YNAB You Need A Budget

[letseatpaste]

I think I've seen this suggestion or something similar to it before. I'd like to be able to set a goal based on a category amount and a target date and have it show progress and possibly tell me how much I will need to budget each remaining month to meet the goal on time. I think this would be a nice motivational tool if you could click on a tab and see all your goals and a visual of progress all at once. You could use it for saving up a certain emergency fund amount, new car, vacation, new computer, etc... My wife and I used to track this manually in the spreadsheet we used before switching to YNAB3.

[rholme]

Can't you just use YNAP as it is?
Divide the amount with the number of months and budget that amount every month. Then each month you'll see the available amount rise until you have the necessary funds.
That's how I do with all my savings.

[letseatpaste]

Can't you just use YNAP as it is?

Yes I can do the math, but then why shouldn't I just use Excel? Or paper and pencil? Because YouNeedAPudget is more automatic, more convenient, and has features that make it easier and quicker to use. With this feature, with one click I could see a visual representation of my progress on various savings goals.

[Joel]

I also would like some sort of Goal tracker system that could be tied to specific category goals with the possibility of deadlines... would be cool to see the progress and make for some neat reports...

I currently have to keep my goals in seperate excel spreadsheet which should not be necessary as well

I know the work-around about typing the numbers in... but goals is definately somethign I want in the long-term to be implemented.

[KittyCanuck]

A Goals feature with graphs would be awesome at some point! Some of us are very visual - it's one thing to see a balance number go up, but it's another thing entirely to see a chart that shows where you've been and close/far you are from your goal. I love the one over on INGDirect.ca, especially since it has a "projected" line that estimates how soon you'll reach your goal, based on your current activity.

[Malisa]

I go back and forth how much or how little YNAB itself should be 'improved', but I have already decided that one of my projects this week will be one of the suggestions in the threads linked below. I've paid off the last of my 'little' debts and it will be a LONG time before I get the satisfaction of saying goodbye to a debt. So I need some kind of motivation. I'm fine with it being outside of YNAB.


personal-finance-f9/topic6165.htm

post40092.html#p40092

[jesse]

Taylor and I actuall spec'd out Goals for YNAB 3. It just didn't make it into the first iteration. It's not super high on our list, but it's one I personally want

[roxybear]

Yeah!!! Me too

[kenbard]

Yes!!! I would like much

[Fireproof]

Taylor and I actuall spec'd out Goals for YNAB 3. It just didn't make it into the first iteration. It's not super high on our list, but it's one I personally want

Cool. I think it would be a cool addition, but agree it's not as high priority on my wishlist as some of the other things I hear being worked on.

[avlor]

I'd like to see goals for saving too! This would really be helpful!

[amphora]

Typically, I would say I don't really care about visual motivators like goal charts, but I opened a SmartyPig account a few months ago and gosh darn it, I love seeing my piggy being colored in and the big bold percentage number. It is satisfying in a way that just seeing the number is not. So, yeah, if one day you could do something fun like that for YNAB balances that would be awesome!

[thorin]

I'll add my wholehearted support to the idea of a goal tracker. For me, it's not so much about the motivation of seeing progress toward the goal, but simply having it be obvious 1. That this category isn't ongoing, there is a goal, and 2. What the goal is so I know when to stop budgeting money into that category. I forget things. Right now I'm using notes but that requires me to remember what the note is and look at the note and and and...

[noodle]

I would love to see something like this. For example, if I need $1200 in my insurance fund for an annual expense, i can (as someone mentioned), simply divide that number by 12 and add 100 to that catagory each month. But, what if I can't always put in that amount and am short or over some months? There is no way to tell if that envelope is on track or not. I'd like to know how much my total planned amount is so i know if i need to add more next time to round it out...i won't be able to keep all of my catagory balances in my head of how much i need each month or annually in them.

[TF2]

Automating some of the goal tracking would help a lot. Make the tool enter the default Budgeted Value in a Category needed in order for the category to reach a certain saved amount on a specific future date. (Rule 2) It would calculate the Budgeted value for a Category when Quick Budget is used by subtracting the saved amount from the desired amount and then dividing by the remaining months. If I have to adjust the budget and fall behind (or get ahead) in a particular month the category budget default for the following months are changed to meet the goal.

This would be used for something like saving for an insurance bill or saving for children’s braces where I know more or less how much and when the bills will come due.