It’s been exactly 3 years since I became serious about my finances and as a result starting using the budget tool YNAB. In that time I’ve saved $129,653.89 on my own. That doesn’t include any stock market appreciation. That’s crazy. I saved an average of $43,217.96 a year despite being funemployed for a total of 6 months, paying big money to moving across the country and having 3 different jobs at 3 different companies. I also got a friend interested in the company and he ended up working there :). As a result I have some awesome YNAB swag and stories that make me fangirl.
I am incredibly grateful that my partner introduced me to this software. Unlike the website Mint that I had been using it helps me feel free and understand that I can have anything I want, but not everything. Everything is a trade off. This helps me make decisions about how much to spend on the things that bring me great joy like travel, time with friends and family and food :). I feel like I live a lavish lifestyle because I’m spending as much as I want on the things that really make me happy and cutting the things that don’t.
Another thing I love about YNAB is the data. It has made it incredibly easy to see the trends of my spending and identify what I should decrease to hit my new spending goals. Now that I have 3 years of data points seeing trends is really simple. I’m sure I could create my own spreadsheet to replace YNAB, but currently it’s just too easy not to use. It was a one-time purchase of $30 (split with my partner) and at the end of last year they switched to a $5/month subscription model. Even though I would split this with my partner it’s a recurring expense we don’t need so we’re going to keep using the old model (YNAB 4) until it stops working. Thank you YNAB!