Thanks so much! I started YNAB just a year ago and I’m so proud of how far I’ve come. You and Hannah have been such an important part of that! I paid off my car a whole year early by giving every dollar a job, but now I need to dig in and figure out where I go from here. Today’s video was exactly what I needed! Thanks again for all your hard work!
Hey Nick! I'm so glad you made a video about this because I've been thinking about how I can better utilize reports ever since you shared your love of reports with Ben and I on Budget Nerds. That convo also inspired me to change up my category structure and now I'm pumped about how that new category structure will feed into reports. It's going to be a lot easier for my wife and I to see if our values are lining up with how we spend our money. Hope you're doing well!
The net worth graphic is great for me for motivation for debt reduction. I agree - didn’t use it much starting out with YNAB. Needed several months just to track expenses, then used the data to better adjust goals/spending. Start of new year added more asset and all liabilities to follow my net worth better.
Love this. I'm right there with you - didn't use the net worth report much at first, but it's really motivating later on once you've got the hang of the basics.
Just the "average spend" feature towards the end of the video was mind blowing (and I've been using YNAB for 1 year!). 2 people, average spend $919/mo on groceries - YIKES! We barely eat out, but still. Now I know I need to both up my budgeted amount for groceries AND lower my spend (I was aiming for $450, now I'm going to make that $800 and try to get it down from there). Thank you!
Again, it was a real pleasure to watch your video. I learned a lot about YNAB data analytics but also about the psychology of budgeting as an awareness plan. After watching this video, I must admit I steal your master categories :)
So helpful, thanks! I recently got one month ahead, then adjusted some categories so that my income is now aligned with my my ‘underfunded’ amount!! So glad to see you highlight this as a component for budgeting success. 🙂
Hi Nick, the toolkit has had a few updates since you last did the video on your favourite toolkit features (which I found really helpful!). Was wondering if you'll update it for any of the new features that have been added since?
Hey Kevin! I totally should do that, you're right haha. I've got a lot of videos I want to make and this one hasn't been top priority, but I'll see what I can do and if there's enough new features that make it worth it to do an updated video! I will definitely try to get an update out at some point in the next few months. Right now I'm working on an overhaul to my main beginners guide video that hasn't been updated in 3 years haha!
Hi Nick! Thanks so much for this useful video! Quick question, how did you get these greeen/orange/red horizontal bars underneath your goals on the budget screen?
Nick True - MappedOutMoney - I've got to ask you question, my man, though the video is two years old. I'm just not understanding this and don't know if it's a software bug. I did all my careful budgeting for Sep. 2023. The available to budget seems suddenly broken. It's stuck on 1448.95. For example I just spent 1.58 on cookies lol, and I'm way over-budgeted on snacks. So, the available to budget should drop to $1447.37 immediately after I enter it, right? It IS showing that I over-spent by $240 bucks in September but the damn number is stuck on $1448.95. Unless I've lost my mind. Help! ??? Thanks.
Where is “Available to Budget”? I’m wondering if you mean “Ready to Assign”, or if there’s different versions of this program. I just (re)started this month too so I’m glad for the company 😀
This was really helpful! I wish there were a way to exclude a month from the reports. I just moved, and had way more expenses than usual just for one month, and it is throwing off all my averages!
Hey Sam! Glad it helped, and good thought. What I would do in this situation is typically when moving I create a "moving expenses" category and throw most of them there. Any sort of extra fees associated with things like maintenance, gas, even some eating out... I'll throw it into the "Moving related" category. Usually I get very specific like "Moving March 2021" so that I can then see how much I had associated with the move and also I can simply filter that category out of my reports. A move is always going to have some impact, but that might help a bit. Thanks for watching!
Great video Nick. I as well enjoy reviewing the "Trends" report and the "Income vs Expense" report. I do have to admit I prefer using an Excel file that I made to keep track for quarterly net worth statements over importing it all into YNAB (I have way too many accounts, my life is probably more complicated in this regard than it needs to be). I liked your tips on sitting down with goals, this is one thing both professionally and personally I struggle with, it is hard. I do not know if it is because I do not want to write them down at the risk of failing or what? I also have been happy for the most part and constantly improving professionally and personally, so maybe that is why it hasn't taken a focus. However just because things are going well doesn't mean they cannot be improved or go even better, hence this is something I am working on this year as well as journaling. I pretty much have heard about everything you discussed today based on following you guys for so long now and getting into YNAB, but I still always enjoy your content as it serves as a good reminder/bringing things back to front of mind, or reaffirming that my processes are going well when they coinside with your walk throughs.
Hey thanks man, I always appreciate you watching and taking time to comment. Yes, I totally get the resistance to thinking through the goals and vision piece. If you're feeling that resistance, I would just encourage you to focus on keeping it super super simple. Even if it's just a few bullet points like "enjoy my day" "spend time with family" etc... And then making sure your spending aligns with those core values. Definitely don't overthink it. Glad you like the reminders even if you've heard a lot of it before! Nick
Is there a way to make custom date setting, rather than going from 1st of month ? say the 14th to 14th of each month. helpful for those not yet a month ahead
Thank you for this!.... On the topic of categories and reports, what are you doing when done with a category (if you ever get those kayaks - lol). If you hide a report does it still show in report?
Thanks for another great video! Is there a trick to getting that empty space between the progress bars and the goal amount? Mine is all squished together for some reason.
Great info! Thanks for taking the time to make this. Are there any security/privacy concerns with Toolkit as an extension? I’d love to get it and that’s my only hesitation.
Wow Nick!! Thank you for sharing this video!! I totally loved the LIFE VISION part to make sense to the entire financial work!! 🙌 I love the reports, eventhough we struggle to keep YNAB up to date, since we have 3 different currencies (live in Mexico, earn in USD and spend some things in Nicaraguan córdobas!) 😪. What we do is to convert everything into USD, so we can have the reports. I have asked YNAB for a currency convertor, but they recommended to have different budget for each currency, but that precisely kills the consolidation of the reports! I also thought about having separate budget for each currency and do the consolidation in excel, but seems like a lot more work... 🤔 Any experience or hints with these? Thanks for all your great work!! 🙏🙏
LOVE your videos! Currently on the free trial.. Question: Can you delete categories you’ve already used with no problem? Saving for something or an event, once I buy it or event passes can I just delete the category?
Hey Juliana! You won't want to delete the categories because you need the data for history - but you can easily "hide" them or move the categories to an "inactive" group. Just right click on the category name and select "hide" so you can easily handle this! Nick
Great video thank you! I’ve been able to takeaway a number of great tips. Just one question - if you hide accounts because they are completed etc, will they still appear in the reports to show your spending history?
Hey Jay! Good question, they will appear in the reports - but unfortunately they all get lumped together into a "hidden" category group and it's hard to see them. So what I do is when I'm done with a category that I no longer need I drag it down to the bottom to a group I call "Inactive Categories" I let that Inactive Categorires group just hang out at the bottom of my budget and stay out of sight, but it is nice to have the historical data easier to see than when they are hidden.
Enjoying your videos Nick. As I'm budgeting fortnightly, to match my pay cycle, is there a way in the spending (pie chart) report to choose actual dates? As opposed by the months?
Link personal capital to YNAB? I don't believe that's possible since PC is another budgeting/tracking tool and not a bank/broker itself. If you're talking about their linking anyways. I've never tried it though. If you're wanting more data on the net worth, Personal Capital is good for asset allocation break downs.
This was interesting and helpful. Thank you. So...how many people pointed out the typo in your life planning report? You have January 2024 listed in there. :)
Glad it helped! Not sure what you mean by the typo? I recommend doing planning for 1 yr, 3yrs, and 10yrs. Thus January 2021, 2024, and 2030 But I’m sure there’s a typo somewhere, haha I’m bad about that!
On my income and expense report it doesn’t show the total income amounts at the top of the report. My category for income show up further down on the report. I have a category for income which breakdown where the income is coming from these amounts show up in my registry.
Yes, this is a common mistake. You've created categories for income - which you shouldn't do. Instead, you should categorize ALL types of income to the "ready to assign" category. That means all income (salary, dividends, interest, your spouse's salary etc...) then you use the "payee" in the transaction line item to differentiate the type of income. Hope that helps!
Download MY YNAB Checklists: mappedoutmoney.com/ynab-checklist
Quick Jump Sections
0:00 - Intro
0:22 - 3 Main Reports
0:37 - Toolkit Reports
1:05 - Favorite Report
3:10 - How Reports Help
4:05 - Income v Expense Report
4:55 - Net Worth Report
6:11 - 3 Step Planning Process
6:48 - Step 1: Vision
7:46 - Step 2: Goals
8:55 - Step 3: Use YNAB Data To Adjust
12:16 - Most Important Comparison
13:46 - Toolkit For YNAB
Thanks so much! I started YNAB just a year ago and I’m so proud of how far I’ve come. You and Hannah have been such an important part of that! I paid off my car a whole year early by giving every dollar a job, but now I need to dig in and figure out where I go from here. Today’s video was exactly what I needed! Thanks again for all your hard work!
Fantastic Michelle! Great job paying off your car, that's amazing. I'm proud of all your hard work. Glad you liked the video.
Hey Nick! I'm so glad you made a video about this because I've been thinking about how I can better utilize reports ever since you shared your love of reports with Ben and I on Budget Nerds. That convo also inspired me to change up my category structure and now I'm pumped about how that new category structure will feed into reports. It's going to be a lot easier for my wife and I to see if our values are lining up with how we spend our money. Hope you're doing well!
Thank you so much for the videos! You’re the reason I use YNAB! Just wanted to wish you and your wife good luck and blessings! Keep up the good work.
Thanks Alexander! I really appreciate that. Glad the videos have helped and best of luck to you as well!
The net worth graphic is great for me for motivation for debt reduction. I agree - didn’t use it much starting out with YNAB. Needed several months just to track expenses, then used the data to better adjust goals/spending. Start of new year added more asset and all liabilities to follow my net worth better.
Love this. I'm right there with you - didn't use the net worth report much at first, but it's really motivating later on once you've got the hang of the basics.
Just the "average spend" feature towards the end of the video was mind blowing (and I've been using YNAB for 1 year!). 2 people, average spend $919/mo on groceries - YIKES! We barely eat out, but still. Now I know I need to both up my budgeted amount for groceries AND lower my spend (I was aiming for $450, now I'm going to make that $800 and try to get it down from there). Thank you!
These graphs are so useful - I feel like I could lose hours playing around with them! Thanks for the great vid!
Haha same! I’ve definitely spent a LOT of time with them!
I would just like to say I really enjoy your content and it has helped me learn a lot. On top of that you seem like a cool dude! Thanks for the help.
Hey thanks! So glad that the videos have been helpful for you. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Means a ton.
Again, it was a real pleasure to watch your video. I learned a lot about YNAB data analytics but also about the psychology of budgeting as an awareness plan. After watching this video, I must admit I steal your master categories :)
Thank you so much for making this video. It was very helpful for me.
THIS was super helpful.thank you!!
Question tho, goals vs targets... are they the same? I recently added some targets but i dont know if they all do the same thing in the end
So helpful, thanks! I recently got one month ahead, then adjusted some categories so that my income is now aligned with my my ‘underfunded’ amount!! So glad to see you highlight this as a component for budgeting success. 🙂
Awesome, glad you enjoyed the video!
Very informative and helpful!!! Thanks 😊
Hi Nick, the toolkit has had a few updates since you last did the video on your favourite toolkit features (which I found really helpful!). Was wondering if you'll update it for any of the new features that have been added since?
Hey Kevin! I totally should do that, you're right haha. I've got a lot of videos I want to make and this one hasn't been top priority, but I'll see what I can do and if there's enough new features that make it worth it to do an updated video! I will definitely try to get an update out at some point in the next few months. Right now I'm working on an overhaul to my main beginners guide video that hasn't been updated in 3 years haha!
Fantastic video!!!
Thanks Mike! Appreciate you watching.
Hi Nick! Thanks so much for this useful video! Quick question, how did you get these greeen/orange/red horizontal bars underneath your goals on the budget screen?
Nick True - MappedOutMoney - I've got to ask you question, my man, though the video is two years old.
I'm just not understanding this and don't know if it's a software bug.
I did all my careful budgeting for Sep. 2023. The available to budget seems suddenly broken. It's stuck on 1448.95. For example I just spent 1.58 on cookies lol, and I'm way over-budgeted on snacks. So, the available to budget should drop to $1447.37 immediately after I enter it, right?
It IS showing that I over-spent by $240 bucks in September but the damn number is stuck on $1448.95. Unless I've lost my mind.
Help! ???
Thanks.
Where is “Available to Budget”? I’m wondering if you mean “Ready to Assign”, or if there’s different versions of this program. I just (re)started this month too so I’m glad for the company 😀
@@102mzr Thanks. A different version and definitely a bad bug. Company said they'd try to help.
This was really helpful! I wish there were a way to exclude a month from the reports. I just moved, and had way more expenses than usual just for one month, and it is throwing off all my averages!
Hey Sam! Glad it helped, and good thought.
What I would do in this situation is typically when moving I create a "moving expenses" category and throw most of them there. Any sort of extra fees associated with things like maintenance, gas, even some eating out... I'll throw it into the "Moving related" category. Usually I get very specific like "Moving March 2021" so that I can then see how much I had associated with the move and also I can simply filter that category out of my reports.
A move is always going to have some impact, but that might help a bit.
Thanks for watching!
if you have everything moving relatet in one category you could just exclude it. would not work for networth of course
@@mappedoutmoney - really good tip!
@@mappedoutmoney Ah, I did setup a moving expense category, I just didn't think to filter it out. Thanks so much!
@@TheSilliestGoos3 No problem, happy to help!
Hey Nick. Thank you for your videos man. Love the report walkthrough. Quick question. I’m a Mac user. What software do you use for video editing?
What do you do about hidden categories it doesn't account for them in the Spending report
Great video Nick. I as well enjoy reviewing the "Trends" report and the "Income vs Expense" report. I do have to admit I prefer using an Excel file that I made to keep track for quarterly net worth statements over importing it all into YNAB (I have way too many accounts, my life is probably more complicated in this regard than it needs to be). I liked your tips on sitting down with goals, this is one thing both professionally and personally I struggle with, it is hard. I do not know if it is because I do not want to write them down at the risk of failing or what? I also have been happy for the most part and constantly improving professionally and personally, so maybe that is why it hasn't taken a focus. However just because things are going well doesn't mean they cannot be improved or go even better, hence this is something I am working on this year as well as journaling. I pretty much have heard about everything you discussed today based on following you guys for so long now and getting into YNAB, but I still always enjoy your content as it serves as a good reminder/bringing things back to front of mind, or reaffirming that my processes are going well when they coinside with your walk throughs.
Hey thanks man, I always appreciate you watching and taking time to comment. Yes, I totally get the resistance to thinking through the goals and vision piece. If you're feeling that resistance, I would just encourage you to focus on keeping it super super simple.
Even if it's just a few bullet points like "enjoy my day" "spend time with family" etc... And then making sure your spending aligns with those core values.
Definitely don't overthink it.
Glad you like the reminders even if you've heard a lot of it before!
Nick
Do you have the kayaks?!?! 😊
Is there a way to make custom date setting, rather than going from 1st of month ? say the 14th to 14th of each month. helpful for those not yet a month ahead
Thank you for this!.... On the topic of categories and reports, what are you doing when done with a category (if you ever get those kayaks - lol). If you hide a report does it still show in report?
Thanks for another great video! Is there a trick to getting that empty space between the progress bars and the goal amount? Mine is all squished together for some reason.
Maybe should've captioned it YNAB Reports Help Achieve Your Life Goals
Great info! Thanks for taking the time to make this. Are there any security/privacy concerns with Toolkit as an extension? I’d love to get it and that’s my only hesitation.
Wow Nick!! Thank you for sharing this video!!
I totally loved the LIFE VISION part to make sense to the entire financial work!! 🙌
I love the reports, eventhough we struggle to keep YNAB up to date, since we have 3 different currencies (live in Mexico, earn in USD and spend some things in Nicaraguan córdobas!) 😪. What we do is to convert everything into USD, so we can have the reports.
I have asked YNAB for a currency convertor, but they recommended to have different budget for each currency, but that precisely kills the consolidation of the reports! I also thought about having separate budget for each currency and do the consolidation in excel, but seems like a lot more work... 🤔
Any experience or hints with these? Thanks for all your great work!! 🙏🙏
Very helpful!
Awesome! Glad it helped.
LOVE your videos! Currently on the free trial.. Question: Can you delete categories you’ve already used with no problem? Saving for something or an event, once I buy it or event passes can I just delete the category?
Hey Juliana! You won't want to delete the categories because you need the data for history - but you can easily "hide" them or move the categories to an "inactive" group.
Just right click on the category name and select "hide" so you can easily handle this!
Nick
Great video thank you! I’ve been able to takeaway a number of great tips. Just one question - if you hide accounts because they are completed etc, will they still appear in the reports to show your spending history?
Hey Jay! Good question, they will appear in the reports - but unfortunately they all get lumped together into a "hidden" category group and it's hard to see them.
So what I do is when I'm done with a category that I no longer need I drag it down to the bottom to a group I call "Inactive Categories"
I let that Inactive Categorires group just hang out at the bottom of my budget and stay out of sight, but it is nice to have the historical data easier to see than when they are hidden.
Enjoying your videos Nick. As I'm budgeting fortnightly, to match my pay cycle, is there a way in the spending (pie chart) report to choose actual dates? As opposed by the months?
Great video. For the net worth do you know if you can link personal capital?
Link personal capital to YNAB? I don't believe that's possible since PC is another budgeting/tracking tool and not a bank/broker itself. If you're talking about their linking anyways.
I've never tried it though. If you're wanting more data on the net worth, Personal Capital is good for asset allocation break downs.
This was interesting and helpful. Thank you. So...how many people pointed out the typo in your life planning report? You have January 2024 listed in there. :)
Glad it helped!
Not sure what you mean by the typo?
I recommend doing planning for 1 yr, 3yrs, and 10yrs. Thus January 2021, 2024, and 2030
But I’m sure there’s a typo somewhere, haha I’m bad about that!
On my income and expense report it doesn’t show the total income amounts at the top of the report. My category for income show up further down on the report. I have a category for income which breakdown where the income is coming from these amounts show up in my registry.
Yes, this is a common mistake.
You've created categories for income - which you shouldn't do. Instead, you should categorize ALL types of income to the "ready to assign" category. That means all income (salary, dividends, interest, your spouse's salary etc...) then you use the "payee" in the transaction line item to differentiate the type of income. Hope that helps!
Nick, when you do finally get your Kayaks, you have to do a video only about that....lol. It will probably be your most viewed video...ha ha 😂
Even 3 years later, there are only 2 reports in the app. Is YNAB anti app user? 😢
relationship with Christ?
Yup, our #1 value and driving priority is our faith in and relationship with Jesus Christ.
god's kid - it's a thing