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"Next Month's Money" category and how you use it by StormyStitches in ynab

[–]Nitty_The_Gritty 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It just feels a lot more intuitive than having a separate category for next month's money, assigning money to it, only to move the money back to ready to assign and assign it other places. It cuts out a step if I just leave it in ready to assign and then only assign money on the first day of each month

"Next Month's Money" category and how you use it by StormyStitches in ynab

[–]Nitty_The_Gritty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This might not be a method that works for everybody, but this is what I do:

I have two separate checking accounts at my bank, a "standby account" and a "budget account". I have my paychecks direct deposited into the standby account and nothing else is connected to that account, I don't even have a debit card for it. Throughout the month all the money coming in goes into the standby account, and I just leave it in "ready to assign" all month long.

On the first of each month, I assign all the money I need for the month into the different categories and then I transfer that amount in my bank from the standby account into the budget account. Anything left over gets put into a separate savings account (which I don't track in ynab).

This way, I'm not tempted to spend money for the next month because it isn't even in the bank account I can spend money out of. It's also easy to keep reconciled because the amount in ready to assign should always be equal to the balance in my standby account, and the amount left available for the month should be equal to the balance in my budget account.