YNAB You Need A Budget

[flpd1556]

I recently stumbled upon YNAB in June 2010. I took the 7 day trial, and officially purchased the software on June 4th. That was the best $59.95 I've ever spent. For years my wife and I have made horrible mistakes with our finances. In the past 14 years, we've been through 19 cars; includung the 2 we have now. We've always had a car payment. Whether it was leasing or purchasing; ever year we've had a car payment! At one point, I was paying over $1,500 a month on 3 leased vehicles. Being born and raised in Detroit, I felt compelled to be seen in a nice car. We never had any money saved. We never went on vacation. We've always lived paycheck to paycheck.

Another financial killer for us was the payday advance stores. Sometimes I went to 4-5 different locations during one pay period. I was married to those places. By the grace of God, we didn't go under.

It came to a point where I became sick and tired of living that way. I felt as though I was failing my family by not properly allocating our money. What woke me up is when I had to make a repair for our recently purchased home. Luckily, the repair was only $99.00. At that moment, I said I had to formulate some kind of plan to to turn our finances around. After doing lenghty research on the internet, I came across YNAB. Since utilizing it, my wife and I will never look at our finances the same. What's funny is that if a major corporation conducts business without a budget, how can it expect to survive when it's obligated to pay its employees and overhead? The same scenario applies to the regular household budget. I never understood that concept until I found YNAB. Well, I guess I'd better step off of the soap box, but I felt I needed to get that off of my chest.

Lastly, my 16 year old daughter has her first job interview tomorrow. I want to start her off on the right foot. Would it be a good idea for her to purchase her own YNAB software for her computer or can I create a separate account for her on my computer?

Thanks

[medicechic]

Hello!

Welcome to YNAB! I have not been using it long, but it will make an amazing difference in your life. And yes I totally understand the new car thing in Detroit! (Go Wings!) Last time I was visiting family nearby it is amazing all the commercials for leasing loaded vehicles and all the new cars you see on the road!

I think you would be able to install YNAB on your daughter's computer also. I would double check the fine print, but I believe I read recently you can use your copy of YNAB for personal use on multiple computers in the same household. I already have it on my personal laptop and I'm planning to put it on our "new to us" desktop computer my dad is putting together for us from his old computers. Can anyone else verify this?

-E

[mozzie61]

Welcome to YNAB and a new way of living (it certainly is for us).

The EULA specifically states that with your license you, as an individual, can have multiple copies of YNAB on different PCs as long as it is for your own personal use.

This old post has more detail

I'm not sure if copies for family members in the same household counts as "individual personal use", so it may be best to email support to confirm. Either way it's a great investment for your daughter's financial future - I wish YNAB was around when I first started work.

Good luck and good budgeting.

[Carl Fredricksen]

Welcome to the board. I am fairly new as well, as I got the program at the beginning of June. But I was very excited to start a new fully planned out budget today. Very good program for organizing what was just a fly by the seat of our pants lifestyle before.

Glad to have you on the boards, and Welcome!

[shandsh]

my epiphany was last autumn when my favorite cat turned ill and I was unable to take her to the vet until it was time to have her put to sleep and even then I had to pay for the euthanization with my credit card. I was so ashamed of myself and grieved as much over my guilt for allowing her to die as the death itself.

[flpd1556]

Shandsh,

Sorry to hear about the loss of your cat. Hopefully, we can both learn from our mistakes and turn them into positives. You definately have support here. I know what you're going through-trust me.

Bill