Have you felt overwhelmed trying to think of categories for your money when you start a fresh spending plan? Or just wished someone would come up with new categories for you when you need to plan for a major life event? You're in luck, someone has done all that work for you! They are called YNAB templates. In today's episode Ben and Ernie take a look at the new templates feature in YNAB, and share their experiments incorporating templates into their own spending plans.

There are a number of templates available, ranging from very general, such as the beginner and minimalist templates, to highly specific, such as getting a new puppy or renovating your kitchen. Templates have categories preloaded and organized for you, and some even have targets with ballpark figures. The idea is to help you think of the various things you need to plan for, big and small. For instance, when planning a vacation most people immediately think of airfare and hotels or Air B&B, but there are also small expenses like parking and souvenirs that can add up to big bucks over the course of a trip! With the travel template, all these things have already been considered for you, so you can just import the template directly into your plan and set targets that fit your trip.

Ben and Ernie each picked a template to import into their plan (it's easy to import templates -- just find the one you want to use, one click and it imports straigth into your plan). Ben chose travel and used it for a recent beach vacation. Ernie chose food since he and his family have recently changed their habits around eating out and shopping for groceries. Of course, templates aren't set in stone, so Ben and Ernie modified them to fit their own situation.

If you find yourself stuck on building categories in your plan, or just need some fresh inspiration, try out a template!

Find your YNAB template here:

https://www.ynab.com/templates

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In today's episode Ben and Ernie chat with Lauren, a long time YNAB user going back to YNAB4 and a Customer Support Specialist at YNAB. Though she was born in the US, Lauren is of Korean descent and since 2017 has been teaching English in South Korea. Her unique background has required some pro-level YNAB moves, since she is paid in US dollars but spends in both USD and Korean Yuan, which fluctuate in value relative to each other.

YNAB's recommended solution is to maintain two plans, one in each currency, so that currency fluctuations don't cause your plan to drift over time. This is a reliable method, but it requires you to maintain two plans and keep track of duplicate categories in each currency. Lauren prefers to manage her money in one plan, and simply makes the currency conversion when she enters her transactions in YNAB.

In today's episode Ben and Ernie dive into Lauren's categories, and discuss her unique way of managing multiple currencies in one plan.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• YNAB Templates: https://www.ynab.com/templates

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You don't have to be a power user for YNAB to help you gain control over your money, start loving the way you spend, and change your life. But there's a lot of power under the hood, and Ben and Ernie want to help you unlock it! In today's episode they walk through a handful of their favorite YNAB features and tools and show how you can use them to plan your spending like a true Budget Nerd.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• YNAB Templates: https://www.ynab.com/templates
• Heard It from Hannah -- 10 Features You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/-N94FQjaVyU?si=hIsKCZlQbZj42tw0

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Get your popcorn ready, because on today's episode Ben and Ernie are lacing up the gloves and going for 12 rounds! Twelve rounds of YNAB debate, of course. They have selected 12 YNAB hot topics and spend three minutes debating each one. Topics include:

• Using emoji's in category titles
• Using a cash account vs a cash category to track physical dollar bills
• Prioritizing an emergency fund or getting a month ahead
• And more!

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YNAB.com/events

In today's episode Ben and Ernie talk with the man himself, Todd Curtis, long-time YNAB team member and CEO since 2021. Todd has been a YNAB'er going all the way back to the YNAB3 days, and served as a beta tester for an early Mac version of the software before officially joining the company in 2010. In his tenure at YNAB Todd has touched on just about every aspect of the business, from customer service to product development, and now leads the company and helps shape and focus the core values of spendfulness that YNAB stands for.

In this episode, Todd discusses his history with YNAB and how a fateful email to Jesse led to him getting a job. He talks about the evolution in philosophy from budgeting to planning, the five questions, and how some recently released features on the YNAB app aim to guide new users to plan their money without having to reference supporting materials. Todd also discusses the future vision of the company, and how he sees the app and the method evolving to better support YNAB's core mission to teach people to live more spendfully.

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YNAB.com/events

Today Ben and Ernie are joined by long-time YNAB'er Heidi to discuss her challenges of managing money with ADHD, and how she has used the YNAB method to reclaim control over her money. As Heidi explains, ADHD is characterized by impulsiveness and inattentiveness, both of which took a heavy toll on her finances, especially during phases of her career where her income was variable. Heidi was an early adopter of YNAB -- starting with YNAB3! -- and quickly fell in love with the software and the concreteness of the YNAB method.

Heidi explains how the other approaches to personal finance she had discovered were focused on philosophy and abstraction, whereas YNAB was concrete from the start. The software is opinionated, and wants you to follow the "rules," which today have been boiled down to just one rule: give every dollar a job. The act of entering transactions, assigning money to categories, and moving money from category to category proved therapeutic for Heidi, and her daily habit of checking YNAB made her more in tune with her money and her long term plans for the money. Over time she noticed that her inattentiveness to money, which once lead to frequent overdrafts and bank fees, improved dramatically. She was also able to create a reserves category for the "ADHD tax," as she calls it, essentially giving herself a safety net in her budget to be impulsive with money without disrupting her future plans.

After many years with YNAB and a lifetime living with ADHD, Heidi has accumulated a lot of wisdom about managing money and learning to live spendfully. As she puts it, YNAB has allowed her to be a more interesting, dynamic person, by giving her the freedom to do the things she wants without being hamstrung by money problems.

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Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW:

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Many of us approach YNAB from a position of scarcity, at least at first. We don't have enough money to do all the things we want to do, and we're living paycheck to paycheck. Giving every dollar a job and working through the 5 Questions helps us gain clarity about what our money needs to do for us, and finally get our financial life on track. But what if you have a surplus of money fall into your lap unexpectedly?

Windfalls are wonderful, sometimes life changing, but they can be stressful too. Especially if you haven't done the work of getting clear about your priorities and giving your dollars a job, suddenly receiving a large sum can be overwhelming and intoxicating. Ben likens windfalls to a poker concept called "winner's tilt." Players who are winning and watching the action through a tall stack of chips often end up playing more loosely and taking more risks. In theory, they should be playing with the same strategy as what won in the first place, but overconfidence and the security of playing with a large bankroll leads to riskier play.

Luckily the YNAB method works for windfalls too! When you know your priorities, and you have a plan for your money, it's much easier to handle a windfall without frittering it away or stressing about doing something special with it. In today's episode, Ben and Ernie discuss windfalls they have received in their life and lessons they have learned from the experience.

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Get your tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025! Coming to San Diego, Minneapolis, and NYC. Tickets are ON SALE NOW:

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It has been a while since Ben and Ernie have done an old fashioned debt payoff episode, but it's still one of the hottest topics when it comes to personal finance. And in their veiw, at least, paying off debt is where most of the personal finance world gets it wrong. YNAB has a unique method for paying off debt with an emphasis on sustainability and maintaining motivation. The key is to learn how to plan for future large and less frequent expenses so that you don't continue to get into more debt.

Another key is to remember that we are humans, not numbers. So while the personal finance sphere may dive into the deep end of working out the math on interest rates and pay down schedules, at the end of the day it doesn't matter if you can't sustain your pay off plan. To that end, Ben and Ernie offer YNAB's four step process for paying off your debt without going crazy and without living like a monk. There's even room for fun money!

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Ben and Ernie are back again to fix a very messy budget, and this time they are doing it live! This is a replay from their YouTube livestream on Mar 26th, 2025. There is a strong visual component to this episode, so we recommend you watch the replay on YouTube (link below), but we are posting the audio on the podcast feed as well.

Messy Budget Livestream Replay:

https://www.youtube.com/live/tjK_lxpdVm0?si=EGTA5iMo6oyJ3jrL

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Together they sail or sink! Today, March 26th at 3:00pm Eastern, Ben and Ernie will be livestreaming on YouTube and will attempt to fix a messy YNAB budget. This episode will have a heavy visual component, so you will want to watch it on YouTube at the link below.

If you miss it, you can still watch the replay on YouTube, and the audio will be posted to the podcast feed in a couple days. In the meantime, happy YNAB'ing!

http://www.youtube.com/@YNABofficial