The YNAB Podcast

By Jesse Mecham

Education Kids & Family

What's The YNAB Podcast about?

A weekly dose of just the right medicine to help you get out of debt, save more money, and beat the paycheck to paycheck cycle.

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LAST EPISODE

Giving the Old Bird to Money

11.27.2023

Jesse has been focusing on the joy of spending money lately, and one way to achieve joy is to simply give it away. In a sense, giving away money is the ultimate way to give money the bird, so to ...

The YNAB Podcast episodes:

11.27.2023 Giving the Old Bird to Money Jesse has been focusing on the joy of spending money lately, and one way to achieve joy is to simply give it away. In a sense, giving away money is the ultimate way to give money the bird, so to ...
11.20.2023 It Has Nothing, and Everything, to Do with Spending "You need to spend less money." "Money's not everything." But what if you don't need to spend less money. And what if money is everything? In today's episode Jesse offers up the idea that money is you -- the sum ...
11.13.2023 You Didn't Quit. To Every Season... Once again, the holidays are nearly upon us. If your spending plan hasn't gone to, well, plan then that is OK. Seasons are everywhere in life. We see them every year and we see them over periods of many years. ...
11.06.2023 Building Habits: Four of Them, Actually At YNAB they're called the Four Rules, but as Jesse argues, maybe they are best described as habits! The four habits of budgeting... Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] Sign up for a free 34-day trial ...
11.03.2023 BONUS: Goodbye Mint, Hello YNAB Breaking news! On November 2, 2023 Intuit announced that it would be shutting down Mint, a popular personal finance app it acquired back in 2009. In January 2024, millions of users will be left looking for a replacement budgeting app. ...
10.30.2023 Joy Is a Three Jesse invites you to play a game. Look at your last ten transactions and rate them 1 to 3: 1 = negative joy (sucked joy out of your life) 2 = neutral 3 = sparks joy There's one catch! You ...
10.23.2023 It's You All the Way Down A dollar represents you. It is the product of your energies. Your labor and your brainpower creates products and services that you exchange for money, whether you work a job or run a business. Therefore, a spending plan is really ...
10.16.2023 Ask Jesse: Airlines are Banks, Better Money Habits, and Fast Talking In today's episode, Jesse answers questions from YNAB'ers including how to build the habit of checking YNAB before spending and how to slow down Jesse's speech patterns for UK listeners (there's an app for that!). A listener also sends in ...
10.09.2023 Ask Jesse: Credit Card Rebels, Banks, and Emergency Funds Jesse answers your questions on today's show, including how big an emergency fund does a teacher need? A YNAB'er shares a recent talk from the chairman of the Electronic Payments Coalition which reveals the (surprise!) unscrupulous motivations of credit card ...
10.02.2023 Guilty on All Counts Spending money doesn't have to make you feel guilty! Jesse offers a pep talk to end the guilt trip, one budget at a time. Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] Sign up for a free 34-day ...
09.25.2023 Shift Your Spending Into High Gear If you think about it, there's only one thing that money can do -- be spent! The use of money is, ultimately, the spending of money. Even if you give money away, it's given to others so that they may ...
09.18.2023 Ask Jesse: ...And Done! Pfew! Done, finally! Jesse clears up the backlog in his Ask Jesse mailbox, answering listener questions about the nature of credit card spending in YNAB, whether YNAB'ers should still have emergency funds, and what to do when saving up for ...
09.11.2023 Ask Jesse: We're Getting There People! Jesse continues to work through his backlog of Ask Jesse questions, including his thoughts on credit karma, the magic of 1% retirement contributions, and whether he would save cash in case of recession or pay down debt. Four Thousand Weeks ...
09.04.2023 Ask Jesse: Still Catching Up Jesse is catching up on his inbox after a summer break, and answering your questions! Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com Follow YNAB on social ...
08.28.2023 Ask Jesse: Catching Up Since Jesse has been away, the emails have been piling up! Jesse works through his backlog of Ask Jesse questions today, including a woman who has a newfound distaste for credit cards... and wrote to Jesse to tell about it! ...
08.21.2023 An Experiment Made Permanent Jesse is back from his summer break and ready to answer your questions and talk money! Long-time listeners of the podcast know that each year Jesse experiments with something in his financial life, whether its reconciliation intervals or category structures. ...
08.14.2023 When Expenses Rise: Ben Rolls With the Punches What do you do when the biggest line item in your budget increases, like, a lot? You engage your Rule Two super powers and roll with the punches of course. Emotionally, however, it's not easy when you have to reallocate ...
08.07.2023 Money Stress Ernie is running solo today, and sharing some recent developments in his financial life that have made him rethink his budget entirely. YNAB'ers are creatures of habit, and many of us enjoy the budgets we have created and honed over ...
07.31.2023 Rules Changes: A Quick Trip Through YNAB History Did you know that YNAB's Four Rules weren't always four? And contrary to popular belief, they did not spring forth from Jesse's head fully formed! No, the Four Rules developed over years as Jesse refined and clarified the YNAB method ...
07.24.2023 How to Talk to Your Partner About Budgeting Ben and Ernie share their personal experiences talking to their partners about budgeting and YNAB. Every family is different, and every partnership will handle communicating about money and budgeting differently, but the important thing is that you do it! Frequent, ...
07.17.2023 Managing Vacation Transactions It's peak vacation season, so Ben and Ernie are comparing notes on handling the vacation budget in the moment. One the one hand, you want vacation to be vacation -- a time to unplug, be in the present moment, engaged ...
07.10.2023 How Often Should You Reconcile? Reconcile your budget, that is! Ben and Ernie discuss their budget reconciliation habits, and make a case for why you should reconcile every day, especially if you are new to YNAB. Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: ...
07.03.2023 Leaving Margin for Life Ben and Ernie share a tip for making the budget feels a little less constricting -- leave a little margin in your categories! This is not an emergency fund, Ben says, but a way to give yourself some flexibility and ...
06.26.2023 One Easy Trick to Boost Your Retirement Savings We all know we need to save for retirement, but it can feel a long ways away. Savings can always wait while you deal with something more urgent, it seems, until all of a sudden retirement starts staring you in ...
06.19.2023 This Question Doesn't Have to Be Scary: Can I Afford This? Ben and Ernie ask a question that strikes fear into those who don't budget (and sometimes to those who do): can I afford this? At least for YNAB'ers, this question isn't about whether you have the dollars and cents in ...
06.12.2023 A Different Take on Credit Cards Ben and Ernie tackle the big credit card question (should you use them?) that Jesse has been wrestling with this year, with a slightly different take. Ben, of course, does not use credit cards as he shared with Jesse in ...
06.05.2023 Paying Off Debt the Sustainable Way Jesse is taking a break for the summer, so Ben and Ernie (from the Budget Nerds podcast) are stepping in to guest host. Today, they talk about paying off debt... sustainably! So many personal finance resources urge people to pay ...
05.29.2023 Rule Four Reviewed Beef is pretty good aged, but you know what's even better? Aging your money! That's Rule Four -- aging your money. Basically, increase the amount of time between when you earn the money and when you spend it. By following ...
05.22.2023 Rule Three Reviewed Be like the reed... blowing in the wind. It's not a haiku, Jesse is talking about Rule Three -- rolling with the punches. Life happens, and unexpected things are going to pop up that could break the budget. When you ...
05.15.2023 Rule Two Reviewed It's back to basics time! Rule Two in the YNAB method is "embrace your future expenses." In short, think about the things you will have to buy or pay for in the future, and act on them NOW. Car going ...
05.08.2023 Rule One Reviewed Jesse is going back to basics and reviewing the Four Rules, which are the foundation of YNAB. The first rule: give every dollar a job. What does that mean exactly? YNAB wants you to live and spend according to your ...
05.01.2023 A Mother's Method for Living Well (Contest Announcement!) At a recent YNAB all-hands meeting, Sarah gave a personal presentation about her "Mama's Method," rules her mother gave her for living well. Sarah told them in YNAB Four Rules style: Give every moment a job Embrace yourself and others ...
04.24.2023 What's In Your Financial Shovel of Dirt? Jesse shares a story about growing sweet potatoes and shoveling dirt... lots and lots of dirt. There's a metaphor here about budgeting too. It's work, and sometimes takes a long time to pay off. But steady, sustainable work day after ...
04.17.2023 Giving Future You A Bit More Negotiation Ammo Jesse shares a trick for improving your Rule Two planning (Embrace Your True Expenses), and better prepare for the next unexpected expense. Jesse suggests pulling your last six months of bank statements, and quickly scanning them for large expenditures. Look ...
04.10.2023 Paid In Full, But Always in Debt Jesse continues his rant about exploration of credit card use, observing that "paid in full" users are, technically, always in debt. Paid in full users are people who have the cash at any moment to pay off their credit card ...
04.03.2023 Jesse Chats with a Guy Who Has Never Used a Credit Card Jesse talks with a man who has never used a credit card -- YNAB's own Ben Barlowe, who you may also recognize from the Budget Nerds podcast. Ben is 34 years old, has four children, a house (purchase with a ...
03.27.2023 Ask Jesse: Talk Slower, Pay Down Debt Faster It's time for another round of Ask Jesse! Jesse fields questions from podcast listeners about how to manage multiple bank accounts, negative budgeting, and whether he can slow down his speech pattern (sorry Leslie!) Find a YNAB Certified Coach: https://www.ynab.com/coaching-directory/ ...
03.20.2023 Rule One and the Pursuit of Nothing Jesse challenges the idea of constantly pursuing something financially. For many of us in the modern world, our default is to always be chasing something -- more things, more experiences, more retirement funds, more debt paid down. Some of these ...
03.13.2023 Expensive Is a Lazy Word When people say "that's too expensive," what do they mean really? That they can't afford it, that it costs too much for a certain group of people, that it costs too much on principle? Jesse relates Rule One to the ...
03.06.2023 Ask Jesse: Travel Hacking, Credit Cards, and YNAB'er Experiences In this installment of Ask Jesse, Jesse answers questions from podcast listeners about travel hacking and credit card and debit card fraud protection. He also reads an experience from one YNAB'er who switched from using credit cards to debit cards. ...
02.27.2023 Rule One and DIY FTW Jesse analyzes a recent situation in which he was planning to build something in his wood shop, when a friend remarked that he could buy the same thing a lot cheaper. While we talk about money all the time in ...
02.20.2023 Debit vs Credit Card Smackdown (and a Rant) In response to episode #603 "You Spend More Money with Credit Cards," many listeners wrote Jesse to pick a bone with his claim that the debit card was a superior way to pay for things. The arguments usually boil down ...
02.13.2023 Ask Jesse: Save for Cars or Pay Down Mortgage, Debt Consolidation, and How Do You Know When to Spend? Jesse answers questions from the YNAB mailbag, including whether a couple should save for new cars to replace aging vehicles, or pay down the mortgage faster, whether debt consolidation is a good idea, and how exactly do you know when ...
02.06.2023 One Thing That Tells You You're Doing Money Right Jesse shares one key indicator that you are budgeting and doing your money right. Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
01.30.2023 A Major Downside to Not Having Money Stress Not having money stress is a GREAT feeling to have. But a YNAB employee, Katie, pointed out a downside to it -- people assume you make more money than you really do. Because who else would have no money stress ...
01.23.2023 Ask Jesse: Doubling Income, Real Estate, Debit Card Fraud Prevention Jesse fields more listener questions today, including what you should do when you double your income (teaser: there's really not a wrong answer as long as it's saving!), how to budget for real estate investments, and whether debit cards have ...
01.16.2023 Ask Jesse: More on Credit Cards, Tracking 401k in YNAB, and Paying Off Student Loans Jesse answers listener questions about tracking 401k deposits in YNAB and how to strategize paying off student loans. Jesse shares his evolving thoughts about credit cards, and why the Mecham household will only use a single debit card for expenses ...
01.09.2023 Now Burn It All Down Again Last week Jesse urged YNAB'ers not to make any sudden or drastic moves to their budget. But you know it's the beginning of the year, and that can only mean one thing! It's time for a budget burndown. Every year ...
01.02.2023 Don't Make Big Changes, People! Happy New Year! We hope 2023 is a fruitful and productive year, financially and otherwise, for everyone. It's that time of year again, the time for resolutions, big goals, and new plans. Jesse urges you to pump the brakes, however, ...
12.26.2022 A Strategy for the Holidays in 2023 We hope you had a Merry Christmas and very happy holiday! If you didn't use YNAB to plan for this year's Christmas bill, that's OK, you can start now for next year! In January start saving for Christmas 2023 by ...

Older episodes

The YNAB Podcast

What's The YNAB Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The YNAB Podcast episodes:

Giving the Old Bird to Money

It Has Nothing, and Everything, to Do with Spending

You Didn't Quit. To Every Season...

Building Habits: Four of Them, Actually

BONUS: Goodbye Mint, Hello YNAB

Joy Is a Three

It's You All the Way Down

Ask Jesse: Airlines are Banks, Better Money Habits, and Fast Talking

Ask Jesse: Credit Card Rebels, Banks, and Emergency Funds

Guilty on All Counts

Shift Your Spending Into High Gear

Ask Jesse: ...And Done!

Ask Jesse: We're Getting There People!

Ask Jesse: Still Catching Up

Ask Jesse: Catching Up

An Experiment Made Permanent

When Expenses Rise: Ben Rolls With the Punches

Money Stress

Rules Changes: A Quick Trip Through YNAB History

How to Talk to Your Partner About Budgeting

Managing Vacation Transactions

How Often Should You Reconcile?

Leaving Margin for Life

One Easy Trick to Boost Your Retirement Savings

This Question Doesn't Have to Be Scary: Can I Afford This?

A Different Take on Credit Cards

Paying Off Debt the Sustainable Way

Rule Four Reviewed

Rule Three Reviewed

Rule Two Reviewed

Rule One Reviewed

A Mother's Method for Living Well (Contest Announcement!)

What's In Your Financial Shovel of Dirt?

Giving Future You A Bit More Negotiation Ammo

Paid In Full, But Always in Debt

Jesse Chats with a Guy Who Has Never Used a Credit Card

Ask Jesse: Talk Slower, Pay Down Debt Faster

Rule One and the Pursuit of Nothing

Expensive Is a Lazy Word

Ask Jesse: Travel Hacking, Credit Cards, and YNAB'er Experiences

Rule One and DIY FTW

Debit vs Credit Card Smackdown (and a Rant)

Ask Jesse: Save for Cars or Pay Down Mortgage, Debt Consolidation, and How Do You Know When to Spend?

One Thing That Tells You You're Doing Money Right

A Major Downside to Not Having Money Stress

Ask Jesse: Doubling Income, Real Estate, Debit Card Fraud Prevention

Ask Jesse: More on Credit Cards, Tracking 401k in YNAB, and Paying Off Student Loans

Now Burn It All Down Again

Don't Make Big Changes, People!

A Strategy for the Holidays in 2023

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