Budget Nerds

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]

Ben and Ernie are back again to fix a very messy budget, and this time they are doing it live! This is a replay from their YouTube livestream on Mar 26th, 2025. There is a strong visual component to this episode, so we recommend you watch the replay on YouTube (link below), but we are posting the audio on the podcast feed as well.   Messy Budget Livestream Replay: https://www.youtube.com/live/tjK_lxpdVm0?si=EGTA5iMo6oyJ3jrL [https://www.youtube.com/live/tjK_lxpdVm0?si=EGTA5iMo6oyJ3jrL]     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]

Together they sail or sink! Today, March 26th at 3:00pm Eastern, Ben and Ernie will be livestreaming on YouTube and will attempt to fix a messy YNAB budget. This episode will have a heavy visual component, so you will want to watch it on YouTube at the link below.   If you miss it, you can still watch the replay on YouTube, and the audio will be posted to the podcast feed in a couple days. In the meantime, happy YNAB'ing!   http://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial [http://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial]