Jesse Mecham

July was insane, because the launch of YNAB 4 was insane.

Here's a roundup of June podcast episodes: A Week in the Wilderness - Prepping for a 50-mile hike is a lot like the monthly budget meeting. This topic is oozing metaphors. Success Story: Debt Free and Loving It - Bill has been using YNAB for three years, along with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover method.

As the YNAB Team, we’ve been living and breathing YNAB 4 and its evolution for the past 18 months. We’ve debated minutiae that would drive most of you insane (“This is a pixel off.")

When it comes to managing money, people are often overwhelmed at the thought of getting started. Good news: it's not as hard as you think.

Laugh if you will, but I fell for the line that once I formed YNAB into a “real company” (meaning I actually filed papers and all of that), I would need appropriate accounting software to run the show.

Dear Account Balance, I’m really, really sorry about this. I know, it being Valentine’s Day and all, my timing couldn’t be worse, but…I just can’t pretend any longer. It’s over. I know we’ve had some good times in the past.

I wanted to make this a regular occurrence on the blog, where we round up the prior month's podcast episodes, just in case you aren't a regular podcaster, but one catches your eye: Christmas, Weak Reporting, but the Best Report of All (Dec 5) 3 Tiny Habits, Big Takeaways (Dec 12) Success Story: A Quicken

Rule Four, as I’ve talked about before, is budgeting bliss, your money Mecca. It’ll let you sleep better. You’ll be able to handle variable income with ease. Your bill-paying process will be studied by Harvard Business School students as a case for efficiency and effectiveness.

My guess is that you spend 4-8 hours per month “managing” your money. I use the word “managing” with plenty of definitional slack.

Here are just a few benefits of better sleep: Lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Why wouldn't you want better sleep? But it's elusive...

I just had to share this. A YNABer reports the following, after helping their friend get started: For the first time in a very long time, he had a clear picture of where he spends his money, and more importantly, where he stands financially. The picture was not particularly happy-making, to be sure.

The proof isn’t in the intangible benefits. The proof is in the survey results. Do you want to have an $850 turnaround in six months?