You Need A Budget (YNAB)

By Jesse Mecham

Education Kids & Family

What's You Need A Budget (YNAB) 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.

4.6

751 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Paying Off Debt the Sustain...

06.05.2023

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 ...

You Need A Budget (YNAB) episodes:

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 ...
12.19.2022 Every Gift I'm Giving Julie, Forever Jesse shares some of the gifts he's given his wife, Julie, over the years, and why every year from now on the gifts will be made, not bought. Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] Sign up ...
12.12.2022 Ask Jesse: Tracking 401k in YNAB, Early Retirement Budgeting, Advisors, and More Jesse answers a grab-bag of questions from listeners, including whether it's a good idea to track 401k investments in YNAB (it's not), how to budget for early retirement, good books for learning how to to invest, and more. Got a ...
12.05.2022 You Spend More Money with Credit Cards It's a fact, you do. We know this because banks LOVE credit cards, and they're incentives for using credit cards rely on the fact that many people spend more money on credit than they would otherwise. Jesse meditates on the ...
11.28.2022 The Different Tenses of Money Jesse riffs on the idea that money has different "tenses," that is, money's purpose is to be spent, and spending can happen in the past, present, or future. Debt is past spending, savings is future spending, and so on. It's ...
11.21.2022 Rule One and Gratitude For everyone listening in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving! Jesse encourages us this week to step back and make a list of everything we are thankful for. Taking a moment to express your gratitude for the things you have and ...
11.14.2022 What's the Most Expensive Thing You've Budgeted For? YNABers Share Jesse shares results from a recent survey of YNABers asking: "what's the biggest thing you've saved for with YNAB?" Vacations, cars, houses, college... there are some big line items indeed! Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] ...
11.07.2022 Ask Jesse: What's the Most Important Metric? YNAB'er Allison asks: of all the metrics in the YNAB software, which is the most important one to track? To which Jesse answers... none of them! Jesse prefers to track net worth over time, which is not captured in YNAB ...
10.31.2022 The Last $300 Once you've started working the Four Rules, you start to realize that most of your money is kind of... spoken for. You need to pay the rent, the utlities, insurance, and so on. When you get through the list of ...
10.24.2022 When Is Your Age of Money Enough? Killian, a YNAB 4 user, asks about Rule Four and the "age of money" metric. How long should you age your money before you can relax a bit and not budget so stringently? Got a question for Jesse? Send him ...
10.17.2022 Rule Three Happens BEFORE Spending, Not After Jesse drops a reminder that Rule Three, when properly implemented, happens before you spend the money on that unexpected expense -- not after! Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email: [email protected] Sign up for a free 34-day trial ...
10.10.2022 EP 18 Money Stories: Surviving Financial Abuse with Dr. Kerry Roarke Jesse talks with domestic abuse survivor and now advocate, Dr. Kerry Roarke. Despite a successful career in pharmacy, Kerry found herself stuck in an increasingly abusive marriage, with very little say or power over how she spent or saved money. ...
10.03.2022 Ask Jesse: Is All Money Just Savings? A listener, Tom, writes into the show to express some confusion over what constitutes "savings" in a budget following the YNAB method. During a call with his bank to discuss refinancing, Tom was asked how much savings he had on ...
09.26.2022 Budgeting for 8 Weeks Abroad with Chrissy Sebald Jesse invites YNAB Senior Support Manager Chrissy Sebald to the podcast to talk about her budgeting super skill -- saving for frequent travel with her family of six! And not just travel in and around the States. Chrissy has used ...
09.19.2022 EP 17 Money Stories: Living Debt Free in Manhattan, Budgeting Wisdom from Mom, and More with Christopher J. Campbell In today's installment of Money Stories, Jesse talks with YNAB Ambassador Christopher Campbell, a 33-year old marketing director living in Portland, ME. Christopher learned the value of budgeting from an early age, when his mother taught him and his siblings ...
09.12.2022 Simple Investing with Jeremy Schneider of Personal Finance Club Jesse invites entrepreneur and avid YNAB'er Jeremy Schneider on to the show to help de-mystify investing for YNAB'ers looking to get started. Jeremy built the successful internet startup RentLinx, sold the company in 2015, and retired a couple years after ...
09.05.2022 Breaking Down Student Loan Forgiveness with Ben the Dollar Scholar Jesse chats with Ben, a YNAB employee and "The Dollar Scholar" on TikTok, where he educates college students and grads on the intricacies of student loans. Ben walks through the recently announced student loan forgiveness program, how much debt can ...
08.29.2022 Nail Back to School with the Four Rules School is back in session, and it's a good time to tune up the budget. Want to really nail it this year? Go back to the Four Rules, Jesse says, and simplify. Now is the time to close those extra ...
08.22.2022 Ask Jesse: What Should You Do with a Life-changing Windfall? A listener writes the show to ask: what should he and his family do with a life-changing windfall? The listener has a mortgage, and a HELOC, and some savings goals such as saving for his kids' college education. The windfall ...
08.15.2022 Lessons from the Bookshelf: What Jesse Has Been Reading Lately Jesse shares a few book titles he has been working through lately, and how the lessons from Jocko's Exteme Ownership have been working their way through the Mecham household and YNAB. It's not all business books this time! Topics range ...
08.08.2022 Ask Jesse: So You Just Started Your First Real Job... A listener writes Jesse to ask what he should do with his first real job and first real paycheck -- pay off debt, or start investing? This is a popular question with a few answers, and in Jesse's mind, the ...
08.01.2022 That Magical Moment (When You Really Want Something) There's a moment that happens when you run across something you really want -- it's like an itch that wants you to whip out the credit card and scratch it! In these moments, we're probably not very clear on our ...
07.25.2022 Ask Jesse: Kids, Allowances, and Cringey Purchases Hillary writes into the show to ask: when you started giving an allowance to your kids, what things did they buy that made you cringe? Hillary is starting the YNAB allowance strategy for her kids, aged 16, 15, and 12, ...
07.18.2022 Budgeting for the Nomadic Life Jesse chats with a number of YNAB employees who are living, or working towards living, a "nomadic" life -- living and working across the US in a variety of places throughout the year. While this type of lifestyle can create ...
07.11.2022 Ask Jesse: What's the Deal with Whole Life Insurance? A listener writes into the show to ask about whole life insurance and whether it's worth it for a young couple in their 30's. As always, it depends! Whole life policies typically come with big fees, which of course insurance ...
07.04.2022 Debt and Pay Later Plans: An Independence Day Rant Happy Fourth of July to the American YNAB'ers out there! Following Apple's recent announcement of their "Apple Pay Later" plan, in which customers can split the cost of purchases over multiple installments using Apple Pay, Jesse rants about the state ...
06.27.2022 What If Your Coworkers Weren't Stressed About Money? It's no surprise, but employees carry their money stress into work with them. And that stress not only affects their performance at work, it affects their happiness and, by extension, increases turnover. Jesse shares results from a survey of over ...

Older episodes

You Need A Budget (YNAB)

What's You Need A Budget (YNAB) about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

You Need A Budget (YNAB) episodes:

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

Every Gift I'm Giving Julie, Forever

Ask Jesse: Tracking 401k in YNAB, Early Retirement Budgeting, Advisors, and More

You Spend More Money with Credit Cards

The Different Tenses of Money

Rule One and Gratitude

What's the Most Expensive Thing You've Budgeted For? YNABers Share

Ask Jesse: What's the Most Important Metric?

The Last $300

When Is Your Age of Money Enough?

Rule Three Happens BEFORE Spending, Not After

EP 18 Money Stories: Surviving Financial Abuse with Dr. Kerry Roarke

Ask Jesse: Is All Money Just Savings?

Budgeting for 8 Weeks Abroad with Chrissy Sebald

EP 17 Money Stories: Living Debt Free in Manhattan, Budgeting Wisdom from Mom, and More with Christopher J. Campbell

Simple Investing with Jeremy Schneider of Personal Finance Club

Breaking Down Student Loan Forgiveness with Ben the Dollar Scholar

Nail Back to School with the Four Rules

Ask Jesse: What Should You Do with a Life-changing Windfall?

Lessons from the Bookshelf: What Jesse Has Been Reading Lately

Ask Jesse: So You Just Started Your First Real Job...

That Magical Moment (When You Really Want Something)

Ask Jesse: Kids, Allowances, and Cringey Purchases

Budgeting for the Nomadic Life

Ask Jesse: What's the Deal with Whole Life Insurance?

Debt and Pay Later Plans: An Independence Day Rant

What If Your Coworkers Weren't Stressed About Money?

Other shows like You Need A Budget (YNAB):