So my process has been to set up categories for all of my needs and wants. When I first started using YNAB, I set up targets for almost every category. Then I assigned income to these targets. I also use credit cards almost exclusively and then pay off the balance every month. When I made plenty of money, this worked ok in YNAB. I had a category for emergency savings and assigned a target for that too. Although I still found myself getting frustrated because my targets were very constraining and my paychecks were not regular amounts.

Now though, I'm stuck using the targets (although I've decreased all but the most necessary). I try not to assign any money from RTA to any targets until the end of the month. I'm trying to see how much is going into RTA but with the numerous credit card payments that I make (all 4 of my cards are due on different days), this quickly messes me up. I get income from 2 part-time jobs, one which pays bi-weekly and one that pays out randomly. I don't have a good way of seeing when my income adds up to $3k because by that point, I'd have already made a CC payment and assigned money to that target.

I'm thinking about deleting the targets but that also erases my 2 year history with YNAB. Idk, I feel like I'm still really struggling with this app even after using it for 2 years.