#129 - YNAB for Singles: Lauren's Categories
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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. Really excited for this one. We're interviewing another YNABber. And Ben, I think, in fact, I'm certain this is the nerdiest interview YNAB-er that we have ever interviewed.
I think so. I mean, like, she's got all the credentials. She has binged all the episodes, right? She sent a YNAB win. She sent a suggestion for an episode. And then we were like, oh, you have to be on the show because you're the perfect person to do this suggestion. And so now she's on the show. So I think she wins.
And her win was also aired. It was in episode 92.
Long time ago.
So on top of all that, this YNAB-er does everything manually, has never linked an account. Wow. And you're going to love this, Ben. She reconciles pretty much every single day. is my person I love it so ladies and gentlemen I am excited to introduce to you Lauren Lauren welcome to the show yay Lauren thanks for having me guys okay I have to confirm now you said you've never linked any accounts like you you've never established a connection not even out of curiosity no I love it wow that is that that's impressive
It's hardcore. It's hardcore. And you've been wide having a long time, right?
Yeah, like seven years, I think now.
So you've entered every single thing. Have you ever done a file import little thing? So you just typed in every transaction.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you do it every day, you know, it's not that big of a task, but...
Yeah, I could do it. I could do it. I think maybe I should do an experiment sometime. And I think Jesse did that. He's like turned off all the importing. And I feel like I could do it because I feel like I do. I almost do that every time because I reconcile every day and I enter all the pending transactions if they're not already entered. So I... I'm pretty close. When I do import, there's a lot of little chain link icons. Sometimes there's one that I miss, but I get pretty much all of them.
Sounds like you're just making more work for yourself.
Yeah, I might actually. Maybe I should just do what you do, Lauren, and just turn it off because it's an extra step at this point. I don't know.
Yeah. Well, Lauren, why don't you start by telling us your YNAB story? You started in 2019. What brought you to YNAB?
So probably what a lot of people get started with budgerigar is that you hit rock bottom. So at the end of 2018, I was like two years into my first job out of grad school. I was living in a new state on my own. I got a dog because what else do you do when you move to a new state by yourself?
Yeah.
So I think in my head, too, like I had a job, which meant I had money, which means I didn't need to worry about money because I had a job. However, then I kind of started living above my means and I didn't do a budget at all. And I got to a point where I was paycheck to paycheck. My credit cards were all maxed out. I had student loans. I had a car loan. And I was basically just making the minimum payments on my credit cards every month just so I could have enough buffer space to then buy groceries until I got paid again. And so it got to the point where I was like, I can't sustain this. This can't go on. And I had the very shameful experience. blubbering phone call to my mom asking for help at you know the ripe age of like 26 being like help me like i i'm poor right to quote bridesmaids um but so i ended up um she ended up giving me some money which you know obviously not everyone's in that boat so i was very blessed and thankful that she was able to help me kind of kickstart my journey and that was when i was like i was just so embarrassed that i was like i'm this grown woman with a job and a life and an apartment and a dog and i can't
pay for groceries.
Well, good for you for asking for help when you needed it, because a lot of people can't do that. So that's good. Yeah.
So that kind of jump-started me. So the first six months, I would say, of 2019, I was trying to find my way in personal finance.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–4:44
2
Why does Lauren manually enter every transaction instead of linking bank accounts?
4:44–9:23
3
How did Lauren discover YNAB and start paying off $100K+ of debt?
9:23–46:22
4
What unique financial challenges do single people face compared to couples?
46:22–47:31
5
How does being single affect housing, taxes, and long‑term savings?
47:31–1:31:24
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Budget Nerds
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