If You’re Serious about Budgeting, Try This App

If you’re ready to get serious about budgeting—and have the time and discipline to truly dedicate yourself to it—then YNAB is the app for you. YNAB, which stands for “you

need a budget,” employs the zero-based system, a popular budgeting technique that requires you to account for every dollar of your income. YNAB is a no-frills app designed for

people trying to curb their spending who want to be hands-on with their budgeting. The app’s price, $14.99 per month, or $98.99 for the year, reflects the fact that it’s meant

for serious budgeters. But if that’s you, the cost can easily be worth it—which is why Buy Side from WSJ named YNAB the Best App for Hands-on, Zero-Based

Budgeting.     How to use the YNAB budgeting appWhen you first get started with YNAB, you’ll plan out your monthly expenses in detail by creating spending buckets for each

category, such as groceries or travel. You’ll fill the buckets with cash each time you get paid. Connect the app with your credit card account and it will record your purchases.

Cash transactions can be easily recorded as well. You can enter upcoming bills and their due dates and indicate whether they get paid monthly, quarterly or eventually, a distinct

feature that gives YNAB an advantage over similar apps.YNAB pros Forces you to be proactiveEasy to see spending progressYNAB requires you to be proactive. You need to take action

on every transaction by assigning it to its specific category. But this can be a virtue: You’ll see where every dollar of your income goes at the start of each month, which will

force you to be more mindful about your spending. Adding cash transactions is simple thanks to an “Add Transaction” button that offers a searchable list of every vendor

you’ve ever paid. YNAB only allows you to allocate money you already have, which makes it difficult to go over budget. Each category has a progress bar that starts yellow and

transitions to green when it’s fully funded with cash. The bar turns red if you’ve already exceeded your spending limit, for a given category, which helps you know well in

advance if you don’t have enough money to cover all your expenses. If this happens, a prominent “Overspent Categories” banner appears at the top of the home screen; click it

and you’ll be able to transfer surplus cash from another category, The app helps ensure you can make your credit card payments each month. If you use a credit card for a

transaction, you can mark it as such, and YNAB will automatically designate this amount for your next credit card payment. YNAB consCosts more than rivalsTricky to link bank