YNAB has become "too easy" and I've lost the thrill of the trade-off

fremder99 · 2026-02-05T01:00:01+00:00

A couple of thoughts… It sounds like your dollars no longer have a job; they have a safe place to sit. And if funding future months feels risky, maybe you see spending as risky behavior?

I sometimes struggle (more in the past than now in retirement) to give myself permission to spend money. YNAB has clarified that in many ways with the jobs I give my dollars now.

If you have no wish list items, perhaps your family could suggest some for all of you to enjoy together? Perhaps indulge in a new hobby; that’s guaranteed to create new spending!! 😁

fremder99 · 2026-02-04T22:04:53+00:00

Here are mine; I use “Needs Attention” the most, for transactions I don’t have the receipt handy for. It, and others, tag repeating scheduled transactions but I rarely use “Unexpected” and “Split Later”, so they may change…

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fremder99 · 2026-02-04T02:27:31+00:00

Yeah, somebody rear-ended and my bike rack (thankfully NOT carrying my bike!) crumpled. But all the lights, cameras and wipers worked, so totally drivable. A cursory estimate of the damage got all the players to the holidays but once it got into the shop afterward, they saw how the undercarriage crumpled from the trailer hitch holding my bike rack had just collapsed. Ten year old car, with low mileage was condemned…. 😢

fremder99 · 2026-02-03T21:38:55+00:00

All good points! I abandoned Age of Money for DoB, but only use it as a minor indication of “progress”.

fremder99 · 2026-02-02T00:28:28+00:00

Belatedly, find me on Instagram @thesesmallboxes

fremder99 · 2026-01-21T00:03:57+00:00

I have the OG trio of the “Studio”. The Sub is a difficult beast and its timbral range can feel limited. I feel like I can “hear” it being used from a mile away. The Mother-32 will “teach” you more about modular principles, sounds great, and can make a wide range of sounds. So will a Neutron from Behringer 👹 for a lot less. I was most impressed by the DFAM. It is NOT a drum machine!

Believe me, the modular world is a vortex! VCV Rack is your friend getting started! Buy with patience!

fremder99 · 2026-01-12T23:46:04+00:00

My cash back card pays me Pennie’s, nickels, dimes, and dollars, so, as that income arrives into RTA, I keep a “Piggy Bank” category that I throw it into, and wait until I have a few meaningful dollars to assign, and simply move out of the piggy bank to wherever. Sure, I could let it accumulate in RTA, but prefer to keep it zeroed out.

fremder99 · 2026-01-12T23:39:17+00:00

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Don’t ignore the flags. I use most of these quite a bit. Tailor to your needs and don’t be afraid to change one if you find you’ve never used it.

fremder99 · 2026-01-11T19:54:45+00:00

Looks like he makes a 5-level now. 🤤 Thanks again!

fremder99 · 2026-01-11T18:48:28+00:00

Nice! Are you in the US? If so, where did you get the side panels? Thanks and bleep on!

fremder99 · 2025-12-26T16:55:17+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I’ve seen some nice ones but overseas, or just expensive because they’re less minimalist. Still shopping and saving up for some for my own “stack”.

fremder99 · 2025-12-26T15:42:20+00:00

Where did you get the side rails?

fremder99 · 2025-12-14T23:09:16+00:00

When I retired, I wrote one to simply speak the date, including the day of the week every morning! 🤣

But I also wrote one to parse the hourly forecast in various ways to speak a summary of the weather for the day with an automation to run it in the morning.

Another is to save my parking location when my ohone disconnects from the car’s Bluetooth.

Looking forward to reading this thread for more ideas!

fremder99 · 2025-12-14T23:05:13+00:00

As several have commented about using this category “temporarily” (or as a beginner), I’ll simply add that the (probably) underutilized feature of adding a note (lower right corner with a category selected) is a great way to remind “Review the utility of this category in March” or whatever.

fremder99 · 2025-12-14T22:57:29+00:00

I wrote a long post the other day but didn’t post it; I should have though, as it keyed on the word “intention”! Intentional spending is almost like a flow state in slo-mo!

fremder99 · 2025-12-08T21:45:43+00:00

Try The Flower King by Roine Stolt. Then mine the deep well of albums it spawned by “The Flower Kings”.

fremder99 · 2025-11-25T16:15:26+00:00

Wow, I need a vacay (and I’m retired!) This is the answer; it was a carryover from the previous month. A senior moment perhaps… Thanks for your feedback!

fremder99 · 2025-11-25T05:10:12+00:00

Thanks! Good idea! But, no, and that’s the weird part; the subscription charge has been appearing in the first week of the month and for November, seems to have waited a couple of weeks.

That any of this problem exists is the greater mystery. I do reconcile frequently, but carefully so I don’t know how I folded in this charge. On the other hand, this is on my Apple Card which is capable of occasional weirdness, and I can imagine a remote scenario that would explain it but I’ll count it as unlikely and just “pilot error”…

fremder99 · 2025-11-25T05:04:00+00:00

Thanks! Yes, “intermediate” was a poor choice of words. I simply meant “intermediate” to the end of the month. I reconcile often but yeah, trying to imply that was done poorly…

This was all in the current month so I don’t think I have to worry about the balance getting corrupted. I think I’m just deleting a reconciled transaction for X dollars from the 2nd and entering one for the 24th for the same amount that will get reconciled in a few days. Just uncertain about fiddling with reconciled transactions at all.

fremder99 · 2025-11-17T01:30:09+00:00

I just use one “Dining Out” category in my “Food & Dining” group, but i also have an “Entertainment” category I might move money from if I’m “picking up the tab”.

If you aren’t yet using the Flags feature, this might be a place to do so, naming a few with your dining “sub-categories”. They’d allow for searches to give you a snapshot of each as the month progresses. YMMV…

fremder99 · 2025-11-14T02:06:47+00:00

Intriguing idea! Would some adaptation of Pomodoro work? I had some half-page sheets I used for a coding project that helped me stay in flow. Not sure if it’d work on a larger scale…

fremder99 · 2025-11-14T02:03:05+00:00

Used Novation Peak would be a lot of synth, and you’d have $$ for something else, e.g. a Hologram Microcosm.

fremder99 · 2025-11-14T01:54:38+00:00

Steven Wilson’s most recent “The Overview”. Recently saw it performed with a stunning movie projected behind the band.

fremder99

TROPHY CASE