partners to log every purchase into YNAB. I’ve managed to get her to log (most) cash entries so that’s a start.
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Jan 19, 2020 04:15
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:Legit jealous of all of y’all who’ve convinced your partners to log every purchase into YNAB. Everything you buy is 2% more expensive if you pay in cash
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Jan 19, 2020 05:06
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:Legit jealous of all of y’all who’ve convinced your partners to log every purchase into YNAB.
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Jan 19, 2020 14:17
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don't gotta log your partner's expenses if you don't have a partner
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Jan 19, 2020 14:34
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Not in the US, cash is still a big part of spending here. I thought we were talking about logging all purchases regardless of payment method, anyway.
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Jan 19, 2020 14:48
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I don't have the option to use ynab in any other way than manually logging, but that poo poo has changed so much about both my financial situation and my mindset about my money. Some background: I'm a recovering addict and, compared to the median income in my scandinavian socialist hellhole of a country, I'm poor. I'm disabled due to both mental and physical problems and my main income is government support. This year I was approved a government subsidised loan to buy my own apartment. As a result, my costs of living more than doubled to almost 60% of my monthly income. And unless I can shake my chronic diseases and get back to work it's gonna stay that way for the rest of my life. So yeah, money's tight. But I'm lucky, because I don't drink or do drugs, don't own a car and only the shittiest fast food places deliver to the part of town where I could afford a place. Also free healthcare means I'm not hosed if poo poo should take a turn for the worse. I used to cordon off my monthly expenses (rent, electricity, medicine etc) on a separate account and follow my gut for the rest. I was living within my means, but with no buffer or savings. If there was money in the bank I could afford it. Then I got ynab on a Steam sale some years ago. Getting down and dirty with every crown (£$€¥) gives me the opportunity to choose what I spend before I'm at the store. And it makes it easier to make informed choices. Especially about all the small, dumb things and the instant gratifications. If I want a soda on the train, I'll take a detour to a grocery store on my way to the station instead of paying twice as much at the convenience store before boarding. I cook at home instead of grabbing something fast on my way. I drink my coffee at home or at NA meetings. I go to the library. I don't buy records just because they're limited edition or video games I might want to play at some point in the future just because they're on sale. I shop around. Wait a couple of months for the price to drop. I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of any luxuries. I'm just more conscious about my wants and needs, and I'm better at prioritizing. As a result I can splurge on the good toilet paper, or even a fancy cut of steak now and again, and know that I can afford it. I know that if my fridge breaks down or my electrical bill should skyrocket I got the buffer to fix it no sweat. I've paid off most of my old debt. And I'm finally able to set aside money for the future. Not much, but it's growing every month. So come August I can install a new shower in my bathroom. A good quality one, and not the flimsy bare minimum. And by March next year I'll finally be able to buy that set of speakers I've been eyeing for years. TL;DR Logging manually is a good thing for me because I used to be a financial dum dum but now I'm not as much of an idiot. And I'll get some sweet new speakers in a year or so.
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Jan 19, 2020 15:03
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Congrats man, you got dealt a poo poo hand and are killing it, anyway. Keep it up.
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Jan 19, 2020 15:58
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