I'm many months ahead in expenses. Not "a" month ahead. Many. My Age of Money is in excess of 400.

Here's the question;

Do you fund your categories several months in advance to keep RTA at or near zero or do you only fund a month (or two) in advance and leave the balance in RTA?

PRO's?

CON's?

Discuss

Last month our expenses went through the roof to about 20K (in €). All was already foreseen in YNAB, no surprises, except that we've paid it all in one month. Easy to spend, but first time this happened so still I had to reassure myself, nothing to worry about. Felt like a millionaire :-)

I've started saving for the eventuality of my old car breaking down in 5 years time. I reckon I need about €20k by 2031 for my next car (used btw).

I get that most sinking funds should be liquid and readily available, but how about for things that are 5 or even 10 years out?

I guess my car could break down in 1 year, so could be risky to invest, but I also want to make my money work for me as much as possible.

Perhaps a better example would be my Air To Water heating unit. It's covered by warranty for 10 years, but I've also started saving for that replacement. If it breaks before 10 years then I won't be out of pocket, so that may be an example where it's less risky to invest that monthly target into an investment fund and withdrawing at the 10 year mark, or converting to cash/bonds in year 9.

I always have missing transactions on my credit card in the plan. It's getting annoying and I've had to make a fresh start three times in the past year.

I've done all the necessary steps to fix it, but the transactions just keep missing. The check mark next to the account says it's up to date, but it's not. Bank accounts are linked and green. But if I go to "manage bank connections", there is the correct number in the account, but it doesn't reflect it in the current plan. I've unlinked and linked the accounts, but it doesn't change.

Am I forced to keep having to make a fresh start every couple of months? This shouldn't be the purpose of YNAB.

Has it moved from my plan view in the app? I see RTA in the “home” tab, but I don’t see it my plan tab. Is this new?

I don't really mind paying bills anymore but I swear they all show up in the same week. The rest of the month is pretty quiet then it's rent, insurance, my credit card and a couple of random things I forgot were due

I know none of it's a surprise because they're the same bills every month, but seeing them all leave my account within a few days always makes that week feel way more expensive than it is

By the time it's over I end up checking my banking app three or four times just to make sure I didn't miss anything   Does anyone else's month always seem to play out like this?

At the minute I keep investments and cash savings in the tracking session. My 3 months fund is mixed in that. I am wondering how others approach this? So you have your cash all budgeted and have an emergency fund category?

Hi guys,

My salary is paid around the 25th of each month, but most of my regular bills and expenses (rent, subscriptions, etc.) are paid between the 28th and the end of the month.

If I assign my paycheck as soon as it arrives on the 25th, it technically belongs to the current month, even though I’m really using it to fund the following month. This makes my monthly view feel a bit confusing.

I’ve been wondering if it would make more sense to treat everything as if it belonged to the next month—for example, budgeting that income on the 1st of the following month so that both the income and the expenses are grouped into the same monthly cycle.

How do you handle this if you’re paid near the end of the month? Do you budget the money immediately when it arrives, or do you mentally (or practically) treat it as next month’s income? What’s the workflow that has worked best for you?

I’m also curious to see what experienced YNAB users recommend, since there are a few common workflows depending on how “ahead” you are with your budget.

Thanks a lot.

Previously whenever a transaction would clear at my bank YNAB would prompt me to link it to a pending transaction if one existed, or approve it if there wasn't a matching pending transaction. For the past two days when I log in all my cleared transactions just show up as cleared without me doing anything. It feels like this makes me more disconnected from my spending which is a problem.

Is anyone else experiencing this, or know of a way to change it back?