The podcast explores the use of targets in the YNAB app, including how they help organize and track expenses, managing variable expenses like groceries, setting targets for monthly bills and non-monthly expenses, and the benefits of the overfunded workflow. They also discuss different target types in YNAB and strategies for managing yearly subscriptions.
Targets in YNAB are a powerful tool to organize expenses and understand their timing, helping you allocate the necessary funds each month.
Regularly reviewing and adjusting targets in YNAB based on actual spending and savings goals ensures they accurately reflect your financial situation.
Deep dives
The different types of targets in YNAB
YNAB offers a variety of target types, including needed for spending, savings balance, monthly savings builder, payoff balance by date, and pay specific amount monthly. Each target type has its own purpose and can be used to effectively manage different aspects of your budget. It is important to regularly review and adjust your targets based on your actual spending and savings goals.
Managing irregular expenses with targets
Targets are especially useful for managing irregular expenses, such as annual or biweekly bills. By using features like needed for spending monthly or the monthly savings builder, you can allocate a specific amount each month to cover these irregular expenses. It's important to regularly review and adjust your targets to accurately reflect your spending patterns and financial goals.
Dealing with credit card debt using targets
YNAB provides specific target types for managing credit card debt, including payoff balance by date and pay specific amount monthly targets. These targets help you track and manage your credit card payments, whether you're looking to pay off your balance by a certain date or consistently pay a fixed amount each month. By setting and monitoring these targets, you can effectively work towards reducing and eliminating your credit card debt.
Tips for using targets effectively
When using targets in YNAB, keep in mind the following tips: 1. Remember that yellow is not an indicator of failure, but rather a prompt to allocate more funds. 2. You don't need to have a target on every category if it doesn't align with your budgeting preferences or spending patterns. Focus on what works best for you. 3. Regularly review and adjust your targets based on your actual spending and savings goals. This will help ensure they accurately reflect your financial situation. 4. Take advantage of the various target types available and use them to effectively manage different aspects of your budget, whether it's regular expenses, savings goals, or debt repayment. By utilizing these tips, you can make the most of targets in YNAB and maintain better control over your budget.
Forecasting is kind of a dirty word at YNAB, because the Four Rule are all about budgeting the dollars you have now, and not counting on future dollars that haven't arrived yet. However, it's still useful to plan for future expenses, and understand how the timing of those expenses will affect how much money you need to set aside each month to cover them when they come due. Expense timing can be complex, too -- some things hit weekly, biweekly, monthly, others hit at odd intervals like every 3 weeks or 6 months. YNAB has tools to handle these! Targets are a powerful way to organize and understand your expenses no matter how complex the timing is.
Ben and Ernie dive deep into the various target types available in YNAB, and clever ways you can use them to track expenses, track debt pay down, and more.