#107 - You Can Start YNAB Whenever You Want
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I'm Ben. And I'm Ernie. And you're listening to Budget Nerds.
You are not alone.
No, you are not. Friends, welcome back to another episode. Today, we're talking about starting YNAB at any time. It does not matter when you start. It can be the middle of the month. It can be the second of the month. It just doesn't matter.
Yeah, there's definitely a vibe where people are like, Oh, yeah, I'd like to start YNAB, but it's got to be on the first. It's got to be right there on the first of the month. And then I feel like people miss it. And then they're like, oh, I got to wait till the next first of the month. And I think there's a lot of reasons that that's the perception. But yeah, we're here to break that today and give you some actual reasons why we've thought about this.
Can you start YNAB in the middle of the month or any day?
So let's get right into what those reasons are. And these aren't necessarily the only reasons that folks wait to start YNAB. But I think they're the big ones. Yeah. So we'll just kind of riff here. And folks listening and watching the show, fill in the gaps in the comments. We'd love to hear from you about this topic. So... The first reason that I thought of, and this is the one that I hear all of the time, is people want to wait because they want that clean start. They want to start on the 1st of January or the 1st of the month, or they want to wait until their next paycheck, or maybe they want to wait until their credit card statement closes. I've heard that one a couple times. And... My guess is, I get the sense that these folks are the perfectionists.
Right. It needs to be like a pretty picture, right?
Yes. They want their spending plan wrapped up in this nice, really pretty bow. They want to capture all of their spending for a particular month or maybe a particular year. And I get that because I definitely have perfectionistic tendencies.
Yeah.
But you're just missing out on so much by waiting to start until those times.
Yeah. I've even seen people... like they might actually start in the middle of the month, but then they like go back and add in past transactions. And then they have a problem because their starting balance is wrong and it like causes more, but they want to get to the first of the month or the next paycheck or whatever, you know, arbitrary date is their technical start, but not their actual start. Right. And it just causes a lot of problems. I just, just start today and go from today. Right.
Completely. And that's a question that I get all the time in workshops. People are like, hey, it's the second week here. Should I bring in my previous transactions from the beginning of the month? And I'm always like, or they'll ask them, like, is it worth it? Right. And I just say emphatically, no, like it is not worth your time because you have to categorize all those transactions. You have to adjust the starting balance date.
Yeah, while you're learning a new system and a new way of thinking about money and everything at the same time. I think a lot of people think YNAB is, and it is about this, but it's not just about this. They think YNAB is about the tracking and about having a pretty idea of your average spending and things like that. But that's not really what it's about, right? It's more about projecting the future, right?
Right. Like, I have to let this system know that I paid my mortgage on the first of the month. So I started on the fifth of the month. How do I do that? But it just, yeah, I mean, yes, there is a tracking component to YNAB, but it is not... the focus.
Yeah. And here's the deal. No matter what you do, even if you do manage to start right on the first of the month and you have this pretty picture with the spending, your first month in YNAB is always kind of weird, right? Oh, completely. Particularly if you come in with savings, if you have any savings at all, or especially if you have a lot of savings, like, wind up says hey take it all give it all a job right so you might have like say you have like 30 grand for an emergency fund and you bring it in like your first month will have like 30 grand in an emergency fund category right and that's weird like that's never gonna happen again unless you have some big windfall like a gigantic windfall where you're gonna have like a huge chunk of money or maybe it's a smaller amount maybe it's just like i don't know like like
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:00
2
Can you start YNAB in the middle of the month or any day?
1:00–6:10
3
Why do people insist on a 'clean start' before they begin budgeting?
6:10–10:42
4
How should you handle past transactions if you start YNAB mid-month?
10:42–14:52
5
What does the first weird month in YNAB look like and how can reports help?
14:52–34:15
Speakers
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