Is ynab worth it?

Drunk_Monkey

I can only speak for myself as I don't use YNAB.

But I suspect that it all depends on what you want to achieve from a budget.

I created my own custom excel workbook and use it every single day. It's almost like nurturing a child.

My own excel budget allows me to enter every single financial transaction (quite often I split transactions for various reasons), categorise and subcategorise with every account I hold. I forecast a budget against my long-term objectives and my every income/expenses tallying against it. I adjust either the budget or my expenses accordingly.

I have so far 7 different accounts that are built into my workbook - and I can have as many as wish in a single spreadsheet. My savings are split into different provisions depending on my objectives & priorities. I have all my credit cards with limits accounted for (not that I'm even close to the limits) and I have started to make allowances for my investments in my budget. This will allow me to budget expected returns - against long term objectives.

There is no expense that can arise that I haven't so far planned & made provisions for. When these expenses arise, my first question is how I am going to adjust my financial spreadsheet - and not whether I have sufficient funds. This is why I always try to get receipts. It allows me to be as accurate as possible because it all comes down to details & trying to make my financial well-being as accurate as possible.

But ultimately, as I say, you have to ask why you are budgeting? If it's merely month to month then you should focus on cash flow. Mine is more of a balance sheet of assets & liabilities. I use my budget to see how I fare on my long term objectives. For instance, I have a pivot table report on one tab which show fluctuations in all categories.

Below is a screenshot of my dashboard:

Drunk_Monkey

Sportster wrote: »

Does no one else use moneydashboard? It sounds very similar, but it's absolutely free. I've been using it for a couple of years and it's a fantastic budgeting/tracking/analysis tool. (It imports all of your transactions automatically too)

I read years ago that they sell your financial details as an anonymous package? This put me off. I’ve always wondered how they generate their income to sustain their clever software?

Sportster

Drunk_Monkey wrote: »

I read years ago that they sell your financial details as an anonymous package? This put me off. I’ve always wondered how they generate their income to sustain their clever software?

This is the quote from their website:

As Money Dashboard is a free service, a lot of people are wondering where the money comes from that has been used to build the Money Dashboard tool and pay our staff. Don’t worry, users, we’re not going to suddenly change our mind and send you a huge bill!

Money Dashboard has raised over £2M of funding to date, from three sources: the management team, business angel investors and Scottish Enterprise.

Scottish Enterprise have been involved since the start and their support continues to be invaluable - everything from informed advice, through government grants, to equity investment. S.E. provide a broad range of expertise, as does our management team and our community of business angel investors. Money Dashboard is fortunate to have attracted non-executive directors and shareholders that bring an enviable mix of enthusiasm and knowledge to our business.

We've also recently added an important fourth source of funding: income. We aim to keep Money Dashboard free by helping our users to understand, access and select suitable financial products via our ‘Ways to Save’ pages, ultimately leading to transactions that generate marketing fees from product providers, helping us to continually develop new services and benefits.

With the ‘Ways to Save’ revenue coming in, we plan to continue to raise the levels of investment necessary to keep Money Dashboard going, to maximise value for our shareholders, and to make Money Dashboard “the one place to manage your money” for our users.

by Andy Laing, Chief Financial Officer

But for me, ultimately, I don't really mind if some anonymous stats are generated from my accounts. In my mind it's a fair exchange.

Google already own my soul (Android/Locations/Search History/Email/Gsuite/Android Pay/Play Music and on and on and on...and on) - Google could replicate me from the data they have on me - but again, I don't mind - I think their products are excellent value for mon...ummm...stats.

Drunk_Monkey

Sportster wrote: »

This is the quote from their website:

But for me, ultimately, I don't really mind if some anonymous stats are generated from my accounts. In my mind it's a fair exchange.

Google already own my soul (Android/Locations/Search History/Email/Gsuite/Android Pay/Play Music and on and on and on...and on) - Google could replicate me from the data they have on me - but again, I don't mind - I think their products are excellent value for mon...ummm...stats.

I see. Do they still only show 3 months of stats?

And fair point on Google. I just hope they don't take over things a la Trump!! My internet history is enough to condemn me

louby40

I have used Moneydashboard and it's nothing like YNAB at all. YNAB is a budgeting tool and is more complex and forward thinking than MDB.

If you download the free trial and use it you'll see it's far better than MDB

jools1985

I've tried t get to grips with YNAB but just can't get the hang of it. I can enter income and most outgoings but I can't find a category for credit card debt. Student loan debt is there but nothing for credit cards. Does anyone know how to add a column to show credit card repayents each month? I've tried looking at tutorials on You Tube but they were unhelpful. I had great hopes for YNAB but can't see me paying for it.

copperman05

jools1985 wrote: »

I've tried t get to grips with YNAB but just can't get the hang of it. I can enter income and most outgoings but I can't find a category for credit card debt. Student loan debt is there but nothing for credit cards. Does anyone know how to add a column to show credit card repayents each month? I've tried looking at tutorials on You Tube but they were unhelpful. I had great hopes for YNAB but can't see me paying for it.

What version have you been using? In YNAB you can add credit cards as separate accounts next to your bank account, as budgeting categorys or as both (the way I use it). YNAB is pretty good when it come to support, web tutorials and user help. Try the web based version, it has revised handling for Credit Cards over the classic version.

raspberryrippl3

IMO i prefer apps which connect to your bank accounts - Money Dashbaord etc. Sure they don't have as advanced budgeting, but manually adding transactions is enough to make you go loopy.

SeduLOUs

raspberryrippl3 wrote: »

IMO i prefer apps which connect to your bank accounts - Money Dashbaord etc. Sure they don't have as advanced budgeting, but manually adding transactions is enough to make you go loopy.

Manually adding transactions as and when I spend is what keeps me accountable and my budget 100% accurate. Looking back after the event and thinking "oh dear, it seems I overspent again, must do better next month" is how I ended up in debt in the first place.

I've used MS Money, Money Dashboard and a few apps offered by my banks and nothing has come close to making a difference like YNAB has.

-taff

You can set your monthly debits to monthly,so you don't have to manually input. And with the app, you also input manually as you spend.

It's not a problem for me, but others , as you do, might feel differently
Whatever works really.