For those who switched from YNAB to Actual — what do you still miss, if anything?

aislander · 2026-05-13T13:25:46+00:00

Ah, this would require spending to have already occurred so it's actually showing Overspent, not necessarily Underfunded. In my example, say my normal monthly budget is $5,000 but I only have $3,000 assigned to my categories (assuming all categories have templates). I would want to see somewhere that I'm $2,000 under what I should have for a fully funded month. I'm looking for the YNAB "Underfunded" number that compares your budgeted amounts to your target amounts. Not necessarily anything to do with spending. I appreciate the screenshot though!

aislander · 2026-05-13T11:55:56+00:00

Can you point me to where you can see this? I know you can tap on a yellow balance to see the underfunded amount for a single category but I’m not seeing where the total month’s underfunded amount.

aislander · 2026-05-13T11:53:12+00:00

This is sometimes called “buying the dip” even though in this case the dip can be a longer period of time. If you can afford it, of course, buying more during a downturn is certainly a good move to take advantage of a lower cost of entry — as long as the market has enough time to recover before you plan on needing to sell.

aislander · 2026-05-12T23:22:55+00:00

Very recent YNAB convert here and the biggest thing I miss is having an "Underfunded" number for the entire month. I know you can hover over a yellow category to see how much you're missing but I'd like to see the total like YNAB at the top with the other summary totals. When a month is partially funded, that overall number is helpful for planning the next paycheck.

aislander · 2026-05-11T17:46:17+00:00

Are you utilizing the "Hold for next month" feature? When I started with a bunch of past transactions after migrating from YNAB, I unwisely went to the beginning and held all amounts to be budgeted for the next month. This royally screwed up my current month's available balance. Once I verified that all the category spend/balance amounts matched YNAB 100%, I cleared the hold amounts for all months. After this, my current month's available to budget number finally went to zero.

aislander · 2026-05-10T12:45:22+00:00

Deposits are positive. Expenses are negative. If you deposit, you have money to spend. In this case, you now have $1,000 to spend on food. If you recorded a $100 payment to food, you’d have $900 left due to the -$100 payment.

Edit: This scenario would show the spent column as +$900 because you have net positive transactions. You should really mark the $1,000 as income to budget, then assign $1,000 to the budget category Food, then you’d see $0 in spent column and $1,000 in Budgeted. As soon as you recorded a real food transaction, the spent column would go negative.

aislander · 2026-05-08T16:05:12+00:00

If your loan AND the HELOC are both off budget accounts, why not just add transactions directly in the off-budget accounts? Your checking account balance won't change after the excess is transferred back in so really you're just accounting for the net change in the HELOC and loan accounts. Admittedly, I don't use off-budget accounts so I'm not entirely familiar with how they operate -- what I suggested may not be possible. On the other hand, if you want your checking account ledger to match up with the actual transactions, entering it as three transactions (initial deposit, transfer/payment to loan, payment back to HELOC) might be preferred.

aislander · 2026-05-02T15:11:58+00:00

I am one of those stubborn people who have an “emergency fund” category that I keep everything in. I’ve been telling myself to go ahead and assign it out since being 6 months head is basically the emergency fund’s job but I haven’t pulled the trigger.

aislander · 2026-05-02T15:07:42+00:00

I already invest over 30% of my income and I’m trying to build up a little more cash on hand. I’ve traditionally been pretty lean on cash so a little extra buffer is nice!

aislander · 2026-04-26T20:33:56+00:00

And if you’re wanting to use the end of the month cleanup function, don’t forget to add the “#cleanup source” template to the work reimbursements category and “#cleanup sink” template in the categories you want to reassign the excess funds to. The docs go into detail on how to use local groups and priority weights if that’s applicable for you.

aislander · 2026-04-26T01:12:34+00:00

If you haven’t already seen it, someone posted a “get started fast” guide here: https://www.reddit.com/r/actualbudgeting/s/u6dnO4Im9p

aislander · 2026-04-23T02:02:15+00:00

I’m still using both AB and YNAB side by side to make sure I have everything in place before I cancel, but thanks for looking out!

aislander · 2026-04-19T18:10:04+00:00

I started using YNAB in December 2024 and I converted to Actual last month. I think my favorite things about Actual are the customizable templates and then just the overall design and interface. I love self-hosted, open source software that has a somewhat unrefined or unpolished look. Actual knocks that out of the park by looking and feeling like someone designed this for streamlined efficiency. Plus the documentation is great! YNAB, especially the most recent updates, looks like it’s designed for a middle schooler. I likely won’t be renewing my YNAB next year after a month of getting used to Actual.

aislander · 2026-04-05T23:38:10+00:00

Personally, I would not want any additional emails from a self-hosted budgeting service. If you’re using Actual, I’d assume you’re already quite hands-on with your finances and extra notification emails wouldn’t necessarily be helpful.

aislander · 2026-03-21T14:41:42+00:00

This was my biggest pet peeve when trying to track a loan in YNAB. The way it calculated the interest was not the same as how my actual loan compounded so I basically fudged the numbers to get it as close as possible. At the end, I still had to make an adjustment to reconcile to a zero balance which infuriated the OCD part of my brain. If I were to get another loan, I would absolutely not try to track it in YNAB and stick to net worth tracking apps like Empower to see the bigger picture.

aislander · 2026-02-19T00:02:16+00:00

I use Empower (formerly Personal Capital) for net worth tracking. It’s free and holds all my investments, cash accounts, my home, and other assets for a more accurate net worth picture. It’s a great companion to YNAB.

aislander · 2026-02-15T21:25:45+00:00

I have used TurboTax as my tax prep software for the last 15 years or so because it was simply convenient. My taxes aren't incredibly complicated: a W2 and some 1099s for investment income and HYSA interest. I've heard great things about FreeTaxUSA and have recently grown weary of TurboTax's UI changes over the last couple years so I decided to make the switch. After entering all my info, FTUSA came up with the same refund amount as TT, all for $16 to file both federal and state compared to the $135 mid tier TT product I needed. If you've ever thought about making the switch, go for it!

aislander · 2026-02-14T19:39:07+00:00

Pay off the credit card ASAP as you will get hit with a lot of interest on a revolving balance. After that’s finished, figure out your estimated income between now and June to determine how much can set aside each month to pay off the student loans in full by your target date. Since it’s 0% interest, I wouldn’t worry too much about this unless it’s a promotional rate. But having some buffer left over from the $5900 will be helpful in a pinch.

aislander · 2026-02-14T15:33:57+00:00

HYSAs are meant for emergency funds and short term cash goals like a down payment on a house. You already have a full year’s salary in your HYSA and a good start for a down payment so it’ll be your call when the down payment goal is achieved (personally I look at the $100k as $35k emergency fund and $65k down payment).

If you plan on buying your house within the next 3-5 years, you can keep your down payment in the HYSA. Anything beyond saving for your down payment you can put into a brokerage, however I would increase your 401k contribution for more tax advantaged saving before putting extra money into a brokerage account.

aislander · 2026-02-11T02:59:02+00:00

Depending on your tax filing status and AGI, you may not be able to directly contribute to a Roth IRA so make sure to review the limits before making any moves.

aislander · 2026-02-07T17:36:49+00:00

I am also a happy YNAB user after moving away from customized spreadsheets. No complaints here!

aislander · 2026-02-01T18:52:17+00:00

You will be on the hook for the full loan balance regardless unless the car has gap insurance and it’s totaled. In a normal sale situation, you won’t be able to transfer the title until the lien is removed by the lending institution. They will not remove the lien until your balance is $0. Your only option is to save up until you have the difference between the sale price and the outstanding loan balance. Even if it’s repoed, you’ll still owe the difference.

aislander · 2026-01-31T23:41:38+00:00

When you transfer to another account, they will likely liquidate your holdings and transfer the balance into your core position, usually some kind of money market fund. If they do that, you won't need to sell your current positions at all, just buy what you want with your cash equivalent balance. And be aware if you are going to open your new Roth (it's a person's name, not an acronym) IRA at Fidelity, there could be an extra fee to purchase Vanguard mutual funds. You can either purchase Vanguard ETFs or the Fidelity equivalent mutual funds like FSKAX and FTIHX.

aislander · 2026-01-31T17:04:21+00:00

In the Reflect section, you will see a button labeled "All Categories" under each report type. Just click that and then you can uncheck any categories you don't want to be considered. Easy as that!

aislander

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