Customer Reviews

You Need A Budget (YNAB) - Personal Finance Software

5 star:		(166)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I earn a good living. Yet earlier this year, several months after buying a house and getting settled back into the swing of things I couldn't escape the notion that my family was living beyond its means.

And we were. And YNAB helped me see it.

I'd previously used Quicken and Microsoft Money in an effort to do budgeting to no real effect. The truth is, Quicken and Money are more about having fancy checkbook registers than they are about helping you identify and conform to a budget. This is where they fail.

YNAB is straightforward and it does one thing, and one thing only -- it helps you create and manage a budget. With careful record keeping, you can do the same thing YNAB does with a pen and paper, or with Excel -- but the software is simple and easy-to-use and readily imports transactions (without fail) from my banking institutions.

I used to worry that the number in my checking account may not be enough to make everything come together. I can unequivocally state that now... I just don't care. Because of YNAB, I absolutely know that there's always money enough for anything that's going to come along.

YNAB has helped me exercise some discipline and do so without significant data entry or long, tortured sessions at the computer. If you're looking for something to help you manage your budget this is the software you should get. Ignore the name brands that simply aren't up to the task.

YNAB Rocks! In a truly frightening kind of "I spend that much money on THAT!" way but in a great way because you can see the impact of your daily coffee habit on your car insurance payment 6 months away.

YNAB allows you account for all your annual bills in 1/12 increments and then when they roll around the money is there to pay for them.

The heart of the YNAB system is a "buffer" which is comprised of last months paychecks in order to allow you to save this months paychecks. You can only live on last months money that you have budgeted into categories beforehand. The premise is that you are never broke and will not have to worry about fluctuations in income if you are living on what you have ALREADY earned.

So the buffer is one full months income. So I'm earning May's income and it is just pouring into my checking and sitting there. Also sitting there is all of April's income. April's income is what I'm paying my current bills with. May is accruing. And I'm budgeting for June's expenses with an eye to leftover April income instead of instantly using Mays.

The way I'm beginning to think of it is: Quicken is a snapshot of yesterday. YNAB is a crystal ball showing me the future.

This is a stand alone piece of software that can download transactions right from your bank so if you use a debit card you don't need to enter receipts for things. I can also say the tech support is the most amazing I have ever dealt with. I sent in a bug report and within 15 minutes had email waiting for me telling me to delete a particular font and then it worked perfectly.

Two thumbs way up but only if you want to see all the leaks in your money handling.

I love the concept of YNAB: spending money from the previous month, planning ahead, etc. I had switched from MS Money to Quicken, and then tried YNAB. Yes, the tutorials are great, but they're really time-consuming. However, I spent the time, took the tutorials, and set up my finances in YNAB.

After a couple of months, however, I went back to Quicken. I found that Quicken also has good budgeting features, and while not in the same vein as YNAB, I just find Quicken easier to use. All of my accounts get automatically downloaded to Quicken, a feature not available in YNAB.

All in all, I just found that YNAB requires way too much manual entry. I might try it again at a later date, when I have the patience to do so.

I bought YNAB Pro about 2 weeks ago after being a long-time Quicken user so this review is not based on extensive use of the software at this time. However, I'm not new to financial/budgeting software. I've tried out several. I liked all the bells and whistles of Quicken, but it wasn't working for me as a budgeting tool as it only shows you where you're money went. Quite frankly their budget set-up interface left a lot to be desired, only allowing you to create a general monthly budget.

With YNAB, I was up and running within a few minutes, and after playing with all the features to see what it could do, I was fully loaded with a budget and bank transactions within twenty minutes. It is the most user friendly software I've ever encountered. The YNAB website has comprehensive advice and How-To's in the forums, VIDEO How-To tutorials AND a users manual in PDF format. If that's not enough "Help" you can post a question to forums OR contact the seller via the website.

I have encountered no issues with downloading bank transactions or issues of any other kind. However, if for some reason you're not happy with YNAB there is a 60 day money-back guarantee. ALSO, you will get any future software updates for free. No yearly upgrade fees and YNAB never becomes an obsolete software as so many do. It is a one-time purchase that will last you the rest of your life.

Do not mistake YNAB as a financial tracking system; if that's what you're looking for don't buy it.

YNAB is a hard-core, balls to the wall BUDGETING tool for planning your monthly expenses with the sole purpose of getting a grip on your out of control spending so you can begin saving money and basically build up that nice nest egg; creating financial stability and freedom in your life. This is not for the wishy-washy, faint of heart person who thinks a software application is going to miraculously "fix it". It's for the person who seriously wants to make changes in their spending habits and is willing to work at it. YNAB is the best friend you'll ever have if this is your goal.

The very best feature of this software, in my opinion, is it's ability to be 100% personally customized to your unique budgeting needs. You can add, delete, and rename categories and sub categories as you wish. You do not have to wade through a bunch of pre-determined expense categories to get to the ones that matter to you. Other great features is the bank transaction downloading, transaction scheduler, and the ability to transfer funds from one account to another within the budget. The methodology behind the software is not difficult to understand, but sheer common sense.

Oh, I've never met the software creator or anyone else involved in the YNAB creation. I am a mere consumer who purchased the software and am currently using it.

In the good ole days (when I was younger), you wrote a check and automatically subtracted it from what you had on the spot, and waited for your monthly statement in the mail. Now with ATMs, etc, you loose track, spend more than you make, you just loose track quickly of where your money isn`t going. What YNAB does is take you back to the tried and true method. Meaning you write down everything you buy, everything, gas for the car, cleaning supplies, etc. Yeah, you can do it yourself, maybe if your really good with Excel or Open Office you could build something like this. I'm computer impaired when it comes to doing that. What has it done for me?

You can download your checking statements in Quicken format, and it pulls in all the updates, categories them (food, gas), and does the math.

I was floored I wasted $260 at the gas station alone on junk, not gas. I got that total down to $150, and still got all my beer and smokes, yeah. Last week we spent $174 on groceries, this week, $68 (we checked what we had in the cupboards/fridge this time before going), saved $100.

At the end of the month I expect to have an additional $500 left over, ear marked for a slush fund, and paying for medicines and such. Also, I set aside mad money for my wife to use on herself, not me, or clothes, hygiene, just on stuff of $150.

I'm old, so it was confusing at first to figure out the program, but it works. Bottom line, you won't make anymore money per payday, but you won't waste your money, and still "have it all," plus allot more left over. You won't be reaching for that credit card as often to bail you out of a heavy month where the car insurance payment from hell comes in, or medical insurance quarterly bill.

To me, it's worth the $40, chow.

...and wasn't intended to be. I've been a Quicken user since the DOS days (around 20 years), and have tired of the level of detail I need to track and the time it takes to do it. For those previous reviewers complaining that the positive reviews sound like propaganda (I'm paraphrasing), I assure you I have no connection with the company at all, and had never heard of YNAB until quite recently. This review is of YNAB 3.

Before buying YNAB, you must understand what it is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not. YNAB is not an accounting system, it's a *household* budgeting system. Its "accounting" features are intentionally sparse - the intent is for users to focus on budgeting rather than accounting. If you're intent on finding a Quicken clone, stop reading and look elsewhere. On the other hand if, like me, you've never had much luck with the budgeting parts of quasi-accounting packages like Quicken and/or if you're tired of spending so much time keeping track of your finances, give YNAB a shot.

YNAB didn't make a lot of sense to me at first, but after attending the free into webinar I was offered via email as soon as I downloaded the trial it all made sense. It boils down to an envelope budgeting system (with a twist), and I find it to be very well done. The point of YNAB is not to track every detail of your household finances, but to help you plan ahead through accurate, effective, and simple budgeting. The holy grail of the YNAB method is what the company refers to as the "YNAB buffer", which simply means spending last month's income this month (in perpetuity). Doing this makes planning and budgeting much simpler, not to mention drastically reducing the financial stresses of life, and the program itself can actually help you get there.

When I first looked at YNAB I thought, "how am I going to track my investments, and my paycheck deductions, and etc., etc." But why have I been doing all that anyway? What good has it done to track it in Quicken when all that information is readily available on Web sites maintained by my employer, my bank, and my investment firm? Giving up all that useless detail really can help you focus on budgeting, and in my opinion that's the most important thing - plus I don't need to spend nearly as much time as I used to spend with Quicken. I have had no problems with accuracy in any way; YNAB 3 includes an automatic error checking feature that does a good job of preventing the kinds of issues a few other reviewers have reported. I love it, and I won't be going back to Quicken.

Having said all that, sure, there are a couple of things I miss from Quicken. Automatic transaction download into the program would be nice (the developers are reportedly working on that), and I'd like to see a demarcation line in the register between past and future transactions along with current and future balances. In all honesty, though, that's about it.

The only technical issue I've run into so far was when downloading and importing transactions using QFX files (which is actually pretty painless, BTW). I've had two incidents in which an imported transaction was incorrectly matched to an identical but already cleared transaction from a week earlier. In both cases, the matched transactions were actually transactions that I downloaded and imported to populate my account when I first installed the program, and had never been "matched" before. This didn't cause me any serious problems; I merely unmatched the transaction, deleted the resulting "new" transaction, and manually marked the correct transaction as cleared (about 10 seconds). I submitted a bug report on that yesterday and received an email back from the company within 24 hours looking for more information - on a Sunday! YNAB the company is one of the most user-focused software companies I've ever run across. They've provided great support so far, and the forum is another excellent source.

Bottom line: If you're most concerned with keeping track of your financial history, as Quicken is, then you'd be better served by Quicken or a similar product. YNAB is not that product. If you want to budget effectively while investing minimal time in record-keeping, on the other hand, you owe it to yourself to give YNAB a chance. Should you decide to try it, you should DEFINITELY attend the Intro to YNAB webinar, which is offered on a regular basis.

I've been looking for a good financial program for years. I've attempted MS Money but it just didn't cut it. Reviews for Quicken have continued to go down...so I didn't even try it.

Then just last month, I stumbled into the world of YNAB. The dreaded 'budget' is what matters most when it comes to household income. Fortunately, I was able to start the program well into YNAB's step 4. (Actually, I was only on step 2, because I didn't have the software to help me be certain I was giving every dollar a job.)

This software is just great. It has an automatic 'scheduler' function that will automatically show the inflow's and outflow's of my family $$, as many things such as paychecks, rent, utilities, and even tithing occur on a scheduled basis. It quickly shows how much total $$ we have available in our 'budget'. And there's many other features you can easily see over on ynab.com.

Finally, I should make note that this is not a checkbook register to tell you how much $$ you have in your account. Currently, it focuses on the essentials...your budget. However, the software is always being improved upon, and all updates are free. That's right...you won't have to purchase YNAB 2008...the new features will download for you automatically. Rumored future features include account designation abilities, so that you can not only budget appropriately, but then check the amount of $$ you have in each of your accounts, as well as many, many more.

Also, the author of YNAB has designed a 10-day budget boot-camp, to help you see the importance of the monthly budget, free via email. There's other free extras as well...you really have nothing to lose.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck...buy this software. If you are living in financial peace, but know you can be a better steward of your money...but this software. If you're frustrated with Quicken or Money...buy this software!

Much has been written about the features and capabilities of YNAB so I won't repeat all that here. I'll just make a few points and give my take on a few common criticisms which in my opinion are overblown.

** Automation **

YNAB does not provide fully automated downloading of your financial data (i.e. cannot enter account information into YNAB and tell it to fetch your transactions on a periodic basis). As such, some people complain that it is that it is "like balancing a checkbox 24x7".

In a word: "No".

True - it isn't 100% automated like some programs (though the YNAB folks say they're working on it), but this DOES NOT mean that you need to enter every transaction manually. You need to go to your bank or card's website, and use the "export" or "download" function to download account transactions to your computer in file. This is usually QFX or QIF format. Then you just double click the file and it automatically imports into YNAB. If you use QFX (the preferred, newer format) then YNAB is able to determine those that have already been imported so you don't get duplicates. Most banks/cards supports QFX. [You do have to manually watch out for duplicates if you use QIF format.]

To put this in perspective, it adds roughly 1 minute to every account you track in YNAB. This is a HUGE timesaver compared to manually entering 100% of your transactions, particularly for anyone who is used to tracking things manually in a spreadsheet.

** Ease of use **

Does it do things differently than you might expect? Yes. You have to invest some time during the trial period. If you don't spend the time to learn it you will not like it - it's that simple. If you take the time to really learn the program then there's a good chance you'll like it. YNAB provides a generous trial period when you can get your money back if you don't like it. Once I got a handle on how it worked I was surprised how well it was able to handle things like business trip expenses that must be reimbursed, planning for future expenses (emergency fund, big ticket items, etc), and incorporating *all* banking and card accounts into a single budget.

Other info:

- This program is for handling budget and managing your credit cards, checking/savings accounts, and cash flow. It is not for mortgage or investments or other kinds of financial things. If you bought it to do these things then you bought the wrong product. It handles budgeting and it is very good that.

- I'd like to see an iPad app, and I'd like to see the iPhone app improved. The iPhone app isn't really that useful compared to the main program.

- A majority of the consumer-grade financial software programs only gives you a static view of what you *spent*. YNAB does that, but it also helps you budget and plan for *future* expenses. In my opinion this is what makes the program so valuable.

- The reports functionality is a little weak compared to the rest of the program.

- You can put your YNAB database file in a shared Dropbox folder and use YNAB on multiple computers (e.g. home and office). Great, if unintended, feature.

- I like that it is a one-off purchase, instead of an ongoing (e.g. monthly) fee to use it, like some competing products.

- The support forum on their website is fantastic. Lots of people willing to help and they provide quality responses. The developers (a very small group of folks) participate regularly. Try getting that kind of support from Microsoft or Intuit.

Personally, YNAB has cut down the amount of time I spend managing my daily budgeting and cash flow. If I do it a few times a week, it takes me just a few minutes (maximum) to get "caught up" on my balances using YNAB. In turn that means (a) I don't dread doing it, (b) I'm able to do it more frequently, and as a result (c) I'm much more on top of my financial situation and planning for future expenses.

For me, it is well worth the cost.

5 stars.

I've used a lot of personal finance software over the last 20 years, from Quicken, to Microsoft Money, to online sites like [...], and none of them have been as effective at helping me rein in my spending as You Need a Budget. Anyone considering this software needs to understand the fundamental difference, that YNAB is note the same as those programs. It has one single goal, and that is to help people live with a budget. Although it does have reporting features, it is not designed with the purpose to help you track your finances, or set up an IRA, or track your spending for tax purposes like a lot of other programs have. If you have no interest in living off a budget this software is not for you.

If you do think you'd like to use a budget, there is no better place to start than YNAB. I had always considered a budget before, but didn't like the idea of being forced to only spend a certain amount on food, or not be able to go out to eat if I wanted to. If I wanted something I bought it. I worried about paying for it later. That's how I found myself in fairly large credit card debt. Ever since I've been old enough to work, I have been living paycheck to paycheck. If I lost my job I would be in serious trouble two weeks later. Finally, after reading the reviews and recommendations for YNAB I decided to try it out. YNAB software is completely different from something like Quicken's budgeting software because it takes a completely different approach to budgeting by providing 4 simple rules and setting up a buffer system with your money. The 4 rules are:

Rule One: Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck - This is the fundamental premise behind the program. Basically, you save up enough money until you have an entire month's income saved up (your buffer). Once you have done that, you roll this income into your budget, and use it for your next month's expenses. This is where the program really starts to work. The paycheck I deposit on November 1 will not be spent until December 1 at the earliest. That means that all of the money I am spending in November is money that I received the month before, in October. Knowing that I have all my expenses completely paid for the next 30 days is a fantastic feeling. While other employees at my office are rushing to the bank immediately after getting their checks, I can relax and deposit it the next week if I want to. I don't have to worry about wiring my mortgage payment to my bank so it gets posted in time, because the money is already sitting in my checking account. If I lose my job, I have at least the next 30 days worth of expenses paid for. Now to me, the idea of saving up an entire month's salary sounded impossible. I am used to spending ALL of my money when I get it. I would be lucky to have an extra $100 leftover at the end of the month. However once you start budgeting and can see how much you are spending on something, and when you are given a goal, it is very easy to save. I was able to build up my buffer and start really using the program after about 6 months (that may seem like a long time but it is worth it).

Rule Two: Give Every Dollar a Job - This rule means that you have to budget every single dollar you receive. The purpose of this is to make sure all your money is accounted for, and so that you can see where it is going. This is a great rule because it is much easier to budget when you can see how much you're spending on something. I was amazed to find out I was spending up to $500 a month on dining out for myself alone! It was easy to bring that in to $200 a month, which gives me an extra $300 to save or spend on my debt.

Rule Three: Save for a Rainy Day - Of course, a budget can't account for everything. You can't really budget a month in advance for a car wreck you don't know you're going to have. That is why the program encourages you to save money for emergencies. That way, if something comes up, I don't have to worry about it affective the rest of my budget. This rule is also there so you will have future expenses accounted for. I know I am going to have to buy Christmas presents and pay car taxes in December, so every month, I add $50 to my budget for this category. I do the same with that dental appointment I have every 6 months, and add $10 a month to it. That way I don't have to freak out when I have to spend a lot of money in one month. That money is effectively, already "spent" and my bills are evenly distributed every month. I actually had my car taxes and all Christmas presents "paid for" by August of this year.

Rule Four: Roll with the Punches - Occasionally, you will make mistakes and over or under budget. I do this pretty frequently. The software is able to alert you of this so you can make adjustments. This month I overspent on gas. It was easy to adjust for it, because I just reduced my budget on gifts for myself and added it to gas. Even if I can't find a way to make up for it in the current month, YNAB will roll that deficit over to the next month.

The version 2 software is fairly simplistic, and I wish there were a lot more options, especially with reporting. I don't want it to lose its focus on budgeting, and I don't want it to become as bloated as Quicken, but there are more features that could be added to let people use it as all-in-one software and get rid of software like Quicken completely. It would be nice if I could select a payee and see every single transaction I've made to them and how much money I've spent at McDonald's in the last 4 months (you can already do this by category, just not by payee). So some people may need to use YNAB side by side with something like Quicken until it catches up. A few of my issues will be addressed with the release of YNAB 3 (which you will get as an upgrade if you purchase version 2 now). The 4 rules and the actual program of dealing with a buffer have a bit of a learning curve to them, and took me a little while to understand how it actually works, but the support forum at their web site combined with a thorough reading of the manual a couple times led me to eventually figure it out. Don't expect to just install the software and start using it without some instructions first. You need a thorough understanding of the buffer system and the rules for this program to be effective. It's hard for many people with existing debt (myself included) to understand why you should save up a one month's salary before using that money to pay off debt. The forum is a great place for explaining that reasoning. The forum also offers an amazing amount of support that I have not seen with any other software. Users are eager to help explain the four rules or provide general financial advice in terms of budgeting. Jesse, the creator of YNAB, frequently visits the forums to answer questions, and it impresses me how much user input from the forums he takes and puts directly into the software.

For anyone with existing debt, the program comes with some bonus software, including a debt snowball (made popular by personal finance guru Dave Ramsey)program. I strongly suggest anyone with debt combine YNAB with a debt snowball method for helping to eliminate their debt. I have had the same large credit card debt for the last ten years that I could never escape from. Thanks to YNAB and the debt snowball method, I have managed to pay off about 40% of that and will have it paid off completely within the next two years (I know the exact date it will be paid off). YNAB's debt snowball program is okay (it's nothing fancy and very simple), but I prefer the free debt snowball spreadsheet I found at another site to it. They are both very similar though. I strongly suggest that everyone who isn't currently using a budget give the YNAB software a try.

I found this software through a budgeting forum, and tried it out. I wasn't expecting much - I've used an Excel spreadsheet, Quicken & Mvelopes before, and didn't have much "success" with them. Those programs worked fine, but I needed to BUDGET my finances, not track where I spent my money after the fact. So, I bought this program, and after a bit of reading (there's a great guide) and surfing their forums for help, I got it figured out! Now, I've got my life budgeted - I can spend money on the fun things in life without worrying that I'm taking money away from something important (you know, like mortgage, car loan, etc.) because I saved for it.

Just a FYI - because the program is based off of the common sense "rules" that the developer created, it might take a bit before you have that lightbulb moment... And, the program isn't designed to let you blissfully automate your spending - you NEED to track your money, and be more aware if you're going over your budgeted amounts.