very helpful tips - I've listened to Mr. True's YNAB tutorials and they are all very useful and practical. Between him and Hannah, I am feeling very comfortable with YNAB and it has greatly helped me control my spending
Targets were confusing me for awhile, but now I have targets for everything but my eating out, shopping and things that are more wants than needs. Appreciate these in depth videos! 🙏🏽💯
Started using YNAP in Dec 2023. Targets are a game changer. The one thing that I miss (not a target) but certainly would like to set a “reporting comparison number” for tags. I.e. compare tags actual spend against a number that I defined outside of budget. And setting a target would be even more helpful if it provided a suggestion based on say average of YTD or last 12 months.
This is exactly what I needed! Targets were so confusing and all the videos I found were prior to the new updates. Thank you Nick! Hopefully YNAB will come up with a bi weekly paycheck function in my lifetime!
I've been using YNAB for a while now and there's one thing that really surprised me: you can open as many budgets as you like, but you can't SAVE your budgets and you can't COPY one budget onto another (for testing purposes, for example). I don't know of any software that doesn't let you save your data!
So you can download your data to your computer and then save it. Also you can copy the budget structure and accounts (just no the transactions) by using the make a fresh start feature.
I have been using YNAB for five years now and it has been such a powerful, life-changing tool for me. Your videos are what got me started! Thanks so much! By the way, did you ever buy those kyaks?
Thanks for watching! And we did not :) Ultimately our life changed and our location with it and subsequently our ability to use kayaks regularly went down to the point that it no longer made good sense. We shifted that money elsewhere for now. But who knows, maybe one day they’ll make it back in the budget!
Thanks for a great video Nick. I am still trying to figure out the total of all my targets (to compare them to my income to see if I might be overbudgeting, which I think could be happening). I went to a future month (Nov) where nothing was assigned and looked at the 'underfunded amount'. But it seemed too low. Then I saw that while I had not assigned any money for that future month (Nov), I did have 'money available' that was funded in October and is not yet spent so it looked Available in Nov. The plan would be to spend it in October and then it would not be available in November -- at which point the underfunded in Nov would likely be higher. Should I reset available amounts in the future month (Nov) to 0 to look at the underfunded to see the total of my targets? Thanks for all the help!
Hey Casey, the available amounts you see in Nov won't affect the underfunded number at all. So if you have nothing ASSIGNED in Nov, and you go look, whatever the underfunded number shows is accurate. If it still looks weird I would go group by group and select one group at a time to see what the underfunded number is just for that group, and check each group to make sure each looks reasonable. But the available amounts you speak of from October that show in Nov, won't have any impact on the underfunded number at all. Hope this helps!
So how would you handle this situation: you are saving monthly towards an annual bill. The due date of the bill is on the 1st day of the month, but your monthly income does not come in until later. Would you set the target to be that month and allow the category to become overspent, or set the target to the end of the previous month, and then reset the target for the next year after the bill has been paid?
I would set the target to be the day that it would actually process. And rather than letting it be overspent - ideally, I'm pushing to get one month ahead in the meantime. Which means I'm pushing to use my income from this month for next month's income. Example, if the annual bill is due on July 1st. In an ideal world, I've been working hard all year to get ahead enough so that when I get paid in June, I'm able to actually click ahead into July and fund some of the bills that occur early in July (like mortgage, utilities) and also this annual bill. So in this way, I'm not leaving it overspent. Hopefully this makes sense, nick
Thank you Nik! One question…if I have my apartment cleaning for $95 every 6 weeks how do I put a target for that since you can only set a monthly or yearly target? Thanks in advance.
Good question, there's certainly a few ways you could do this. Personally I would think about it like this. once / 6 weeks is about 8.5 times per year. I'd round up to 9 to be safe. 9 cleanings per year at $95 = $855 Divide by 12 to get the monthly average = $71.25 / month I'd set a monthly target, with set aside another for $71.25. You may need to budget $95 in the very first month and second months depending on when the next cleaning falls, but after that, you'll be good to go.
Thank you from France. I'm starting to use YNAB and find your videos very informative. In slow speed and with French subtitles, it's TOP!
So glad the videos are helpful for you! Even with the subtitles, I appreciate you watching :)
Oh wow!! Nick has a YNAB video 😮
We back : )
Thank you for doing this video, Nick! I was wondering why I was having trouble with my yearly goals not resetting.
So glad this helped!
very helpful tips - I've listened to Mr. True's YNAB tutorials and they are all very useful and practical. Between him and Hannah, I am feeling very comfortable with YNAB and it has greatly helped me control my spending
So glad to hear the videos have been helpful for you! We appreciate you watching.
WB Nick, Nice to see you making YNAB Video's again!!
Glad to be back :)
Targets were confusing me for awhile, but now I have targets for everything but my eating out, shopping and things that are more wants than needs.
Appreciate these in depth videos! 🙏🏽💯
Of course, appreciate you watching!
Started using YNAP in Dec 2023. Targets are a game changer. The one thing that I miss (not a target) but certainly would like to set a “reporting comparison number” for tags. I.e. compare tags actual spend against a number that I defined outside of budget. And setting a target would be even more helpful if it provided a suggestion based on say average of YTD or last 12 months.
All good ideas, perhaps YNAB will make something like that possible in the future. Glad you've found targets helpful
This is exactly what I needed! Targets were so confusing and all the videos I found were prior to the new updates. Thank you Nick! Hopefully YNAB will come up with a bi weekly paycheck function in my lifetime!
So glad it was helpful for you! And yes, maybe the bi-weekly thing will happen one day.
I've been using YNAB for a while now and there's one thing that really surprised me: you can open as many budgets as you like, but you can't SAVE your budgets and you can't COPY one budget onto another (for testing purposes, for example). I don't know of any software that doesn't let you save your data!
So you can download your data to your computer and then save it.
Also you can copy the budget structure and accounts (just no the transactions) by using the make a fresh start feature.
Helpful! Thanks.
I have been using YNAB for five years now and it has been such a powerful, life-changing tool for me. Your videos are what got me started! Thanks so much!
By the way, did you ever buy those kyaks?
Thanks for watching! And we did not :)
Ultimately our life changed and our location with it and subsequently our ability to use kayaks regularly went down to the point that it no longer made good sense. We shifted that money elsewhere for now.
But who knows, maybe one day they’ll make it back in the budget!
Targets = proper management of sinking funds. I.e. you can’t really budget long term without using a target.
Completely agree
Thanks for a great video Nick. I am still trying to figure out the total of all my targets (to compare them to my income to see if I might be overbudgeting, which I think could be happening). I went to a future month (Nov) where nothing was assigned and looked at the 'underfunded amount'. But it seemed too low. Then I saw that while I had not assigned any money for that future month (Nov), I did have 'money available' that was funded in October and is not yet spent so it looked Available in Nov. The plan would be to spend it in October and then it would not be available in November -- at which point the underfunded in Nov would likely be higher. Should I reset available amounts in the future month (Nov) to 0 to look at the underfunded to see the total of my targets? Thanks for all the help!
Hey Casey, the available amounts you see in Nov won't affect the underfunded number at all. So if you have nothing ASSIGNED in Nov, and you go look, whatever the underfunded number shows is accurate. If it still looks weird I would go group by group and select one group at a time to see what the underfunded number is just for that group, and check each group to make sure each looks reasonable.
But the available amounts you speak of from October that show in Nov, won't have any impact on the underfunded number at all. Hope this helps!
So how would you handle this situation: you are saving monthly towards an annual bill. The due date of the bill is on the 1st day of the month, but your monthly income does not come in until later. Would you set the target to be that month and allow the category to become overspent, or set the target to the end of the previous month, and then reset the target for the next year after the bill has been paid?
Divide by 11 instead of 12.
I would set the target to be the day that it would actually process. And rather than letting it be overspent - ideally, I'm pushing to get one month ahead in the meantime. Which means I'm pushing to use my income from this month for next month's income.
Example, if the annual bill is due on July 1st. In an ideal world, I've been working hard all year to get ahead enough so that when I get paid in June, I'm able to actually click ahead into July and fund some of the bills that occur early in July (like mortgage, utilities) and also this annual bill. So in this way, I'm not leaving it overspent.
Hopefully this makes sense,
nick
Thank you Nik! One question…if I have my apartment cleaning for $95 every 6 weeks how do I put a target for that since you can only set a monthly or yearly target? Thanks in advance.
Good question, there's certainly a few ways you could do this. Personally I would think about it like this.
once / 6 weeks is about 8.5 times per year. I'd round up to 9 to be safe.
9 cleanings per year at $95 = $855
Divide by 12 to get the monthly average = $71.25 / month
I'd set a monthly target, with set aside another for $71.25. You may need to budget $95 in the very first month and second months depending on when the next cleaning falls, but after that, you'll be good to go.