You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

katejo

Hi Frogletina

Your way does sound unnecessarily complicated to me. I have just opened an interest earning current account (TSB Classic Plus) and it has its own account on YNAB. Luckily TSB doesn't require you to set up DD's at all. I only have to make sure that I pay in £500 a month and use online banking/online statements. I am still keeping my main current account but the TSB one is better than a savings account because I can make debit card payments from it if needed.
My only offsite account is my mortgage.

SeduLOUs

Frogletina wrote: »

I did think about putting them all on budget but it would still involve making transfers on the accounts side so I didn't think it was worth it. I still have to put the minimum money into each account each month, so it just goes around each of those accounts and I'd rather it not show on my budget.

Now if only I could find an account which gives me 4% on all of my money I'd be fine...:)

frogletina

Without having them all in YNAB you lose the fundamental features of the product of knowing exactly how much money you have stowed away and and the ability assign those savings to different goals regardless of where the money is (i.e. some might be towards a wedding, some might be for a house deposit, some might be a general emergency fund).

Your way will work and it's entirely up to you how you use the software, but I think you might be over complicating things - the transfers within YNAB shouldn't be any more complicated than you physically transferring exact DD values to get your accounts to reconcile.

Frogletina

katejo wrote: »

Hi Frogletina

Your way does sound unnecessarily complicated to me. I have just opened an interest earning current account (TSB Classic Plus) and it has its own account on YNAB. Luckily TSB doesn't require you to set up DD's at all. I only have to make sure that I pay in £500 a month and use online banking/online statements. I am still keeping my main current account but the TSB one is better than a savings account because I can make debit card payments from it if needed.
My only offsite account is my mortgage.

It has to be complicated to make the most interest. Those 3 accounts netted me £41 last month.

frogletina

AFK_Matrix

I too have the interest earning current accounts and I have 4 of them and then I have my main current account so 5 in all. I have them all on budget as YNAB should be setup to reflect reality. Some of them also have dd's and it's not been a problem managing them. I have setup scheduled transfers so the whole thing is pretty much automated, I only have to add the interest transactions when they occur. The whole thing takes about 5mins a month to manage.

Frogletina

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Without having them all in YNAB you lose the fundamental features of the product of knowing exactly how much money you have stowed away and and the ability assign those savings to different goals regardless of where the money is (i.e. some might be towards a wedding, some might be for a house deposit, some might be a general emergency fund).

Your way will work and it's entirely up to you how you use the software, but I think you might be over complicating things - the transfers within YNAB shouldn't be any more complicated than you physically transferring exact DD values to get your accounts to reconcile.

I would still have to physically transfer the money in real life to keep the balances at their optimum to get the most interest.

I do have savings in Ynab which will cover holidays and planned spending. I've not yet decided what to allocate the rest of the savings to so for the time being they will remain off budget. I know my total worth - the amount off budget is fixed as I only spend via on budget accounts on Ynab.

I am also building up my buffer and emergency money via my income, as it seems to be in the spirit of Ynab to do it this way rather than just use my savings.

frogletina

SeduLOUs

Frogletina wrote: »

I would still have to physically transfer the money in real life to keep the balances at their optimum to get the most interest.

I do have savings in Ynab which will cover holidays and planned spending. I've not yet decided what to allocate the rest of the savings to so for the time being they will remain off budget. I know my total worth - the amount off budget is fixed as I only spend via on budget accounts on Ynab.

I am also building up my buffer and emergency money via my income, as it seems to be in the spirit of Ynab to do it this way rather than just use my savings.

frogletina

Yes you will still inevitably have to do transfers. The bulk will be standing orders to meet the depositing requirements whic can be scheduled in YNAB, and the others (to stay within interest earning ranges) would surely be easier if you can see all of the balances at a glance at any point in time?

Re the non-specific savings, you can have a non-specific savings category

Re the buffer, if you don't have one I'd just make one from savings - YNAB becomes instantly easier when you can set up your budget a full month (or even more) in advance. The guidelines for building up buffers are generally aimed at the people starting ouot who don't have any savings at all.

You sound on top of things regardless so it doesn't matter much - I just think you're missing a trick by not using YNAB to it's full potential.

Frogletina

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

I too have the interest earning current accounts and I have 4 of them and then I have my main current account so 5 in all. I have them all on budget as YNAB should be setup to reflect reality. Some of them also have dd's and it's not been a problem managing them. I have setup scheduled transfers so the whole thing is pretty much automated, I only have to add the interest transactions when they occur. The whole thing takes about 5mins a month to manage.

I will think about adding them in the future but I already have 9 accounts on Ynab including 2 credit card accounts and 2 cash accounts.

My way works for me at the moment

frogletina

SeduLOUs

Frogletina wrote: »

My way works for me at the moment

frogletina

That's what matters most so keep it up

[Deleted User]

I've just won the free copy of ynab in the webinar! Can't believe it as I never win anything!!

bazzaang

Congratulations

I must start using ynab again, been along time, need to get back on track with finances.