tl;dr YNAB/Mint/etc are great, but sometimes the simple solution is enough.
I've used YNAB for a bit over a year. I think it's a great tool. It helped me get a feel for where my money is leaking out, and it helped me keep my head cool and straighten out my finances when I totaled my car.
Now that's fixed my leaks and built up an emergency fund, a detailed budget like this is starting to feel like overkill. I've also found myself over-budgeting into long-term categories.
Say I have $750 budgeted for car insurance, and $500 for clothes. If the insurance payment comes due the same month I need a couple new shirts, I'm spending the next few months worrying about how to allocate new funds to clothing vs. insurance.
In reality, this is a silly decision to have to make, because this is irrelevant to my financial health. Do I have funds for a required mid-sized non-repeating purchase? Either I do or I don't. There's no reason inusrance money and clothes money has to be separate.
Here's my new system.
At the beginning of the month, I have $7,500 in my account.
On my first bimonthly paycheck, I get $1,500. I will have spent money on gas, groceries, etc., so let's say the new balance is 8,750.
I have $1500 in bills due each month. I need to be sure to have at least $8,250 ( = initial amount + half the month's bills) in my account.
Which leaves me $500 to invest/pay off debt/buy cat toys. If I want to buy something frivolous, this is when I have to do it.
Each paycheck, I write down this number on a list on my desk. If it starts going down, I know I have to look at things more closely.
Until then, simple works.
Submitted October 20, 2018 at 12:50PM by G01denW01f11 https://ift.tt/2R0W7cY
