The Jesse Mecham Show

Veteran YNAB'ers have a saying for what happens when you follow the four rules, budget, and have no money left over. They call it being "YNAB broke," and it's a badge of honor!   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: At 28:15 David states that generally you cannot take out money from a ROTH to pay for college without paying a penalty. David later pointed out, however, that you may take out up to $10k without penalty to pay for qualifying higher education expenses.   David Stackpole, wealth manager and Certified Financial Analyst (among other titles), joins the podcast to discuss his strategy for paying for the ever-growing cost of college. David points out that college tuition has increased nearly 1,400% since the 1970's, which amounts to a 6.4% annual inflation rate. With costs rising so dramatically and so steadily, many parents find it difficult to save enough for their children's college education. David has a unique strategy for dealing with this problem, however.   David recently published a paper outlining his approach in the University of Louisville's Journal of Student Financial Aid, which you can find here:  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1701&context=jsfa

In today's money story, Carol Kissinger tells her story of discovering YNAB after moving from America to Berlin. She had never been good with money, was indebted to her parents for years, and frequently argued with her husband about money. Moving to Berlin put new stress on her bank account, until she discovered YNAB. The Four Rules helped her put a simple framework around money and clarify what it was she was spending on.   As it turns out, impulse purchasing was a recurring theme in Carol's budget. She and her husband would see money in the bank account after pay day and start buying things... without first reserving money for rent, utilities, and the various unplanned expenses that inevitably come up during the year. With an ADHD diagnosis, Carol found it particularly difficult to stop impulse purchasing without having a solid plan of what to do with her money after pay day. YNAB provided a framework for her to budget her dollars and give them jobs before they got spent. She found initially she had to "roll with the punches" frequently as she would forget about irregular expenses, but as she made it through the first several months of budgeting it became easier to predict those and her budget became more stable.   Most importantly, Carol discovered in the process of budgeting with YNAB that some of her long-held preconceptions were really just not true. She believed for a long time she was simply bad at money, and nothing would change that -- it was just a part of who she was. After paying off every dollar of debt to her parents and building an emergency fund, she could no longer say that about herself, and her personal narrative changed. She wasn't just not bad at money anymore, she was good with money. This transformation has extended outside her budget too. Carol and her husband were always very messy housekeepers, she says, to the point where they didn't want to have company over. After going through the budgeting transformation with YNAB, they now have a much cleaner home!   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Personal finance journalist, news anchor, Certified Financial Planner, and now author, Bobbi Rebell explains what it means to be a "financial grownup." The essential part of being grown-up with your finances is realizing that it's no one else's responsibility to make a budget, put money in your retirement account, or educate yourself about financial terms and concepts. It's all up to you! Luckily, there is a wealth of easily accessible information that you can learn from, including Bobbi's own podcast.   You can find out more about Bobbi, her new book "How to Be a Financial Grownup, her podcast, and her "Grownup Gear" on her website: https://www.bobbirebell.com

After receiving shocking financial news that credit card spending in 2021 is up over 20% compared to 2019, Jesse asks the question: are you still budgeting out there?   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse chats with two people that are passionate about personal finance and share a common trait: they are high income earners. YNAB doesn't often talk about people earning high incomes, but contrary to popular belief, earning a lot of money does NOT mean you don't need to budget!   As Ivan Smirnov and Daniel Chen attest, high incomes often come with high cost of living areas, where housing costs can run well into the 7 figures for homes or multiple thousands for rent. High income can also come with lifestyle inflation, as well as debt from post-graduate student loans and professional programs. Both of these things (and much more) can be managed with an effective budget, and Ivan and Daniel share their tips in keeping their costs under control and managing their investments using YNAB.   Ivan Smirnov is a software engineer at Google, and he loves to share his personal finance journey and YNAB power tips with friends and co-workers. He writes occasionally for a couple blogs: https://ivansmirnov.name https://ivans.io   Daniel Chen is a former Big 4 accountant, personal finance entrepreneur, and currently the Head of Business Development at a personal finance educational startup Brightside. You can find Daniel on twitter: https://twitter.com/chenthusiast?lang=en     YNAB for Good: https://www.youneedabudget.com/good/  

After years of experimenting with his budget and budgeting process, Jesse decided to do the unthinkable in 2020. He went an entire year *without* a budget!   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jean Chatzky, long-time personal finance writer and correspondent for The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC and other high-profile shows, joins the podcast to discuss the unique issues women face in their financial lives. She has recently written a book about her research and experience working with women on improving their financial security, and she runs a website dedicated to educating and coaching women in financial matters called Her Money.   Jean's book -- Women with Money https://womenwithmoneybook.com   Her Money Podcast https://hermoney.com  

Jesse offers six tips for newlyweds learning to manage their money as a couple for the first time.   Check out the YNAB blog for more! https://www.youneedabudget.com/money-lessons-i-wish-i-had-learned-when-i-was-25/

Jesse celebrates -- can you believe it?! -- the 500th episode of the You Need a Budget podcast. Nearly 10 years ago, Jesse started this podcast as an experiment. Over the years the mics have been upgraded, the acoustics have gotten better, but the message has remained the same: follow the Four Rules, and make your dollars work for you and your priorities.   Jesse reminds us that, much like doing the podcast, budgeting is mostly just doing the work, day in and day out. Budget is a verb, an activity that you do every day, and simply showing up and continuing to do it over time yields big results.   YNAB the company is still growing, and so is the podcast. Jesse and his longtime friend and corporate finance expert Mark Butler have launched a new show for small businesses called Beginning Balance. Download and subscribe here! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beginning-balance/id1569423517