YNAB Personal Budget Software & Finance Forums

[tawniasboys]

I have been looking forward to buying and using ynab in 2010 - just bought it last week and will run it together with Quicken for the next couple months, getting my buffer set up and all that. But . . . how do I get a buffer set up? I set up all my accounts so I have a huge amount "available" for November (with my efund and all that) and then just set up this month's income as supplemental. Is that right? Does it automatically create the buffer for me, or am I missing an important step?

I thought it was all automatic, then hit a statement in the online help about not deleting the buffer category or something like that - of course I can't find it again.

I'm just making sure I'm not messing up already (lol) Thanks!!

[YYC27]

Categorize this month's income as Primary. That will defer it until next month.

The statement in the online help refers to those who aren't starting off with a buffer in place already, who need to save up to the point they can switch over to primary income.

[WairereRose]

Check the getting started cheat sheet available in the library of helpful threads through my signature. That will walk you through the steps.

[Maggie Magpie]

Not a stupid question.

Enter your cash on hand which, of course, would include your buffer. Assign the amount that "equals your monthly net income" to Income: Primary. This "Income: Primary" is your buffer and it will be sitting in "next month" waiting to be spent on next month's assigned tasks (expenses, emergency fund, debt, etc.). Assign the balance of your cash on hand to your categories for this month. Anything you don't use this month, will roll over to next month. As each month comes around, you will evolve, tweak, and adjust each category. I also highly recommend you sign up for the free 3 hour tutorial that Erin does.....you can look up the schedule somewhere here in the forums.

I hope I got that right because that's the way I look at my own budget. LOL!!

[tawniasboys]

Thanks! Yes, I can see the income from this month as "available" for next month. Now on to the next question - if I don't want my efund to be marked as "available" next month, how do I do that? I want that money in the account, which I already have set up, but I don't want it to be around for spending if you know what I mean (I'm okay with it, but if my dear husband gets it into his head to start messing with things . . . ) - is it going to automatically roll over as available when Dec starts?

I am going to do the tutorial - thanks for that suggestion!!

[YYC27]

If you create an emergency fund category, and budget out whatever amount to it, that money will no longer be available to spend. Any positive category balances roll forward to the next month, so this money will never be available for you to spend until you consciously move it out of the category (or, I suppose, record a transaction directly against that category).

[Maggie Magpie]

Hello again,

You could either do as "YYC27" suggests and set up an emergency category and put this e-fund money into that. OR, you could put it into the actual emergency fund physcial bank account and do not show it at all in your YNAB. In other words, if you don't see it in YNAB, it will sit quietly "over there" in your emergency fund and won't be taunting you every time you go into YNAB.

[xraymd]

Hello again,

You could either do as "YYC27" suggests and set up an emergency category and put this e-fund money into that. OR, you could put it into the actual emergency fund physcial bank account and do not show it at all in your YNAB. In other words, if you don't see it in YNAB, it will sit quietly "over there" in your emergency fund and won't be taunting you every time you go into YNAB.

Greetings, Maggie Magpie, you might be meaning the same thing but the solution working for me about not showing my e-fund account in YNAB has been to hide the account. That way, I do keep track of how it's doing in YNAB (so I am forced to look at it at least once a month when interest is paid to it that I have to account for) but since I keep it hidden, it does not display on the register and I have to take a specific action to unhide it to see it.

The current accounts I truly do not have connected to YNAB at all (at this point anyway) hold funds I don't have any personal access to without a LOT of pain - like my 401(k) retirement accounts. Those accounts are not simply hidden; they are not there. The e-fund is under my control and I do have access to it, but hiding it has worked to keep it out of sight, out of mind while still letting me maintain it at the same console as all my other visible, day-to-day accounts.

xraymd