Jeremy, Bloomington, MN
When we purchased YNAB two years ago, I was teaching 3rd grade at an elementary school in Illinois. My wife, Diana, worked as an Occupational Therapist in the local school district. We are now living near the Twin Cities in Minnesota. We have 3 children. Our middle son was adopted from Thailand and our daughter from India. I’m the administrator of a school serving infants through 8th graders. My wife stays home and does a fantastic job nurturing the growth and development of our two youngest children.
When we first heard about YNAB, we were in desperate need of financial organization. We had $33,000 in debt, not including our mortgage. We were in the middle of adopting our daughter, which would add upwards $20,000. I was completing my Master's Degree, struggling to pay tuition without accruing new debt. Financial stress impacted every aspect of life. We never really knew if we could afford something.There was very little consistency from month to month. We also made a poor financial decision to add on to our house and went way over budget. We had this awesome, big home, yet still found ourselves--all four of us--huddled together on one, little couch in the living room! We blew a lot of money on something we didn't need and couldn't afford.
We decided we’d rather have what we need, prioritize our wants, and get our finances under control, rather than allow them to control our lives. We started using YNAB, and realized we were not living within our means. We developed our first actual budget and stuck to it. We sold some possessions and, eventually, sold our house. It was a relief. We bought a smaller home we could comfortably afford and the downsize was worth every penny. Even after using YNAB for only a month, we felt more in control of our lives. Skeptical at first, (we’d tried using traditional finance software in the past) we loved that YNAB had a way to track spending as well as a budgeting aspect. The budget portion of the software really helped us organize a plan of attack in regards to our debt and spending.
After nearly two years of using YNAB, we’ve paid our adoption expenses without accruing any debt, as well as reduce our debt by over $20,000. I earned my Master's Degree and we paid my tuition without taking on any student loans. We currently have $10,000 in old student loans and a home mortgage. We do not have any credit card debt, car loans, or personal loans. In addition to this, we have successfully become a one-income household, allowing Diana to be a stay-at-home mom.
Feeling like we have control of our finances is empowering. It has opened up communication and we tackle our financial goals together. This level of communication has improved our marriage. We have a plan for managing our existing debt and we are living within our means. Money is no longer taking center position. We can now focus our energy on the important things in our lives.
The software really helped us organize a plan of attack
