I actually don’t use the goals feature of YNAB so I’m not sure I can give you a great answer! But YNAB has a great customer service team and I’m sure they can help you if you reach out!

I’m curious if you use Ramsey’s budgeting group topics (housing, medical, food, transportation) so you can see your percentages or YNAB’s topics (immediate/monthly expense, etc.)? I’ve been using Ramsey’s topics for the past few years in YNAB, but now with the YNAB chrome extension and implementing goals for each line item with automatically funding underfunded items with a simple right-side button, it seems more efficient to have priorities at the top of the list, rather than searching for the priorities in each of the Ramsey group topics. Does that make sense?

It took me a while to adjust to the system, but I was actually ahead of the game as my spreadsheet system before this always budgeted based on what I had. My budget always matched my bank accounts. 🙂

Trea,

I’ll always be a spreadsheet nerd at heart. But (and I never thought I’d say this) I will never be going back to my budget spreadsheet. YNAB has saved me so much time in the long run. There were some learning curves, and there were a few times I just wanted to throw out the app and go back to my spreadsheet, but now I love YNAB just as much.

YNAB works on a monthly budgeting system – but we get paid twice a month as well and I make it work by allocating 1 paycheck to half of my monthly expenses and the other paycheck to the other half of the expenses. We’ve had no issues with getting our accounts connected.

My wife and I can totally relate to your budgeting journey! Thanks for posting the review of YNAB.

Is YNAB limited to a monthly budget? I’m wondering if once-per-year expenses like a property tax payment can be scheduled in full for the month it occurs in, or do you have to save for it every month?

I guess what I’m really looking for is a cash flow app. I’d like to lay out my whole year and see when the cash actually leaves my account. Is this something YNAB can do, or do you know of anything like that?

Thanks!

That’s great, Rhonda! I hope you like YNAB. I never thought I’d leave my spreadsheets behind but here I am using YNAB and I don’t think I’ll ever turn back.