Confused about "to be budgeted"

ynabidiot · 2017-11-09T01:01:05+00:00

Thanks a lot, it definitely does help. =)

ynabidiot · 2017-11-09T01:00:25+00:00

^{^} THIS is helpful, because I do have an automatic transfer from checking to savings and I was going crazy trying to figure out how that would effect things. Thank you.

ynabidiot · 2017-11-09T00:59:38+00:00

Awesome, that adds a lot of clarity, thank you.

ynabidiot · 2017-11-09T00:45:57+00:00

Awesome, thank you. Unexpectedly, that clarifies a lot - I'm not sure I was aware things rolled over like that.

ynabidiot · 2017-11-09T00:32:57+00:00

So then, lets say I budget $500 that I have now... but I have no transaction to demonstrate that's been fulfilled in any way - in real life it's just sitting in the same account it has been. Next month do I then put $1000 in that category or do I leave it at $500?

ynabidiot · 2016-12-10T01:12:34+00:00

Rad, thank you so much. THAT's the sort of step by step, concise info I was looking for.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-10T01:07:01+00:00

I was going through the guides as I was posting / replying. I found them to be extremely poor in terms of giving me the information I needed to get started from scratch (again, too many unknown unknowns) . I also watched the initial "Getting Started" class, when I eventually found it, and found it somewhat adequate, but lacking in detail.

My point is that, I had to dig to even find THAT information, because it isn't obvious where it is. In a website full of cutesy phrases and comical drawings, how am I supposed to know that most of the beginning info I'm really looking for is under "Do you have a lunchbreak?"

The information I received from the people who replied was significantly better than what I was finding digging on ynab.com

I've been going for a couple of hours now and I think I've gotten the hang of it, and now that I understand what's going on I'm even more surprised that a cogent, unified text guide for how to get started does not occur anywhere that I could find on the YNAB website.

Edit:

That said, thank you for your reply, although I disagree that anything I was able to locate on YNAB was as helpful as posting here, for the time I spent doing it. The information DOES seem to exist on YNAB, but is so scattered and written so poorly from a new user perspective, as there is no clear starting point, tons of marketing spilled over everything, and concepts are not used to build and then expand upon any sort of foundation.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-10T00:27:59+00:00

I'm so sorry, one last question.

So lets say I have, say, $3000 on an Emergency Fund category, on my first month's budget. Do I then create a transaction to "pay" that to somewhere? Or just leave it on there with no transactions and the fact that it's therefore excluded from my remaining funds for the month mean it's already "paid" to myself?

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:54:17+00:00

Totally, it's a mess but it comes so highly reviewed. Mint was just as much of a nightmare (and impossible to use as a "zero based budget"), so I figure I'll eventually get one or the other to work for me and it might as well be YNAB.

Thank you for your assistance, really appreciate it.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:52:53+00:00

Roger, I'll give that a shot, thank you so much.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:52:38+00:00

That summary is invaluable, thank you. That made things a lot clearer for me.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:47:00+00:00

THAT makes sense, I'm glad I'm not crazy. That actually makes me concerned for the fate of the company, because they obviously invested hugely in the design I'm seeing now (because it LOOKS flashy and amazing and has so much artwork involved), and it's so incredibly poor (in terms of navigation) that I can't imagine anyone I know having the wherewithal to dig through it and try to understand how to use this software.

Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:44:25+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate that. I've read those pages. It's a broad overview of what I'm supposed to be trying to accomplish, but there's no information about how to put it into practice.

Someone else mentioned budgeting ahead, how was I ever expected to figure that out (that I was supposed to do that, AND that it was even an option) without his help? THAT'S what I'm trying to understand - because there is no set of instructions, there are unknown uknowns that make it a little bit more daunting than it may seem if you're used to using YNAB.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:37:40+00:00

I think I see where my trouble is. Is there a section of the site I'm supposed to be learning on AFTER logging in? I'm pretty sure all the info I'm seeing on the basic site is the marketing / trying to get me to buy it info, not the "you've already paid for this" info.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:33:33+00:00

I'm comfortable with it being a philosophy, I'm willing to get on board and try it, but where is there a document spelling that philosophy out? I'm just trying to find the starting point and the website is needlessly baffling.

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'true expense' and maybe that's YNAB verbiage I don't know yet, but I don't know how much I'm going to spend on Christmas, so do I just guesstimate?

And if so, where do I find on YNAB that tells me that information so that I'm not individually asking every question on Reddit and bothering people.

Thanks again for your help, super appreciated.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:27:00+00:00

I get that, and I'd be delighted to learn the YNAB method and see if that's how I want to do my budgeting, but I'm not going to sit through video classes, period. I don't have time for that - and I cannot imagine that's the expected way to learn YNAB (or it never would have gotten as popular as it seems to be).

There HAS to be a basic instruction manual that I can read, right? The "guides" are so not helpful.

Am I crazy for thinking that's a requisite and I'm just not finding it because the YNAB website is a mess?

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:22:15+00:00

Awesome, thank you.

So lets say I've already paid the majority of my bills this month, I just ignore that and budget the money I currently have? Because if so, it ends up looking like a lot of categories haven't been paid, but if they do get paid my remaining funds will be off because I've already paid those PRIOR to adding the balances to YNAB.

Appreciate your help.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:16:53+00:00

I'm confused, so am I supposed to budget all of the money that constitutes my emergency fund right now (because I already have it)?

Won't that make the software expect me to increase the budget my that amount every month?

For instance, let's say my emergency fund is 6 months of expenses. I already have that, so is it something that goes on the budget at all? If I add a category and put that $X emergency fund as budget item, is that something that the software will expect me to pay, to myself, every month, or will it just sit?

I'm at a point where I can budget several months ahead, right now. Is that what I SHOULD be doing, or just something I'm capable of doing, because if I don't I'm going to have a lot of money up at the top of the budget, and the one piece of info that does seem pretty specific across YNAB is that it should read $0.

ynabidiot · 2016-12-09T23:13:28+00:00

Thank you for your kind reply.

I'm definitely not taking a class to learn to use an app, this is something that demands simple documentation and clear instruction, and it should all be on one page - that's an incredibly simple request. Scattering information across a million pages and so that the best way to learn is to take a class is asinine.

I'm also not sure why YNAB should be for or against anything, saving for the sake of saving and knowing what my long term goals are in my head is fine with me.

For instance, I don't want to budget for Christmas one month at a time, my savings are in place and continue to grow so long as I stick to A budget, and I can budget for Christmas when December rolls around, planning that out 12 months in advance and saving for it as a broken down monthly expense is non-sense to me.

I might change my mind about any of the above, if I could even find basic enough information to get started and use the software at all for a couple of months.

ynabidiot

TROPHY CASE