Congratulations to Kitty who left a comment on one of my posts about YNAB (You Need A Budget). Her comment didn’t win but her suggestion for a future topic DID! Kitty, I’ve sent you an email so as soon as you get it, respond back to me and I’ll get your $60 in FREE budgeting software on it’s way to you!
Her suggestion:
how to recover from stupid spending or stupidity in general, such as forgetting to pay your home owners until you have to be re-inspected or when you know you need a roof and don’t have the money for it.
Great idea, Kitty. There were a LOT of great ideas for future articles and I’m already sorting through them. Thank you to everyone who contributed.
I sincerely wish I could give everyone a copy of YNAB. It really is the best budgeting software you can use. Why?
The people who designed You Need A Budget really had their thinking caps on! If you head over to YNAB’s site, you’ll find several things that no other financial software company offers: free tutorials, video tutorials, budget coaching, live online coaching, YNAB university, forums, a blog, as well as a free 7 day trial of their program. They don’t demand your passwords and logins from your bank (a super nice security feature). To top it all off, they don’t refer you to a FAQ page if you email their support staff – they actually respond to your individual email. Imagine that!
Everything YNAB revolves around their four tenants of budgeting:
- Stop living paycheck to paycheck
- Give every dollar a job
- Prepare for rainy days
- Roll with the punches
What sets YNAB apart in my mind is how they focus on helping you to establish a buffer – essentially you live on LAST month’s income by building a buffer with excess funds that your new budget helps you uncover.
From there, you learn to give each dollar a specific job. That job may be to pay your rent, feed your kids, save for retirement, or build your buffer.
YNAB helps you plan for those rainy days with a built in emergency fund for when your air conditioner dies, or your transmission needs repair, or your child gets sick and you have high deductible insurance.
Lastly, because you learn to live on LAST month’s income, a current hiccup in your budgeting plans doesn’t throw you off track. How many times have you started budgeting, had something come up, and you gave up? I know I have. YNAB’s built in flexibility keeps your budget in force even if life gets in the way.
So, if you didn’t win the software, you can still win by checking out YNAB’s free 7 day trial. Check it out and give it a try. I think you’ll see how intuitive and ridiculously easy it is to use.
Photo by jody.klopp
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Congrats, Kitty! Hopefully you’ll put that budgeting software to good use!
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Thanks so much, I’m excited to get moving on something that’s been bugging me for over two years. In my own defense I was recovering from Cancer surgery two years ago and learning how to deal with a new diabetes diagnosis but still I feel like a lazy bum for not doing this sooner. I’m determined to use this to it’s fullest advantage and get on top of our debt instead of letting it get on top of me. Thanks Again, and for the nice comment. Kitty
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Ron 's reply:
February 3rd, 2010
Great! Glad you’re excited and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts about YNAB!
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