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Jesse Mecham

YNAB Founder

Jesse Mecham is a personal finance expert, speaker, business leader, and the Founder of You Need A Budget (or YNAB if you are very busy and important). Jesse hosts the YNAB podcast, and is the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of book You Need A Budget. (He’s nothing if not consistent!) A self-proclaimed “recovering CPA,” he is deeply passionate about teaching individuals, families, and business owners YNAB’s Four Rules so they can gain total control of their money. 

Jesse first developed the YNAB method as a broke, newly married college student who really needed a budget. In an attempt to make an additional $300/month to cover rent, he sold his budgeting spreadsheet online and YNAB was born. Since 2004, the software has grown into a leading personal finance platform and has helped hundreds of thousands of people break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, get out of debt, and save more money. Now, YNAB has a growing team living and working all around the world, and has built a thriving remote culture that earned recognition as Fortune’s #1 best small company to work for (YNAB was doing remote work before it was cool!). When not teaching people how to budget, Jesse loves gardening, woodworking, marksmanship, and travel. He also spends a good bit of time with his wife and the seven small people that live in their house.

All articles by

Jesse

How To Improve Your Credit Score

There is no shortage of content on the Internet about how to game your credit score. This is not one of those articles.

YNAB Starting Over: 3 Ways to Restart Your Budget

Slip-ups happen, but they're totally fixable. We even built a software feature to help you start over. Skip the guilt and let's go!

Want to Spend Less Time Budgeting?

How can a mobile app actually change the way that you manage your budget—for the better? The answer is sweeter than you think ...

The New Mobile App Is out in the Wild!

YNAB has released our newest, full-featured, addition to the family. Find out which of the many features Jesse loves most.

Manage Payees

Now you can select all of those Amazon derivatives and combine them into one pretty little payee name (we suggest “Amazon”) ...

Escaping the Slippery Slope of Debt

Buried under a pile of credit card debt? This Whiteboard Wednesday is for you. Learn how to escape the slippery slope of debt.

Maximize Your Wealth In 4 Hours Per Year

Want to invest like a pro? Diversify across the entire market, invest regularly, and then don’t worry about it. Check out some resources.

The Investing Series: Investment Vehicles

Today, we turn our attention to investment vehicles (the way a collection of assets is packaged) and how they’re affected by taxes.

The Investing Series: Bonds

An introduction to bonds: What are they? Why are they considered less risky than stocks? And other things a savvy investor ought to know…

Don’t Put Your Eggs In One Basket

The Investing Series Continues. This week, we’re looking at stocks. They go up. They go down. And sometimes? They stay the same.

Be a Control Freak

Everyone has different financial priorities and budgets but, if a priority is investing, you have absolute control over when you start.

How To Win At Investing

Today's topic may be exactly what you've been waiting for: How to win at investing. The Secret? Focus on what you can control.