The Jesse Mecham Show

Ben and Ernie return to the podcast to announce... their own podcast! Budget Nerds, the popular YouTube show for nerdy YNAB'ers, is launching a podcast on Wednesday, Feb 9th. Now you can take Ben, Ernie, and their nerdy budget adventures with you in the car, on the bus, maybe even in the kitchen!   As a bonus, Ben and Ernie share some "budget confessions" from Budget Nerds listeners.   Budget Nerds Podcast on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/budget-nerds/id1606054345   Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/0H1u8pqYrvz6zj6noHbkB3?si=34ab3b2a3435486b  

YNAB Podcast listener Jenna emailed Jesse to share a recent win. Jenna's husband is about to finish law school, and thanks to YNAB and a lot of work and sacrifice he will graduate with NO student loan debt. First of all, BIG congratulations to you and your husband! Jesse shares some thoughts on this achievement as well as how to manage windfalls with a long-term mindset.   Join the More Money Challenge: https://www.youneedabudget.com/moremoneychallenge/   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse answers a listener question about budgeting after retirement, in particular when you are living off your retirement savings and not yet drawing on Social Security.   Join the More Money Challenge: https://www.youneedabudget.com/moremoneychallenge/   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse chats with Scott Trench, CEO of BiggerPockets and a real estate investor, about how people can get started with real estate investing and build more wealth. Scott started his working career like many business college graduates, working at a large company as a financial analyst. Early on he stumbled across the Mr. Money Mustache blog, which advocates frugality and saving a large percentage of your income to achieve financial independence. From there, Scott became interested in using real estate to build his personal wealth and reach financial independence earlier in life.   Then, an encounter with the founder of the BiggerPockets website led Scott to a job with the company, and eventually, a chance to steer it as the CEO. Along the way Scott has learned a lot about real estate investing, and purchased and managed several properties. He now uses that knowledge to run the BiggerPockets website, which offers teaching and tools for people new to the real estate market.   Scott also acknowledges the costs and tradeoffs associated with becoming a good real estate investor. He's not shy about the amount of time needed to learn the basics, suggesting around 500 hours of reading and research before considering your first real estate purchase. For some people, like busy specialized professionals (doctors and lawyers for instance) or entrepreneurs running businesses, this time might be too high a cost, and distract from their primary focus. For the right person with patience and diligence, however, real estate investing can be an excellent way to build wealth and achieve financial independence.   BiggerPockets https://www.biggerpockets.com   Join the More Money Challenge: https://www.youneedabudget.com/moremoneychallenge/  

Jesse chats with Ashley, of TikTok fame (The Organized Wallet), about her journey finding the budgeting software through a chance blogpost to finally gaining control of her money after years of struggle. One of Ashley's keys to success is mindfulness, and she has some great exercises for improving your mindfulness around money.   A few years into her marriage, Ashley had a reckoning with money. Her husband Jeremy had just landed a big job opportunity, but it required him to travel frequently. To keep things running smoothly, Ashley needed to assume management of the budget, which Jeremy had been handling up until that point. Ashley tried hard, but was overwhelmed with the spreadsheets, the sheer number of bills and accounts, and missed a payment on one of the bills. Distraught, she ran across a blog post by A Cup of Jo about a budgeting software called You Need A Budget. She jumped in, and finally found a method to help her gain control of her money.   Ashley now has a lot of wisdom to share about managing your money. She reminds us that we're all works in progress, and just because you can't budget perfectly -- especially at first -- doesn't mean it's not worth doing at all. Small efforts add up to big change with time. She also points out that clutter in our wallets (or budgets!) often means we aren't clear on our values. Decluttering our financial lives means first getting clear on what we want out of life.   Ashley on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@theorganizedwallet   Read more on Ashley's story: https://www.youneedabudget.com/after-struggling-to-budget-this-book-made-it-stick/   Join the More Money Challenge: https://www.youneedabudget.com/moremoneychallenge/    

Happy New Year! It's that time again -- time for planning, goal setting, and resolutions. If you're listening to this podcast, one of your New Year's resolutions might be to save more money. YNAB can help you with that!   YNAB team member Veronica is leading the way with the More Money Challenge, a 30-day challenge to help you kick start your savings in 2022. The rules are simple, but the challenge is hard. Luckily, there's a whole community of like-minded YNAB'ers that will be running the challenge together.   Join the More Money Challenge: https://www.youneedabudget.com/moremoneychallenge/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYFRUQYBdMV/   TikTok: ynab.com/tiktok

It's that time of year again... time to burn it all down! The budget, that is. Every year Jesse "burns down" his budget, deleting all the categories and questioning whether the family could live without them. It's a fun thought experiment, especially with the typical must-have things.   Do you really need groceries every month? Of course you do, but what if you didn't do it? How would you survive? The point is not to figure out how to live without groceries, it's to ask the question and get your brain thinking about the deeply held assumptions you have about your consumption. At the end of the day, most of your categories will probably go back in. But hopefully, you'll rethink at least one thing in your budget, and find an opportunity to bring your spending more in line with your priorities in the New Year.   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Millions of people struggle with ADHD, and it has financial ramifications -- decision fatigue, difficulty planning future purchases, and impulsive spending habits. Jak is a coach for "ADHD'ers," as she calls them, helping people form strategies for coping with emotional highs and lows and gain control over their money. An ADHD'er herself, she found the visual aspect of YNAB highly effective in keeping her engaged with both her current spending and her long-term plans (sinking funds).   Chelsea is an intuitive eating coach, and a fellow ADHD'er who engaged Jak for coaching. Together they discovered YNAB, and joined the podcast to share its helpfulness with others suffering from ADHD.   You can find more about Jak and Chelsea here: Jak IG: @authenticallyadhd Jak email: authenticallyadhd@gmail.com YNAB and ADHD Workshop: www.authenticallyadhd.com/membership   Chelsea IG: @_chelseahester_ Chelsea website: www.chelseahester.com  

We're nearly to the end of 2021, so Jesse took a moment to celebrate all of your biggest budgeting wins this year. To all the YNAB users who accomplished your goals and improved your financial standing -- no matter how big or how small -- congratulations! Here's to another year of budgeting wins, breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle, and reduced stress.   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

A listener asks -- what can I do to get my budget back on track after falling off the wagon?   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com