What would have happened if my pay had been delayed one month, or if I lost my job? I would have been behind before I even started. But I was essentially paying for the previous month’s expenses with next month’s pay.
Ynab 4 pre ynab debt full#
I was living on what is known as the “credit card float.” I did all my spending on credit cards to get reward points, and then paid the cards in full at the end of each month. Each month I’d plug in my numbers for all my expected expenses and income, but it was easy to miss the big picture and there was no real accountability for my spending. As I acquired a more complicated financial life and credit cards came into the picture, I switched to a static, spreadsheet-based budget. I actually used to do this exact envelope style of budgeting when I was in college and grad school, with actual cash and envelopes (I used one of those coupon organizers). Need more groceries but you’re out of cash in the grocery envelope? Well, you have to take extra from another envelope to cover the difference.
![ynab 4 pre-ynab debt ynab 4 pre-ynab debt](https://i.redd.it/siji2wp2wwi41.png)
For those of you unfamiliar with envelope budgeting, it’s an old-school concept of taking the cash you have and divvying it up among various envelopes (groceries, gas, etc.) and spending from those envelopes. YNAB brings envelope budgeting into the computer age and makes it easy to incorporate credit card spending into your budget cleanly and effectively. It sounds like hyperbole to say that this program has been life-changing, but it is no less than the truth. You Need a Budget, aka YNAB, is the most important and most impactful program that I have ever bought.