We needed a better way to manage our money.

And it turns out, we weren’t the only ones…

YNAB tree logo
A photo of Jesse Mecham

Early in 2003…

Julie and I (Jesse) married. Living on love was great and all, but we still required food, shelter, and textbooks for school. (Yes, we were still in school.) I knew we would need to watch what little money we had very closely. So, I began developing a system that grew into something quite useful. It really boiled down to four simple rules:

  1. We decided what we wanted our money to do before we spent it.
  2. We broke up larger, less-frequent expenses into manageable “monthly bills.”
  3. We changed our plan as needed.
  4. We only spent money that was at least thirty days “old.”

Living this way, and seeing how absolutely invaluable the four rules were, we wanted to spread the word. YNAB (“why-nab”) launched in September 2004.

YNAB today

Today, YNAB is driven by a small (but growing!), passionate team. We are building the best method for money management out there. We hear reports every day of lives being changed: debt paid off, marriages saved, opportunities seized, stress eliminated, and sleep rediscovered! When you gain control of your money, you gain control of your life and it feels great.

The YNAB team at the Palm Springs retreat in 2022

Our team

The YNAB team is a diverse group that loves our product, our customers, and working with each other—a lot. We live all over the world—from Boston to Brazil and Portland to Poland and everything in between. Right now, Taylor, our co-founder is, well…we don’t actually know where he is, but you get the idea. Whether we’re into musical theatre or science fiction, building drones or homesteading, riding motorcycles or long-distance running, we agree YNAB, with its ability to change lives, is something really special.

Want to join us?