IF, when you go to pay any bill (for example, the credit card bill to pay for your new HVAC) you transfer cash from Savings to Checking, THEN spend it (and categorize the transaction accordingly) WHY is it so important that the Savings account be on-budget? That might be to pay my mortgage in 3 weeks or to pay for a new roof in 13 years. eloquentz As I said, I am now thinking of it as an emergency fund. The activity column would not show any savings that were successfully saved because there's no transaction. When budget entries are driven solely by priority, scope, and expense timeline things are simpler. If you have a PayPal Credit Card, you would choose Credit Card. That's why savings accounts are Budget Accounts-- you'll give each of your savings dollars a job, too. The suggested report surfaces the impact of my spending on my savings. Good question. It doesn't seem like you have much use of an emergency fund, so maybe you don't even need it. If a criminal cleans out Account A, I like knowing that I have immediate access to uncompromised Account B at a different institution. Prominent Features. Figure out what it's for. Working towards a normalized budget will help you feel like you can confidently fund those categories sufficiently. And then to actually spend it, you'll have to bring the money back into your budget when you transfer it to the checking account (another category) and then another category when you actually spend it. I read in a thread somewhere here that YNAB staff advised someone to move his savings account to ON BUDGET, where he had had it as a tracking account. These accounts should also include credit accounts from which you spend, so they're included in your budget as well. What we are saying is that there is a big benefit to changing the way you are thinking about this. As someone just getting started with YNAB, it is useful so to see what priorities are articulated by my budget versus my actions. YNAB defaults savings accounts to be "budget" rather than "tracking" accounts. Follow YNAB to get support and lots of great ideas on budgeting, You will still need to create the transfer transactions in your accounts so the account balances match reality. I'll have to think about this more before I put in a feature request. You’ll also want to enter your current account balance. The electric company doesn't care whether their bill is 3% or 30% of my paycheck, but I have to be prepared to pay it. WordTenor  Duh! And the budget doesn't care! It’s great for budgeting, expense … It is your "emergency fund". After that, I transfer X to the Savings account (no category allowed, but it has already been taken care of.). I have a very different outlook. I think that could be accommodated pretty easily. What you plan to do with the money doesn't change, just where it's located. But, neither the Activity or Available columns tell the full story of allocation if represented graphically. If I could rephrase the goal of the suggested report, it would be to have a report that reflects my saving priorities. Transfers aren't allowed to have categories (except between off-budget accounts.) Assuming the Forgotten Stuff category is flagged as a savings category, $80 would show on the report because  $80 is the amount available in savings. When I buy something with the cash I record it as a transaction/transfer. And it can be argued thatYNAB shines here because helping you budget is its stated mission and gets greater emphasis. Sea Green Hammer Because usually you don't. One that would simply fill in nominal values and then not nag you after reallocation. It could be a simple flag on the category group banner. YNAB was perfect for fitting all the puzzle pieces together tightly to avoid waste and maximize priorities. With Rule 1 in the YNAB Method, you'll Give Every Dollar a Job. And if you budgeted $100 to the Forgotten Stuff category on the 1st, but moved $20 to another category to support the thing that forgotten, would you want $80 or $100 to show in that report? I had to 1) unlink the budget accounts, 2) create new accounts (needed to temporarily name them a different name), 3) copy the transactions in the budget accounts and move them to the new tracking accounts, 4) delete the opening balance in the new tracking accounts – so I didn’t show double the balance, 5) delete the old budget accounts, 6) re-categorize each of the moved … If I move $100 from the available balance of the rainy day fund to cover overspending elsewhere, then the Allocation chart for the month should continue to show 0, not -100. feeling proud that 40% of my income goes to savings goals, users want to see how much they're diverting to savings. But, this graphic representation could be very useful for the spatial thinkers and others who don't automatically see numerical relationships (or who have so many categories that they don't fit on one screen). All I can come up with for a "job" for these funds is UNKNOWN. If I could rephrase the goal of the suggested report, it would be to have a report that reflects my saving priorities. You probably have multiple accounts to track, and if you are married, you have various people spending and earning money. Because I'm not trying accounts to categories, I just pay it from checking. This math does not make sense to me. What are the pros/cons of savings accounts as budget or tracking? More I'm thinking about this, more I realize that in my case, off budget makes the most sense. Is it your loss of income pot? I suppose the success of YNAB comes from being prepared for dollar amounts in specific jobs, not percentages of income in specific jobs. Now is all that money in my savings account? That's not a problem. Don't make your savings off-budget. You Don’t Need Tracking Accounts to Budget What I'm looking for incorporates both what you spent (activity) and what you saved (available in savings categories). WordTenor Then why not just have one account? Handling credit cards and debts with YNAB is … It doesn't matter if the savings are for a new big purchase or if you don't intend to spend it, you should assign it a job. What's important for savings is how much money was budgeted and remains available in the given timeframe. I can see how using YNAB over time can lead to normalization, where very little shifts. Did you read the blog post I linked to earlier? For example, last month I budgeted and saved $1,000 in the rainy day category. It gives a more far-sighted analysis and warns you before things go out of your hand. Saving for the sake of saving seems useless to me. Savings are treated differently since they track available balance rather than spending. Again, I'm still less than a month in so we have different perspectives here. CNBC Select can help you decide if it's right for you. IN the Available graph, the amount of overspending could be it's own little moon, labeled "Money you don't have!!! An option let me just delete that one I could add that account as a tracking asset account. You can connect bank accounts, set goals, contribute to savings and customize spending categories. For example - I'm replacing my HVAC. The light finally lit up. Because YNAB is solely focused on budgeting, they don’t have as many features as you can expect from similar solutions. JoeDid Except that the dollars DO have a purpose. Early on, I would find it useful to contrast my expressed priorities with my habits so that I can better align my budget to reflect reality or my habits to align them with my priorities. This month I did not budget anything, but I still have 1K available from last month. If I move my Savings Account on-budget then I can no longer use the reports to see what percent of my budget is allocated to saving. Ivory Stallion In YNAB, you're welcome to transfer money among various accounts, but that has no bearing on the "job" it's being saved for. I can see utility in showing actuals minus the nominal (defined by the Goal) in each category. nolesrule If it were a new saving objective then I might just create a new category reclassify some of the transactions. None of the individual balances on any of my accounts equal any set of categories because the location of my money has absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of my money. By the way, Buffer, Emergency Fund, and other rainy day funds ( as they used to be called ) are all examples of budgeting categories that you would assign dollars to that you didn't really spend out of frequently (hopefully!). See screenshots for reference. I don't find much value in that one haha. WordTenor Had my Red Bull and got in ahead of you this time. What circumstances allow you to draw on those funds? Numbers Wizard (Accountant), Acoustic Artist (Musician) and Jill of all Trades (Wife & Mother). The dollars in Budget Accounts are included in your budget (which you can tell from our super-clever naming scheme). When you use YNAB, Savings accounts cease being for sequestering money; you instead have them for the benefits of the account (security, interest). Saving with a purpose is better. Is there a way to "turn off" the savings balance in an on-budget account, so those $$ don't show as available? I finally realized it was including the savings balance. I kept seeing all my savings account monies in the "to be budgeted." PayPal accounts are a great example: if you have a PayPal account where you receive, store, and spend funds, choose Checking or Cash. Having it as a tracking account throws things off because when you move money out it looks like and expense and when you bring it back in to use it looks like income. While we all know that the best practice for saving is to just look at the budget screen, and that savings accounts should be on budget as explained above, the current solution (which we should keep) does set aside the ability to see a graphic representation of the budgetary, saving decisions. That needs to happen regardless of whether the transfer has a category assigned or not.". I've done reasonably well managing our budget over the years. The -$100 needs to at least be shown somewhere (the moon pie, in my example) as a change in priority. It really does take a moment to understand the idea of not tying accounts to categories. The idea that you have to is still based on the assumption of trying accounts to categories. There are five Budget Account options to choose from: Tough decision? Please try again later. Please clarify. It … The way I use YNAB, I'm never "spending" from my savings categories, and if there are no transactions then those funds are totally omitted from the reports. I have 3 savings accounts on budget and each and every dollar has a job. Similar to my post on the old YNAB forum. I'd also be motivated to continue saving overtime. "That needs to happen regardless of whether the transfer has a category assigned or not.". Get this down to $0 so your budget is viable!" This is simply to help you see your total financial picture and calculate your “Net Worth”. When you add an account in YNAB, you'll notice that there are two types of accounts to choose from: Budget Accounts and Tracking Accounts. I could reach my initial target balance by routinely savings and grow complacent, but if I'm accustomed to looking at a report and feeling proud that 40% of my income goes to savings goals then I'll adjust my goal and continue so that I don't have a month where my savings plummet down to 15% because I hit my target goal. If I merely assign the $ to a category, that category builds but my savings account (a real asset) does not show the incremental monthly increases. YNAB (You Need A Budget) ... You can manage your bank accounts, track your income and outgoings, set budgets and forecast your future financial position with ease. I don't see one in your screenshot, but if you have an Emergency Fund category move money from your other categories to get that $1,000 total. I've always found this odd. What insight would you gain that might induce you to do something different than you do at present? Cash vs. Credit could be delineated, with blurbs to explain the impact. The You Need a Budget (YNAB) app assigns every dollar you have toward a "job," like bills, savings or investments. Afterward, you transfer money from savings to your actual investment account, leaving the YNAB app out of it. :). All savings is done by putting money in categories in the budget. dakinemaui , you're right that the alignment happens over time, but as-is there is no report that graphically represents that trend. Isn't the point of savings accounts to take that money out of your spending rotation and save it? There could be one for available, and one for budgeted this month. I think the report I've mentioned would help users get to a normalized budget. You just aren't separating the purpose from the location in your mind. Empower. That goes back to my analogy of moving a $5 bill from your left pocket to your right pocket. How do these ideas relate to the OP and subsequent threads? I think the crux of this and other related threads is that users want to see how much they're diverting to savings. As-is bringing my Savings account on budget makes it impossible to graphically see how much money in a particular month has been allocated or set aside for Savings. Basically, you’ll start with the free 34-day trial to see if YNAB is the right budgeting app for you, and then you’ll pay a small monthly fee after that. Tiller Money is an awesome YNAB alternative. It took me a while to understand why savings should be on budget, but now that I get it, I switched them back on budget. Creating an accurate, updated budget is challenging. Adding Credit Cards & Debts . You should be looking at your budget to know how much to spend on things not what is in your bank account. YNAB’s method teaches you to give every dollar a job, and that includes your savings dollars—pretty much the opposite of letting your dollars lounge around in a cushy savings account without purpose. With a cult-like following, YNAB (stands for “You Need A Budget“), ... like credit cards and savings accounts, until you have everything connected that you will be using for your budget. Your medical emergency pot? Where do I click on the budget screen? This is great if you have more than one savings account or credit card. But I doubt that 100% of the cost will come out of my savings account as I should be able to have most of it already in my checking account by not sending any money from my February paychecks to one of the savings accounts like I usually do. Move Light Sound Life Exactly, dakinemaui , it is a graphical representation of the budget screen. I understand now why savings are kept on-budget but I have one hang up. 5 You Need a Budget (YNAB) Alternatives - Best Wallet Hacks I suppose the success of YNAB comes from being prepared for dollar amounts in specific jobs, not percentages of income in specific jobs. It's possible that what I'm looking for would be better incorporated as a Toolkit Report. Even denoting it as previously saved money that had a change of priority seems really complex. Credit Card and Line of Credit accounts typically have a negative or $0.00 balance, and funds spent from these accounts become debt. With both services, you can create budgets, and track your expenses from the credit card and bank accou… This would filter out available funds from previous months and only show what you've saved during the current period, side by side with what you spent across your non-savings categories. My primary checking is with SoFi, so Alternatively, I might create a new "Vault" and shift funds from one to the other. When the automatic transfer from checking to an on-budget savings account occurs, when and how do I assign a category? As I see it, ALL categories are savings. No interest, no late fees, … And, the available column alone shows what's remaining in your spending categories. That makes it impossible to reconcile the account with the bank, which I do every month. What am I missing out by not having it be on budget? Keep it simple - The easiest way to do this is to create an investment category in your budget and make your contribution. YNAB also simplifies the process of tracking your spending by allowing you to connect the program directly to your bank and credit card accounts to download transactions. If I move $100 from the available balance of the rainy day fund to cover overspending elsewhere, then the Allocation chart for the month should continue to show 0, not -100. I appreciate your feedback. Is my understanding correct, or is there another way to view the breakdown I've described with the savings on-budget? YNAB is built to allow you to maximize handling real expenses, and that's why it's recommended that you create specific savings categories with specific goals (implied or in the software) that will support your needs. Isn't the budget itself that very report? I think that's the opposite of what you said? To me, that's the same as right pocket=checking; left pocket=savings/buffer/emerg. There was a problem submitting your feedback. If you don't need those benefits, then you are absolutely correct that one only needs one account, because your categories sequester the money for you. That needs to happen regardless of whether the transfer has a category assigned or not. But don't tie yourself in knots making sure that the balance in your savings account equals the balance in a specific grouping of categories. It costs what it costs, and lower priority demands on your money have to compete for the remainder of your income excluding that amount. Maroon Drum Hey, Maroon, this is probably the wrong thread in which to ask that question, given that the consensus here (to which I now adhere) is that savings accounts should be on budget. nolesrule Thank you! I like to think my suggestion is a little better than the Balance Over Time report. Best practice is described above: budget savings, use savings accounts on budget, and separate categories from accounts. With two accounts, a Savings and Checking account, there is the added hassle of moving money from Savings to Checking. Other features are similar. What Rule 2 means is to break down your non-immediate expenses, the money you wouldn't necessarily keep in a checking account, and budget the money into categories. It promises to help you pay off debt, save more money and create a flexible budget that makes it … . I'll give it a try and see if it works for me. Saving is good. Move Light Sound Life said, "Working towards a normalized budget will help you feel like you can confidently fund those categories sufficiently.". Thanks for making me think about it again. I do not budget from savings: only from checking. The amount of money in your categories is defined by your priorities for your money. But you can if you want to—there are two options: While activity in budget accounts will appear in all three reports — Spending, Income v Expense, and Net Worth — tracking account activity appears only in the Net Worth report. I suppose all positive changes to budgeted values could go in the planet pie, and all negative changes could go in the moon pie. Move Light Sound Life you're right, I should have said actuals plus nominals, with the actuals typically being negative. It seems to defeat the purpose of having a Savings account, which by nature is designed to sequester money from your regular working account. Fungible means that the electronic representation of $1 in an online savings account … Follow the YNAB rules and give it a chance to work as intended. If you 100% didn't want to budget the amount in your savings account, you should leave it in tracking. Things don't sink in as fast as they used to. EDIT: as for whether Rent (or Entertainment or Transportation or whatever) is X% of your income, what does that matter? Can I somehow set $1000 as the goal for that budget category and say that it has been filled? For me, doesn't it make sense to keep that account as a tracking (off-budget) account, since I don't want to include its balance in my available? Because I wasn't funded on my true expenses yet, I was unable to completely fund my categories to where I wanted them. But I think it would greatly reduce the feeling of scarcity most people get from a YNAB budget. This category is where Mint and YNAB begin to differentiate themselves. . However, it was and is recommended that you put your savings account in the budget group because the method teaches giving  dollars a job and PURPOSE. It's a curiosity but non-actionable. If you use a credit card, it's important to select the Credit Card account type because of how these accounts work in your budget. And while we're at it, if you simply use PayPal as a faster way to checkout and send/receive money in your other accounts, you don't even need to add it at all! I have the honor to be your obedient servant. An important distinction between the two budgeting apps is that Mint offers investment and credit score tracking, while YNAB does not. I'm going to keep my savings as a tracking account. How would I show that account balance growing unless I transfer the funds? We'll see if I change my mind. Showing a negative value to illustrate a shortage seems intuitive. With YNAB your savings doesn't depend on what account it is in. How will this report clarify things or bring guidance? Tracking Accounts hold money you don't plan to spend soon, such as investments, or loans you're paying down. How do I reckon that $1000 as emergency fund within my budget now that I'm in the middle of a month and not starting out? You are probably already funding savings categories based on a target balance or a monthly contribution amount. It also keeps track of all your spendings and earnings, thereby telling you how to budget savings in YNAB. The budget chart is pretty straight-forward. I have 3 checking accounts and 3 savings accounts. so my budget accounts it will still look like spending. Likewise, if I have to replace my tires, the tire company isn't going to charge me based on my income. Fair point. I agree; although, I don't think the idea is contrary to the YNAB methodology either since the Spending report already reflects your category groups are percentages. 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