#119 - Lauren's YNAB Categories (PLUS How She Breaks the Multi-Currency Rules)
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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. Well, today, folks, we have a very special guest. Lauren is here, and she's here to talk about categories. We haven't done a categories episode, a good old-fashioned go through your categories, talk about your routines. We haven't done in, gosh, like over six months. Not this year. So it's been a little while, and I know you guys love it. So we're here to do it again.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the first one of the year, and I'm so excited for it. It's going to be so good. So a little bit more about Lauren. Lauren is a support specialist here at YNAB and she brings a unique perspective to YNABing with multiple currencies. So we're going to walk through Lauren's categories, get all the stories and the details behind those. And then we're going to go through her unusual, maybe unorthodox YNAB routine. So welcome to Budget Nerds, Lauren. It's great to have you here.
Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.
Who is Lauren and why are her YNAB categories unique?
I didn't even mention you're in South Korea. So it's like, what, one in the morning there right now? It's like noon our time. So thanks for staying up. I think it's pretty common for you, right?
It is. This is normal meeting time for me. I'm excited to hear that I'm like the first category walkthrough of your year. That's really cool.
Yeah, it's been a while. I know. And yours is really special because you're an expat. So you're from America, but you live in South Korea. You lived there a long time, right?
Yeah, it's going on eight years now.
Okay, okay. And you also, your partner, where's your partner from again?
South Africa.
Okay, so you got like a whole, like multinational thing going on here.
It's pretty cool. Yep, we came from like opposite sides of the globe, wound up in South Korea.
Came together. It's a beautiful story. I love it. Yeah, what brought you to South Korea?
So I am South Korean so part of it was that I wanted to connect to my heritage I wanted to learn more of the language I had taken a little bit in College and like learned to know bits and pieces growing up. My mom was not fluent. So it was all through my grandparents and So there was that piece, but then I'd also studied education in college, and I wanted to kind of put my foot back in that door. I had taken a few years to work in a nonprofit organization and wanted to see, like, do I want to teach? Is this really what I want to do, have my own classroom, all of that? So I figured a good way of kind of gently getting into that was teaching English in Korea. And it's a great place to teach English,
pretty nice benefits. You know, they usually provide your housing and I'm not, I didn't have to do like the testing and the high stress kind of stuff. I just got to teach classes and yeah, I did that for a few years and then decided it was time for a change. And that's when one of the support specialist positions opened up at YNAB.
Nice. All right. And you just liked being in Korea and stuck around there, huh?
Yep. Yep. Well, so I met my partner here, and we had already kind of put down roots, made some good friends in the area, and then COVID happened. And it just didn't make sense to either of us to move, like, moving to my family or moving to his family. It didn't... We were in a good spot. Our jobs were secure, and... We were actually in a pretty rural area of Korea. Now we live in Seoul, so that might have been a different picture if this had been where we were during the pandemic. But at that point, we were in a pretty rural city, and it honestly didn't feel like a big deal. It was scarier hearing the news coming from home, both of us trying to keep in touch with family. But here, we were kind of sitting pretty.
It was like, yeah, it feels kind of safe right here out in the country and Korea. And yeah, I love that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And you, I just want to point out, I think it's really funny where you're like, I thought, you know, it'd be fun to try out teaching. So I, and just like have a soft launch into teaching. So I moved to a foreign country, but I guess it really is because you know, you, it's, it's a really, it sounds like it's a really friendly environment for you when you came.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–1:21
2
Who is Lauren and why are her YNAB categories unique?
1:21–18:56
3
How did Lauren start using YNAB and what financial challenges shaped her habits?
18:56–36:38
4
Which category groups does Lauren use for monthly and everyday expenses?
36:38–50:19
5
How does Lauren budget for semi-annual costs, subscriptions and document renewals?
50:19–1:14:52
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Budget Nerds
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