Why YNAB is Different | YNAB (2024)

FAQs

What makes YNAB different? ›

By assigning every dollar to a category right when you get paid, you no longer feel like you can spend money on frivolous purchases even though you technically have money in the bank. That's the beauty of YNAB: it makes you feel like you have less money than you do, which makes it much easier to save.

YNAB gets you organized so you know you have REAL money set aside for every upcoming expense. That practice means you can start to automate your bills without having to worry about going into overdraft. This is especially true when you start following Habit 4 and get a month ahead on your finances.

Mint let you set goals for longer term expenses, and then you had your "budgets", or amounts for monthly expenses. YNAB uses targets set on categories to tell you how much to assign to stay on track (we imported your Average Spending amounts from Mint as targets in YNAB).

In less than two weeks, the budgeting app Mint — which once had 3.6 million active users, including me — will shut down forever. According to its parent company, Intuit, Mint wasn't making enough money, so Intuit began the app's closure in January.

If you pay monthly, YNAB costs $14.99. If you decide to use the app long-term, you'll save some money by springing for the annual $109 plan. Is YNAB worth paying for? If you're willing to commit to zero-based budgeting, YNAB can be well worth the investment.

Jesse Mecham is a personal finance expert, speaker, business leader, and the Founder of You Need A Budget (or YNAB if you are very busy and important).

If you prefer a zero-based budgeting approach, EveryDollar may be the best fit. If you're looking for a more comprehensive financial management tool, Personal Capital may be the way to go. MoneyPatrol is one of the best YNAB alternatives. Another important factor to consider is cost.

All data sent between your computer and YNAB is bank-grade or better encryption. YNAB forces your browser to use an encrypted connection and won't let your computer talk to our servers unless that connection is secure. Specifically around the traffic encryption, we use 128-bit encryption (AES_128_GCM).

What budget app is better than Mint? ›

Empower. If you're looking for a free online budgeting tool now that Mint has shut its virtual doors, Empower may be worth considering. Formerly known as Personal Capital, Empower offers free budgeting services along with a spending tracker. The app also has investment management tools, but those services cost extra.

Mint will go offline March 23, 2024.

The Mint budgeting app officially shut down on March 23, 2024, and users can no longer access their data on the app. Intuit®, which owns Mint and other personal finance platforms like QuickBooks® and TurboTax®, suggested users migrate to Credit Karma, which it also owns.

Cons. The biggest drawback to YNAB is that you'll need to do some manual work. This might include entering transactions (if you don't link your accounts or you pay in cash), categorizing transactions, and assigning funds to each budget throughout the month.

YNAB lets you operate with current information and makes it easier to manage money with a partner. Anyone with a phone has access to the info, all the time—no excuses. Real-time updates make it easy to trust your financial plan. YNAB's integrated loan planner helps demolish debt.

The Principle Behind YNAB Rule 2

When you treat all expenses like monthly expenses, you can allocate a specific amount of money to each category every month, reducing or eliminating peaks and valleys in your monthly spending.

Your YNAB composes of a single Budget with different amounts of money allocated to different categories. PocketSmith on the other hand, allows you to create several budgets - a budget per category. You can create your own custom categories or bring your existing ones with you.

Yellow negative Available amounts are credit overspending.

If you spent with both cash and credit cards in your overspent category, YNAB takes the cash out first for accounting purposes, since those dollars have actually left your bank account. So, a blend of overspending types will show as red.