YNAB (You Need A Budget)

[AZCB34]

Agree to disagree. I still believe you should be paying yourself first. Also, you never lose the money you invested unless you sold the investment.

Or it was Enron.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Agree to disagree. I still believe you should be paying yourself first. Also, you never lose the money you invested unless you sold the investment.

Or the investment goes bust. It happens. I’ve experienced it first hand. But we can agree to disagree.

 

[iLLmatiC]

That's why investing in speculative stocks is a bad idea especially if it's money designated for retirement.

 

[Superbone]

That's why investing in speculative stocks is a bad idea especially if it's money designated for retirement.

Yep, invest in index funds. I've played with individual stocks. Some winners; some losers. I can't beat the total stock market or even the S&P 500.

 

[Bada0Bing]

you don't need any fancy software to create a budget. A budget is one of the easiest things one can create with Excel, Google docs, or any other spreadsheet type app/prog.

Common sense and simple math can make you a budget.

Sticking to the budget and prioritizing expenses is where people dig their hole.

Agreed. I started a budget in 1998 in excel when my wife and I were poor college students with a young child trying to scrape by. Since then I've tracked every dollar earned and spent in the excel model, which now includes net worth statements, amort schedules, etc. I've got my budget projected out to 2074. I figure if I live to 100 I won't care anymore.

I think having this budget/forecast in place has been the primary reason my wife and I have never fought about money in 23 years of marriage. We each get our monthly stipend to waste how we'd like, but every expense is budgeted for in advance.

Just takes a bit of discipline. If it's not in the forecast we don't buy it. If we want to buy it, we make it work in the forecast.

 

[Superbone]

I will never have a car loan again.

Bold statement.

Just checking in 11 years later. Still haven't had a car loan since.

Having said that, never say never! Tesla was giving out 0.99% financing recently. If I had bought one, I'd have gotten the financing and kept the cash in a CD making 5%.

 

[Bada0Bing]

Just checking in 11 years later. Still haven't had a car loan since.

Having said that, never say never! Tesla was giving out 0.99% financing recently. If I had bought one, I'd have gotten the financing and kept the cash in a CD making 5%.

Yup good move, as long as you negotiate the price first before talking financing. I'm on year 5 of my 0% loan on my Leaf. Gonna drag that out to the very last moment! Earning 5%+ on my cash in my Fidelity account.

 

[jbjarko]

YNAB...great software. Used it for a lot of years

 

[Brian in Mesa]

I will never have a car loan again.

I just turned 53 on Tuesday and have never had one thanks to great advice from my late uncle back when I was just a kid. He had a lot of vehicles but never had any payments. He saved up and bought a nice used vehicle, then saved while driving it to have enough for another decent used vehicle later on, plus whatever he could sell his current vehicle for. Just repeat the cycle and there's never a car payment, so I did.

 

[Superbone]

YNAB...great software. Used it for a lot of years

Cool. Yep, me too. It was a life changer for me. I never could figure out how to budget correctly before YNAB and their system really clicked for me. Before that, I was just seeing what I spent after I spent it after it was too late. I switched back to YNAB 4 for a while as I tried to fight the subscription software model but I finally relented as it is so much easier with the direct import of their current software. I figure my time is more valuable than the cost. Besides, their software helped me to retire on the early side by being able to optimize every penny I made.

 

[Superbone]

I just turned 53 on Tuesday and have never had one thanks to great advice from my late uncle back when I was just a kid. He had a lot of vehicles but never had any payments. He saved up and bought a nice used vehicle, then saved while driving it to have enough for another decent used vehicle later on, plus whatever he could sell his current vehicle for. Just repeat the cycle and there's never a car payment, so I did.

Now that is impressive! To never have had payments. What a great uncle you had.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Now that is impressive! To never have had payments. What a great uncle you had.

Totally agree and thanks. He died way too young with cancer that took half his jaw, thought he had it beat, but then it came back. F cancer.

Now, to be honest, my wife and I did some stupid stuff with money by getting department store cards and a couple of credit cards, but we then found Dave Ramsey and used his advice to become debt free except for our house. We are only a couple of years until we'll be debt free including our house and that will feel so good. Budget each month, cash or debit only, and we haven't had any credit cards since 2003.

We travel all the time and have fun at fairs and festivals and so many of our friends assumed for years that we were a younger retired couple. The funny thing is - when we retire, we plan to just continue our travels. Far too many people plan on traveling when they retire, and then drop dead or can't travel for health reasons before they ever get to actually enjoy retirement.

 

[Superbone]

I retired on the early side a little over a year ago and now I am months away from having no mortgage. I am fixing up my Escondido, CA house for sale and then I will be purchasing my AZ house with cash. With YNAB, credit cards were no different than cash for me (every dollar I spend on CC is backed by cash in my bank account) so I take advantage of the cash back rewards. I haven't paid a penny of CC interest in the last 15 years.

Yes, that's good that you travel frequently during your working years as there are no guarantees after retirement. It is very important to have work/life balance while you are working.