Budget Nerds

Get your popcorn ready, because on today's episode Ben and Ernie are lacing up the gloves and going for 12 rounds! Twelve rounds of YNAB debate, of course. They have selected 12 YNAB hot topics and spend three minutes debating each one. Topics include: * Using emoji's in category titles * Using a cash account vs a cash category to track physical dollar bills * Prioritizing an emergency fund or getting a month ahead * And more!     Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube Budget Nerds Livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams [https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams] Budget Nerds Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g]   Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie! budgetnerds@ynab.com [budgetnerds@ynab.com]   Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW: YNAB.com/events [https://ynab.com/events]

In today's episode Ben and Ernie talk with the man himself, Todd Curtis, long-time YNAB team member and CEO since 2021. Todd has been a YNAB'er going all the way back to the YNAB3 days, and served as a beta tester for an early Mac version of the software before officially joining the company in 2010. In his tenure at YNAB Todd has touched on just about every aspect of the business, from customer service to product development, and now leads the company and helps shape and focus the core values of spendfulness that YNAB stands for.   In this episode, Todd discusses his history with YNAB and how a fateful email to Jesse led to him getting a job. He talks about the evolution in philosophy from budgeting to planning, the five questions, and how some recently released features on the YNAB app aim to guide new users to plan their money without having to reference supporting materials. Todd also discusses the future vision of the company, and how he sees the app and the method evolving to better support YNAB's core mission to teach people to live more spendfully.   Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube Budget Nerds Livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams [https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams] Budget Nerds Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g]   Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie! budgetnerds@ynab.com [budgetnerds@ynab.com]   Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW: YNAB.com/events [https://ynab.com/events]

Today Ben and Ernie are joined by long-time YNAB'er Heidi to discuss her challenges of managing money with ADHD, and how she has used the YNAB method to reclaim control over her money. As Heidi explains, ADHD is characterized by impulsiveness and inattentiveness, both of which took a heavy toll on her finances, especially during phases of her career where her income was variable. Heidi was an early adopter of YNAB -- starting with YNAB3! -- and quickly fell in love with the software and the concreteness of the YNAB method.   Heidi explains how the other approaches to personal finance she had discovered were focused on philosophy and abstraction, whereas YNAB was concrete from the start. The software is opinionated, and wants you to follow the "rules," which today have been boiled down to just one rule: give every dollar a job. The act of entering transactions, assigning money to categories, and moving money from category to category proved therapeutic for Heidi, and her daily habit of checking YNAB made her more in tune with her money and her long term plans for the money. Over time she noticed that her inattentiveness to money, which once lead to frequent overdrafts and bank fees, improved dramatically. She was also able to create a reserves category for the "ADHD tax," as she calls it, essentially giving herself a safety net in her budget to be impulsive with money without disrupting her future plans.   After many years with YNAB and a lifetime living with ADHD, Heidi has accumulated a lot of wisdom about managing money and learning to live spendfully. As she puts it, YNAB has allowed her to be a more interesting, dynamic person, by giving her the freedom to do the things she wants without being hamstrung by money problems.   Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube Budget Nerds Livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams [https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams] Budget Nerds Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g]   Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie! budgetnerds@ynab.com [budgetnerds@ynab.com]   Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW: YNAB.com/events [https://ynab.com/events]

Many of us approach YNAB from a position of scarcity, at least at first. We don't have enough money to do all the things we want to do, and we're living paycheck to paycheck. Giving every dollar a job and working through the 5 Questions helps us gain clarity about what our money needs to do for us, and finally get our financial life on track. But what if you have a surplus of money fall into your lap unexpectedly?   Windfalls are wonderful, sometimes life changing, but they can be stressful too. Especially if you haven't done the work of getting clear about your priorities and giving your dollars a job, suddenly receiving a large sum can be overwhelming and intoxicating. Ben likens windfalls to a poker concept called "winner's tilt." Players who are winning and watching the action through a tall stack of chips often end up playing more loosely and taking more risks. In theory, they should be playing with the same strategy as what won in the first place, but overconfidence and the security of playing with a large bankroll leads to riskier play.   Luckily the YNAB method works for windfalls too! When you know your priorities, and you have a plan for your money, it's much easier to handle a windfall without frittering it away or stressing about doing something special with it. In today's episode, Ben and Ernie discuss windfalls they have received in their life and lessons they have learned from the experience.     Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube Budget Nerds Livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams [https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams] Budget Nerds Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g]   Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie! budgetnerds@ynab.com [budgetnerds@ynab.com]   Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW: YNAB.com/events [https://ynab.com/events]

It has been a while since Ben and Ernie have done an old fashioned debt payoff episode, but it's still one of the hottest topics when it comes to personal finance. And in their veiw, at least, paying off debt is where most of the personal finance world gets it wrong. YNAB has a unique method for paying off debt with an emphasis on sustainability and maintaining motivation. The key is to learn how to plan for future large and less frequent expenses so that you don't continue to get into more debt.   Another key is to remember that we are humans, not numbers. So while the personal finance sphere may dive into the deep end of working out the math on interest rates and pay down schedules, at the end of the day it doesn't matter if you can't sustain your pay off plan. To that end, Ben and Ernie offer YNAB's four step process for paying off your debt without going crazy and without living like a monk. There's even room for fun money!     Follow Budget Nerds on YouTube Budget Nerds Livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams [https://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial/streams] Budget Nerds Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIUGmbCDklkDCDm-cQqv2g]   Share your YNAB wins with Ben and Ernie! budgetnerds@ynab.com [budgetnerds@ynab.com]   Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW: YNAB.com/events [https://ynab.com/events]