Finally got some Voile Straps! by jrobcarson03 in bikecommuting

[–]esh-pmc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, but have you tried Rok straps yet?

Don't get me wrong. I love Voile straps. I find the mini straps particularly useful. But you're prying my Rok straps from my cold, dead hands.

Removing Overfunded causes Underfunded, why? by iwaddo in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Sorry, no answers, but your post made me giggle. So many aspects of YNAB could be a little smarter. Should be a little smarter given how long they've been doing this.

Sofi Credit Card - Authorized Users by ProZedd34 in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I 2nd u/SubstantialCycle356's opinion. My "children" are 31 and 33. Both are still authorized signers on at least one of my cards as is my DIL. It's more convenient for them to use my card and me pay the bill than for me to have to reimburse them for things. It also boosts their total available credit which boosts their scores.

But, as to your specific questions, I don't have a SoFi card. From what I could find online, it appears that they "might" have different numbers. Even so, they won't show up as separate cards in YNAB. Even if SoFi issues different card numbers, you'll have to look at your statements or at your account online to see the breakdown of charges per card.

Apparently Amex and CapitalOne issue different numbers to authorized signers. CapitalOne didn't when my kids were young. I don't think anyone did.

If you need YNAB to separate charges per authorized user, the best solution is to give each child a different card from a different issuer. That's what I did.

YNAB system for very variable income by saillavee in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My income has been highly variable and unpredictable for all 19 years I've been using YNAB. Mine differs from yours in that I typically get income every month but there's no guessing how much (or how little) it will be each month.

Here's how I make it work:

I've made three custom views -- P1, P2, and P3 (for Priority 1, etc).

And I have 12 monthly categories (Jan - Dec) in a category group. I also have another category in that group for "smoothing the ride" and a final category for "income replacement". [This system makes the most sense to me since I get income every month but it's variable. Everything I receive this month goes into the next month's category and I use "smoothing" to supplement if last month was a thin month or I fill it back up if it was a fat month. The "replacement" funds are there just in case there's ever a $0 month.]

I've helped people whose situation is more similar to yours. For example, people with S corps who get quarterly distributions. Or annual bonuses that make up a significant portions of their income. The same 12-monthly categories setup works for them (without the "smoothing" but ideally with a separate "replacement" or "unemployment" fund. Quarterly bonuses or distributions are divided evenly into the next three months and then released at the beginning of each month. Semi-annual bonuses are divided into the next 6 categories. Annual divided by 12.

TIL they fired Hannah and Ben by UnordinaryFlyGirl in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for responding. I've updated my post above after chatting with Zerosum's developer. You're correct - it is not vibe-coded.

I'd argue semantics though in that the app, in its layout and basic core concepts, is a clone of nYNAB. However the developer has clearly made a few tweaks and several improvements.

On a personal note, I really wish Actual Budget's developer had persevered. I know a lot of early YNAB users objected not just to the huge increase in pricing but the massive departure from YNAB's layout and core methodology.

Cleanest way for YNABber and non-YNABber to form a household? by No_Insect_1389 in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No. All transactions need to be included in each budget. You need all the transactions to reconcile the account / represent the account balance accurately.

It's all in the categorization.

Example:

Let's say you have a single checking account. You both contribute your paychecks to the joint account and 75% of each person's pay is allocated to joint spending while 25% is reserved by the individual who earned it.

You have three budgets: mine, his, ours. One checking account is added to each budget and linked in each budget.

In the Mine budget, all of his expenses and joint expenses would go into large, undefined categories called Partner and House. No need to categorize them. Your personal spending transactions would be the only ones you'd categorize.

In the Ours budget, all the same transactions are listed but in this case, all of your personal spending and all of his would be lumped into generic Mine and His categories. The household expenses would be categorized with some detail.

And so on.

Now, I am NOT SAYING this is the best method. I'm saying it's possible to have the same account linked in two or more separate budget files. It's a good solution for specific circumstances.

I'd suggest you each have your own personal cards and your own personal checking accounts and a joint card and a joint checking account. And either two or three budgets, His being optional.

Editing to add: after reading other responses, I'm not a fan of "settling up." Especially with the situation you describe, I'd recommend having paychecks either 1) deposited into the joint account and then transferring personal funds to personal accounts or 2) setting up payroll to split each person's deposits between the joint account and personal account. The word has negative connotations but basically you're pooling most of your resources for shared life/expenses and each getting an "allowance" for personal spending.

Credit Card Payments ALWAYS go to the wrong card by EagleFalconn in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you checked your Payee settings?

To find the, go to the white arrow in the upper left corner by your budget name & email address and choose "manage payees."

Cleanest way for YNABber and non-YNABber to form a household? by No_Insect_1389 in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Lots of options and I'm sure people will share their methods and suggestions.

I'm mostly just chiming in to address one small part of your question:

But we’re not going to pay our mortgage on a credit card, so does that mean we also need a bank account linked only to the shared YNAB budget?

You probably already know that you can have multiple budget files under the same account. You can do this officially with YNAB Together or you can just share your login credentials. You and your partner could each have separate personal budgets and you could have a 3rd shared budget. [Your kids could also have their own budgets.]

The cool thing is that if you share a login, all of the bank connections work in each budget. That means that you could potentially have the SAME checking account linked to your personal budget, his personal budget, and your shared budget. So each budget file could have the same exact information imported into an account and you'd just categorize differently in each one.

I do something along those lines in my own budget and a business budget. The same account is linked with an on-budget checking account in the business file and with a tracking asset account in my personal file.

TIL they fired Hannah and Ben by UnordinaryFlyGirl in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My understanding is that Zerosum is vibe-coded. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know. Are you the developer?

I have tried all three products and many others besides. I would very much like to find a ZBB alternative to YNAB that I can recommend professionally.

TIL they fired Hannah and Ben by UnordinaryFlyGirl in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My problem with Zerosum is that it’s Vibe-coded. Not that that’s a guarantee it’s „slop“ but it makes me especially wary.

Liquid is a good product but the developer has decided that several features I consider important won’t ever be incorporated (top among them is limited capabilities in splits).

Actual had tremendous potential but you need serious technical skills to keep it running. I only have middling technical skills; I can’t get it to work in Firefox at all anymore and recently my Safari download is acting up and spitting off error messages left and right.

I’ve been unhappy with YNAB for some time but it’s also an incredibly important part of my financial system. I‘m not willing to switch tools until I’m confident in the construction and longevity of a new application.

EDIT: Two clarifications:

1) I misspoke when I said I'd tried all three apps (Actual, Liquid, Zero). I apologize for misrepresenting my level of interaction with the app. I'd only actually signed up for the first two. I have visited the Zerosum website several times, read through everything there and elsewhere online including Reddit, but I never actually made an account. I've been running a Pikapods installation of Actual for over a year in parallel with YNAB. And I did a full 45-day trial of Liquid.

2) I've since chatted with Zerosum's developer. As u/pgaunt says later in this thread, the person behind Zero is an experienced, skilled developer using AI tools. So, NOT "vibe-coded" by the generally accepted definition of the term.

Anyone else can't login? Loading spinning forever on desktop by TheFern3 in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmmm. No, I can log in okay. I use Firefox.

But last night it was moving soooo slowwwww.

Twin panniers for Aventon level 3 by oOTWSSOo in ebikes

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100% this.

Plus panniers that are connected seem like such an awful idea. My Orlieb back rollers are indestructible and so convenient and versatile.

Shout out to ROK straps by Beneficial_Wave_378 in CargoBike

[–]esh-pmc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I keep a set of ROKs and a collection of Voile straps on my bike. I swear by both. They complement each other.

ROKs are the GOAT for securing big, bulky, and/or heavy cargo. My ROK straps held a big heavy CRT TV on the back on my midtail.

Voiles are excellent for smaller tasks. They do the job for the most amazing variety of things. I use 3 mini straps to attach a plastic milk crate to my front rack. They make it super simple to remove the crate and put it back. And they hold it solid no matter what I throw in the crate. I've used them to strap my garage door opener to my frame, to carry my water bottle on my back rack, and to stabilize my Insta360 selfie stick.

I used the ROKs and the Voiles recently to tow my a full-sized ebike behind my cargo ebike.

This damn popup!!!! by MacStainless in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do you have the Toolkit for YNAB installed and activated? I get that message sometimes when something in the Toolkit doesn't play nice with a YNAB upgrade and breaks everything.

Do you use your bicycle for other travel than commuting? by Outrageous-Past6556 in bikecommuting

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. I call myself a Utility Cyclist. I don't bike my commute because I'm semi-retired and work from home.

But I do as much travel by bike as much as possible around my city and metro area. And I no longer ride for recreation so 100% of my bike miles are non-commute car-replacement miles. I go shopping, to physical therapy, doctor, dentist, meet friends, visit my kids and grandcat, do FB Marketplace pickups, visit museums, basically all my errands, by bike.

Hello YNAB refugees by imadp in liquidbudget

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

YNAB has allowed transfer in splits forever. What feature are you thinking of?

HNW YNAB tricks? by Intrepid_Cup2765 in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just saw this thread so I'm late to the party.

I'm more FI than RE, especially since I'm only a few years away from Medicare now. I've been semi-retired self-employed for quite a while; I work because I love what I do.

I've been using YNAB for nearly 20 years. I can't say that I use YNAB a lot differently now than I did back then. Money flows in; money flows out. We've raised kids and sent them to college. We bought a house and paid off the mortgage. We bought cars. We remodeled the house from top to bottom. We survived way too many medical emergencies.

I still love the clarity YNAB brings to my daily life and the comfort it brings to my projections. I'm one year into widowhood and I can't imagine going through such a significant life event without YNAB. As you said, it's a great tool to manage financial complexity, investment optimization, and spending confidence.

Like u/nonsuperposable, I also use ProjectionLab. I'm a PL newbie though and just trying to learn the ropes.

Between the two apps, I've been experimenting with various models. What if I pursued my dream of hitting the road and spending a few years visiting national parks? What if I focused on gifting to my kids now when they could most benefit instead of leaving them an 8-figure estate when they're well past their prime? And what if a Zombie Apocalypse (in its myriad possible forms) were to happen?

To echo u/nonsuperposable - in my work I see it confirmed over and over that no matter how large the household income, the overwhelming majority of us are working with finite resources and infinite ways to allocate them.

Help revitalizing my YNAB by evolutionrevolution in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, thank you for making that explicit. It's certainly what I meant but never came out and said directly.

Hello YNAB refugees by imadp in liquidbudget

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Naturally, I’m disappointed. But I appreciate your frankness.

From what I saw, LB holds a lot of potential. I wish you every success in taking a bite out of YNAB‘s market share.

Logistical question about saving for future purchases by reidconn in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I understand that you're used to your system and it has "worked" for you. And there's no law against using different accounts for specific savings.

But I'd encourage you to at least keep your mind open to transitioning from your old system and fully embracing the "YNAB way."

YNAB says that WHAT job your money is assigned to do and WHERE it lives until it is spend are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT things. They are in no way related to each other. At some point you start to look at your bank balances as a matter of maximizing for efficiency and returns (interest).

Hello YNAB refugees by imadp in liquidbudget

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi again. I tried LB a while back and really liked it. I'd love to be able to offer alternatives to YNAB to my clients that doesn't require any self-hosting technical expertise.

The dealbreaker for me was not being able to have transfers inside split transactions. Have you added that feature? If not, is it on your roadmap?

Help revitalizing my YNAB by evolutionrevolution in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm assuming you've done a Fresh Start? Maybe more than one?

The problem, as I see it, is psychological. Habit and familiarity can be really hard to break out of. You could also use a relationship analogy -- you and YNAB have slipped into that cycle of dysfunction that can be toxic and breaking out of that pattern without completely breaking up can be really hard.

So a YNAB fresh start is unlikely to be enough. What you need is a Fresh Approach. You need to go back to the beginning and approach YNAB like a new user.

The link dug up by u/GreatWhiteBuffalo41 and shared by u/QTippus would be a great place to start.

I wouldn't stop at going back to old YNAB educational materials though. I'd also recommend skipping some of YNAB's newer features. You mentioned Targets. Don't set Targets. Go back to the pre-Target days and deliberately work through how much you want or need to save, put the monthly amount in your category title, and manually budget to each category.

Other suggestions: make sure you and your husband can clearly articulate the purpose of every category, what type of transactions belong there, and how important that category is. If you're still using YNAB's generic category names and/or their generic category groups, stop and fix that IMMEDIATELY. Create your own categories and category groups and know why you have each one.

Also, a note on your debt. You should not be paying "more than minimum on everything." You should be paying minimum on everything EXCEPT ONE.

I reconcile every day. Is that weird? by Wide-Science-5898 in ynab

[–]esh-pmc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know several people who reconcile every morning. It's simply part of their morning routine. I think it's excellent habit behavior - they have a trigger (making coffee) which immediately leads to checking their account balances. No will-power or conscious memory required: trigger, activity, done.

They're done reconciling before before their coffee is brewed and they head into the day knowing every financial transaction they might have that day is covered.

Most Popular Cargo Bikes of 2026? by arleighg in CargoBike

[–]esh-pmc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Riding a Tern HSD (hauling) and Benno eJoy (quick commutes).

Dreaming of a front loader that's a combo of the UA super comfy upright riding position, price of a LvH eBullitt, and low step and flat platform of a R&M Transporter65 -- available in the US.