Speaking Digitally : Personal Finance + YNAB

Personal finances used to consume massive amounts of my time and I often found myself frustrated. I tried many methods when it came to tracking our finances including: various financial software, customized Excel spreadsheets, pen and paper etc... and I was never completely satisfied with a solution. I continually looked for other ways of doing things by asking friends what they did, and researching alternatives.


During New Year's Resolution time (isn't that when you always want to get things in order?) my interest was piqued when I started to read stellar reviews for software called YNAB which is an abbreviation for "You Need A Budget" and I was curious to see what it was all about. I decided to download a free trial copy and voila! After learning the ropes, and methodology, I finally found our personal digital finance guru aka 'assistance in being more disciplined at budgeting'.




I have been using the 'YNAB' method since January and it has made a huge difference. Their emphasis is to assign every single dollar a 'job' so you know exactly where it is going. Some of you are probably down right pros at keeping meticulous financial records and a nice looking budget, but if you need some help give YNAB a whirl (you can even test it out for free it is compatible with everything). It has done great things for our financial outlook and peace of mind.

Photos : Money Origami Shirt photo  // Piggy Banks : 1 2 3 4

(Head's up : I obtained a review copy of YNAB back in January with no strings attached, I would purchase it in a heartbeat.)

10 comments:

Jo said...

i need a budget for sure! thanks for posting this...sometimes it seems too overwhelming to get it all in line but maybe YNAB is the answer to my problems!

DENISE. said...

You have NO idea the perfect timing with this post. I'm sending it to my husband right now. It's like you answered our dreams, thanks!

rachel @ blackeiffel said...

DENISE : I am so glad to be of help! I know how rough it can be.
Jo : Try it out and let me know what you think.

Katie said...

Ooops reading this after a crazy day out shopping. I got it out of my system now I swear. Note to self: save money, don't spend.

Anonymous said...

SO anyways

i thnk your amazing just the sways you are

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Hexonxonx said...

This reminds me of something I read a while back on MetaFilter about another similar system. It had some kind of 'virtual envelopes' that you assign categories to, or some such thing. One of them was Mint, another one was MVelopes. See also: "Envelope System" on Wikipedia.

Lindsey said...

Thanks for the recommendation. I am a freak and I LOOOOVE to budget so I'll def look into this.

This excel budget has been extremely helpful. (And it's a little cheaper)
http://www.georgesbudget.com/exceltemplates/excel-budget-spreadsheet-checkbook-register.html

I've always preferred to budget on excel because it's so easy to customize but I'll def give YNAB a shot!

Thnx again!

Michael LaPenna said...

I'm subscribing most def! GREAT!!!

http://blackeiffel.blogspot.com/

Michael LaPenna said...

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