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Very simply: consistent budgeting. We (my wife and I) go envelope-style and budget/plan or money every paycheck. I swear it's magic that turns money into more money.
It's also let us systematically pay off all our non-mortgage debt and save/invest a large amount over the last decade. Now we have enough that we don't worry about money anymore.
The single most important thing I've ever done for my finances was learning to budget so I could have a plan and manage my money on purpose.
Heard of YNAB? You need a budget.
Great for envelope budgeting!
Yup! I'm a fan and a current customer (have been with them over a decade)... except that it's kinda expensive now. For people new to it I'd recommend actualbudget instead and just do manual/semi-manual imports.
How is actual these days? Development was rocky in the early days of open source so I left for plaintextaccounting. Based on the discord seems to be waaay more vibrant now.
If we had good bank imports and more flexible/robust reporting, I may go back
I'm a big fan of budget with buckets, which allows you to import via simple fin bridge. One time $50 payment, also unlimited time trial. I used it for about 4 months before paying up.
YNAB is so fucking confusing
Yes - there are many aspects to it. Got anything you want to jam about? I'd like to give you some responses, if I can. Let's find the ynab community?
No thanks. I find it easier to use structureless system where I enforce the rules rather than software to do it for me.
Like I track my expenditures, and I have a rough envelope system set up between my two banks. Each paycheck $1k goes into an account that handles all bills plus savings, with most of them on autopay, and any remainder goes to a different bank and I use that card for whatever I feel like.
All I remember from trying to use YNAB is it somehow concluded I had $50 when I actually had like $150 and there was no way to override it.
I was working as a freelancer at the time and there was no way to answer its “How much is your regular recurring paycheck?”
I don’t need something inflexible like that.
I saved up a small buffer and I swear it’s like magic too. Like somehow money is abundant. This is a tiny buffer, maybe 1.5 months of expenses. But even that, I have like zero worry about money and it seems like I always have tons of money.
It doesn’t seem to make mathematical sense. It seems like I have more money than I should. Not just the buffer but in my checking account.
I can’t really explain how it doesn’t make rational sense how much money I have right now. My income hasn’t changed but I’m like always having more than I need. I’m honestly a little freaked out.
Same here. When you're struggling financially, it can feel easier to stick your head in the sand and not deal with your problems. Unfortunately that solves nothing.
At some point in my career, I spent a few years in banking. Banks treat money with a very cold and emotionless attitude. The goal is to extract the maximum value out of every dollar and you're either getting the most value or you're not. That experience shaped a lot of my views on money. I started budgeting and tracking all my expenses. It took a few years but today we're in very good financial condition.
Banks don’t try to get the most value out of money. They try to get the most money out of money. Money doesn’t really have value until you trade it for something else.