I was just on You Need a Budget’s podcast hosted by YNAB’s founder, Jesse Mecham (a surreal moment for me since I’m a listener). Jesse and I had something funny in common. We both hate the word “budget”. It evokes this image of sitting at the kitchen table and writing down arbitrary numbers on a piece of paper, limiting what you will allow yourself to spend in certain areas. When you quickly and inevitably fail, the budget goes out the window and you’ve made no financial progress.

But strangely, despite “budget” being right in YNAB’s name, that’s not how it works. Instead, it’s all about visibility and making informed choices. There are categories, but if you go over, no big deal. It’s not a failure, it just means you shift money from another category. But now you’re making an informed choice about where that money is coming from. Want to go out to a fancy dinner but your restaurants category is too low? Now you get to decide if you pull it from vacation or entertainment. But better not pull it from rent, or you’ll be in trouble come the first!

I also like YNAB because it’s proactive. There are other budgeting apps out there that basically analyze where your money went last month. That’s not a terrible start, but with YNAB you can use your categories to proactively make informed choices at any given moment. This can change spending and help build serious wealth!

I have used You Need A Budget (YNAB) for over seven years dating back to February of 2015. So I was pretty pumped when I saw that YNAB won the auction for our only ever sponsored post! (This is that post by the way). I have posted about YNAB before (for free of course) so it’s kind of a “full circle” moment for me to be getting paid to make content about the main financial app I use! But despite them paying me to say this, I really do use and love YNAB! You can get started for free at ynab.com/pfc

As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.

-Jeremy

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