This is too cool not to talk about. Congrats to Dan Paddock, who’s now famous :)

Kiplinger’s Laura Cohn interviewed Dan, who’s been using YNAB since January. My favorite part:

He and Meyka were inspired by new friends to buy an old 30-foot sailboat they found on Craigslist for $4,500. The boat, named “Miss M,” after Meyka, provides an oasis of calm on the weekends, when they drop anchor in the local bays. “We now know we can be content with less,” he says.

Read the entire article.

I Wanted to let everyone know that the Your Money Bus tour is stopping in Kansas City. Free 90-day trials of YNAB Pro will be given as part of the Tools and Resources made available to people that stop by.

YNAB is sponsoring the Your Money Bus Tour to help raise awareness about personal finance (the foundation of which, is sound budgeting!). Stop by for some advice from some very qualified experts!

Read more about it here on Fox (Watch specifically at 1:30 for the YNAB mention :) ).

Budgeting can make dreams come true — really.

I’ve been wanting the ultimate driving machine for quite a while now. I think since I was seventeen or so. My wife finally caved and I was able to buy one!

My wife’s main concern was the fact that it’s pretty flashy (I chose silver). She said she didn’t want it to go to my head, was concerned about what others would think, etc.

None of this would have been possible except for the fact that we’ve been disciplined and calculated with our finances. This budgeting thing really works.

Take a look at my dream come true!

For all you people waiting to be able to run YNAB Pro on your Mac (and Linux)…

Taylor sent me a screenshot today of the first looks of the Register in an AIR App. I became giddy. Sure, only a few things work on it, but you could navigate from the Register to the Budget…

Everything’s still subject to visual change…

The back-end programming is all very much in there. We just have to put a pretty face on it. I wouldn’t say it’s the equivalent of practicing and practicing for your play and then just having to apply the stage makeup…there’s more to it than that. But we’re getting there.

I’ve thought about sending her a t-shirt.

Or maybe sending a courier with a copy of the software.

What would you say to Jen to convince her?

Check out her blog post and leave a comment :)

I couldn’t figure out how to embed the video here. It’s over in my Facebook profile. Link.

We’ve done somewhat of a quiet launch, and I’ve been working for the past few months in the background on some great content for people that are serious about saving some money. Today I’m happy to announce YNAB’s Savings Tips.

What do I want you to do with all the extra money you’ll find?

Build your buffer…pay down debt…whatever you want!

Shannon emailed me this morning, reporting on the outcome of using a YNAB Savings Tip: She bought a $170 wall hanging for $34:

When the associate arrived, a young thing not more than 23…I looked her in the eye and said….”I love this picture, unfortunately there is a little damage to it. Is this the best you can do?” and waited…..

Finally the associate pointed out that the picture was already 75% off and she could not go any further. I countered with the fact that the wall hanging that was not damaged sold for the same price. At this point she offered to call other stores to find a wall hanging without damage. I am ashamed to say that I caved….I wanted that wall hanging and knew that just a little wood glue would fix the damage. But it doesn’t hurt to try right?

Imagine my surprise when I got to the register to pay for my fantastic find when the manager came up and said” Ma’am, I’m going to take a little more off the wall hanging for the damage!” WOW! I picked up a wall hanging worth $170 for $34!!!!

I look at it this way…..the worst someone can say is no….just ask!

Shannon saved an additional 20% off the list price using a very simple, tactical YNAB Savings Tip.

Taylor (yes, the same Taylor that is YNAB’s lead programmer, working magical things with 1’s and 0’s) just skyped this to me yesterday:

A $350 savings (plus more insurance) isn’t all that bad!

How Do the Tips Work?

1. They’re free. We’re saving money here.
2. They’re simple, doable, and relevant. I’m not talking about being a miser here — at all.
3. ONE tip, each week to your inbox. Implement just one per month and you’ll likely save over $1,000 in the course of a year (heck, the tip I wrote last week will probably save you that all on its own).

Sign Up Now

Happy to report that Mrs. Micah loves YNAB.

YNAB loves Mrs. Micah as well. If you’re a freelancer (who isn’t these days?) then you’ll need to subscribe to Mrs. Micah’s blog.

Finances + Freelancing = Nightmare

OR

Finances + Freelancing + Mrs. Micah’s Tips = Fantastic

Your call!

Your life will never be the same.

Don’t take six months to get there. Don’t do it halfway. Don’t waste time.

Sell every gadget. Sacrifice every luxury. Work every minute. Eat in.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run…

This isn’t pie-in-the-sky talk: I promise it will change your life.

Oh my.

YNAB Pro on Amazon has received many, many favorable reviews (thanks to everyone that’s written one!). However, apparently, too many positive reviews are a bad thing. From one reviewer:

Don’t be mislead by the lengthy positive reviews for this product, they appear to be fake.

Ouch!

One commenter further solidified this rock-solid assumption:

Awefully suspicious how there are so many five star reviews on this product. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another product on Amazon (esp software) rated so high. Thanks for this post; this makes me nervous and I am steering clear of this product.

Alas. I suppose too many positives do make a negative… if you’d like to leave a review, be my guest. But please make it real ;)