#134 - Ben's Category Breakdown (2026 Edition)
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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 through Ben's categories.
Yeah, my turn. My turn. Let's go.
Your turn. About four weeks ago, I went through my categories, and then we took a break. We did the emergency fund, the phases of emergency fund category or episode. And now we're going to give Ben a shot to walk through all of his categories. Because it's been a while since we've gone through our categories. But the other thing that I'm thinking here, besides seeing an updated plan from Ben... During my episode, I had a feeling, a sense that you were getting some ideas. You kind of liked the way I was doing some things.
Yes, that's true.
And you're like, oh, I should do that with my plan. So I'm super curious. Did you make any changes? Because you always talk about this kind of stuff. No, of course I didn't make any changes.
Oh, okay, okay. But I'm still thinking about it. I think the biggest one... Yeah, I think the biggest one was possibly separating out all my yearly subscriptions because I have them all in one category right now. And it does cause confusion sometimes. So that was what I was thinking about doing. And I still like the idea. I just haven't done it yet. But I really should try. You know what I should do after this? I should just do an experiment, create a little group with all those, see how it feels. And then I'll just, I think, I think it's sometimes what I have to do. I have to be like, I'm just going to try this out. And then I end up like keeping it, you know?
Or maybe that's just your thing. You say you're going to change something in your plan, but you never do.
It's definitely my thing. Yeah. You might find my categories are pretty similar to the last time. Although I don't know. I, I, you know, things change slowly. So, uh, they might be different. I don't remember. So we'll see. All right. I think it's gonna be fun. Okay. well take it away yeah well we're just gonna go top to bottom so total number of categories what did i say it was higher than i expected yeah 93 categories okay and you're gonna see some of these are like not like they're kind of duplicates because of well you know they're it's not like 93 categories i use like regularly but a lot of them yeah definitely i do so that was high i feel like last time it was like in the 70s like i feel like it was lower last time
I can't even remember. But when you sent that number over, I thought it was high as well.
Yeah. Oh, wow, 90. Okay. It was definitely higher than I thought. So that was interesting. And yeah, several groups. So we'll start at the very top with my holding categories. So this will get into some process stuff. Mostly what this is, is money that I put into a category that hasn't been assigned yet. And it's just waiting for a meeting with Caitlin, with my wife. uh to talk about where we want to put that money so really that's what this is right you don't want to leave that money and ready to assign yeah so you put it in one of these holding categories you make decisions about it later on exactly yeah and i mean they're they're all kind of the same but they also have a little bit of separation because if depending on where the money came from we might might we might change how we assign it actually is a very useful thing so i got budget meeting items
That's what I call it.
Did Ben actually change his category plan after Ernie's episode #132?
This has been consistent for every category episode we've done.
Like, you've had this pretty much, it feels like, since the beginning of your YNAB time. Long time. Didn't even give it a second thought at this moment to not use the B word here. But I have, right? It's still there. I'm not going to change the name of that category. That's funny. I can't do that. So, yeah. This is just a place for any extra money. And it's usually, like... Just like refunds or money from grandma, just anything that goes in there. I also use this as kind of a catch-all procedural. Sometimes I'll assign transactions to this when I know there's going to be a refund or something.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–3:37
2
Did Ben actually change his category plan after Ernie's episode #132?
3:37–7:36
3
How many categories does Ben have and how are they grouped?
7:36–9:57
4
What are Ben's holding categories and how does he use them in budget meetings?
9:57–35:13
5
Which frequent-spend categories does Ben fund monthly (babysitting, groceries, kid dates)?
35:13–1:07:56
6
How does Ben structure personal spending and remote-work funds for him and Caitlin?
1:07:56–1:22:13
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Budget Nerds
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