12 Ideas to Customize Your Budget with Focused Views
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- Hello, easy breezy budgeting! 👋🏻 YNAB's Focused Views allow you to scrounge up any selection of unique categories into ONE easy-to-access view, making for quicker, more focused budgeting. Tune in to hear 12 of the unique ways YNABers have been using Focused Views in their own budgets!
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:42 How to Use Focused Views
2:46 Idea #1: 50/30/20 Rule
3:38 Idea #2: By Car
4:15 Idea #3: Checking vs Savings
4:55 Idea #4: By Paycheck
5:11 Idea #5: Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle
6:05 Idea #6: By Partner
6:43 Idea #7: Reluctant Partner
7:07 Idea #8: By Kid
7:30 Idea #9: Fun Day Out
7:56 Idea #10: Shopping Trip
8:09 Idea #11: Categories to Empty
8:34 Idea #12: Dreams / Inspiration
9:08 Outro
9:39 Bloopers
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Because I’m just starting and have a pretty tight budget, I’ve created a focused view that says “tiny amounts” so when I have a little bit of extra left over, I can toss the extra into places that need it! Fun money, saving up for something more frivolous, etc.!
I have a "Dreams Achieved" view. I click on it when I feel like I haven't done much with my time or money and feel stagnant in life. I used to just use the Green Check mark emoji ✅, but It's nice to see all the things my money has done for me. It doesn't really guide any of my spending decisions, but it does make me feel good about myself. Also, I get to see when I caught a killer deal on a particular item. I got a camera used instead of new and got to see the little pie chart forever half-filled and greyed out.
“Focused view” is great…I created one for “Yearly-This Month.” I have a category group for ALL yearly expenses that are one time yearly repeating expenses listed in order by month/day (software renewals, birthdays, memberships, etc.). So now, instead of looking at them ALL, I check the boxes for the current months items and can look at only “this month’s” yearly items. So yes, once a month, I manually go in and change which items are checked, but it’s easy. Before, I would hide the “done” yearly items, but that creates a lot of work at the new year start (these all have to be un-hidden). Having these custom views gives new perspectives on looking at categories and it is definitely a big feature.
Loving the views. I use them as “sub categories” like all of our subscriptions in our Bills category group.
One thing I hope is on the plans for this type of feature is in the reports section. Being able to view reports based on quick views would be awesome to see averages over time for specific groups of spending. 😁
Wow! I had NO idea these views were customizable. This will make YNAB infinitely more useful and, dare I say, fun to use. Thank you!
Oh this is just so perfect for what I need! My other half was always YNAB resistant and found it way too overwhelming while I am a real budget nerd and LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE my spreadsheets, lists, saving tips, budgets, goals, targets, net worth and so on. So while it soothes my mind looking at my budget, he finds it tiring. And voila, focused view called Call Down Honey created with five categories he is looking after. Thank you YNAB and Hannah... your bump is the cutest :)
I have a 50/30/20 view for myself too.
At the beginning of the month I also transfer the money that I won't be using for my immediate expenses (saving categories, wishes, etc) from my bank account to a few different investments accounts, so I grouped my categories according to the investment account where that money will be allocated so I can easily see exactly how much money I have to transfer each month.
I'm using YNAB for business budgeting as well and made a focused view for "New Money". So when I get new money in my business, I can divide it up by percentages (Profit First Method). I'd love to see more videos on how people use YNAB for business!
50/30/20 rule is a great idea
I really like the idea of focusing the checking and savings balances! I’m one of those who has their savings categories all in one group and the numbers MUST match 😂 My car is getting old and in September I’m going to pretend I have a car payment. However, I’m really going to put the money in the savings. My brain will take it more seriously though if I put the fake car payment up in monthly bills. This is a perfect work around! I still plan to finance in about a year but I need a big enough down payment to get the monthly payment to be as low as I want it. 😅
Thanks Hannah and team for some really cool ideas! I’m going to reflect on how these approaches might enhance my budget and can see myself using one or more of these.
The only custom focused view I’ve set up so far is for manual bills. I prefer automation yet there are still a handful of bills I need to remember to pay monthly, quarterly or yearly. Once a month, by selecting my manual bills focused view, I can quickly check whether or not I have paid those bills. I know I’ve already paid the monthly ones when the available amount is zero or very low. For the non-monthly manual bills, checking them once a month keeps them on my radar so I know I’ll remember to pay them when they’re due.
Nice. I use recurring scheduled transactions for those. I flag them Red for “Action Needed.” I don’t approve the transaction until I completed the action to get them paid. I change the flag to “Action completed” and approve the transaction. So that covers those payments that I can’t schedule with a recurring Bill Pay payment from my bank. The transactions sit unapproved until I do what is needed so it’s a constant reminder.
These focused views are just what I was craving for. Nice!
I use focus views to analyze my fixed expenses and guilt free spending. Since these expense don’t live in one category group it’s help to collapse the noise with a click of a button.
Stumbled on this the other day. This is FANTASTIC. I plan to create views for bills based on which week during the month the bill is due. That will provide a quick view to make sure I have properly funded things I have coming up in the near term.
I can definitely see myself creating a focused view by paycheck. Our end of month pay period is much tighter and seeing that with one click instead of a full scan would be really nice.
I used a vacation view last month. It included vacation, travel, and family dining.
Well my focused view is on you Hannah!! Congratulations!!! 🎉
Love the focused views. Thank you for some stellar ideas.
I LOVE the idea of having bank account specific focused views!! I have a few Ally savings accounts with buckets for different things, left over from the pre-YNAB budgeting days. I haven’t brought myself to get rid of that extra headache yet and consolidate the bank accounts, so I’ve been manually reconciling, adding up categories from several different groups. Making focused views for those would be a game changer!
It took a year, but l finally accepted I didn’t need all the checking and savings accts.
I do have some extra savings accts that I want separated as a visual that if I start tapping those accts, the ship is going down 😆 (emergency reserves for which ever emergency takes it first; income replacement).
I totally agree. I have a few savings accounts too I used for saving for specific things (Ally and 3 others). The focus tab for each account will be a time and headache saver.
Great video!! I’m a huge fan of the Checking and Savings focus view! Thanks a ton for the ideas!
We’ve started using the focused views for “first half” and “second half” of the month payments. Namely bills / expenses that are due in the first half of the month (mortgage, water, electricity, tithe) vs those in the second half (student loans, Costco) etc. kind of the paycheck views idea #4
I love the Monthly MUSTS category idea! I dragged all my monthly musts to the top of my budget but the category view will be a better way to do it. Thanks, Hannah! :)
Sweet! Now I've got some good ideas for how to start using focused views.
Thanks for this, I needed some tips for using focused views!!
Love the one for Emptying. Have several that I empty every month or two.
I love Empties! I will use this often :)
i have some categories that’s cash based so the focus view has been such an amazing feature!!
Brand new YNABer here! I love it; it took me a couple of evenings to pull together a pretty comprehensive budget. Now, to see it (and tune it along the way) in action. One thing that came up is realizing how many projects I want to save for, and can begin to now. But, in the startup month or two, they need to sleep. So, I made a focused view of those categories named "Stay Asleep". I expect to just snooze them when I rollover into the next (first new!) month. But this way, I can keep them on my radar and ease them in once I have a handle on my REAL budget.
Love that! Snoozers! I always have some "dream categories" in my budget that I'm not ready to start funding just yet, but also want to keep them on my radar like you so I can start funding them one day. I have a new video coming out on snoozing targets soon, so keep an eye out for that to see some of the other ways snoozing targets can come in handy!
🌻 Hannah
@@YNABofficial Snoozers! Just renamed the view! 👏
😂🤣
🌻 Hannah
I wish there were a way to see reports using focused views (or flags - either work!). So, each focused view/flag becomes a category group.
I love focus view, matching bank accounts.
I use Overspent, and then I created Weekly, Monthly, True Expenses, Kids. My wife gets paid weekly, I get paid every 2 weeks (until next year when it shifts to bi-monthly). Weekly covers eating, groceries, pet expenses, make it go (gas, tolls, etc), weekly investments. Monthly covers all of our monthly payments. True Expenses cover all of our True Expenses. And Kids covers the True Expense of having adult kids!
Thank you for sharing 🎉Heard from budget nerds- On the Go & Rule 3 focused view😊. I requested a functionality when moving money- be able to pull up only Rule 3 view or any specific view 😮👍🏼
I just changed my category groups last week to checking and savings. Then my category group budget for the month will match my income going into checking and savings.
I need Hannah to come set my budget straight! 😂
I love focused views.
Anyways can you guys try a little harder not to break the ynab toolkit with every other update? ;)
Haha!! This!!!
I love the Empty focused view idea, but I am confused about how to set that up. There aren't any criteria to set when selecting the categories you want in the focused view. How do you set it up to show all available money?
See I never really used the goals function except for a couple, because it always threw me off in terms of how much money to have in (bills, etc, since my goal was having a couple months worth of funding in each of the bill categories for example)
I'm working on getting a month ahead so I have a "month ahead" view that lists the categories that I have funded. That way I can stay consistent in my progress and make sure I fund those categories before the current month ends.
How do you do this? Doesn’t it show the current month in the focus view?
Great ideas! One question as a very new YNABer... These focused views seem really similar and in some cases, the same, as some of the categories I have (like Dreams...)... Am I missing a key difference? Thanks!
Not really very different. A lot of experienced YNABbers were wishing for a way to sub-categorize or would debate if category groups should be themed or time-based, or whatever. These views allow you to just have it ALL! :)
Can a budget line/category be part of 2 or more focus views? Ex. rent can be part of 50% wants, can also be part of pay cut off 1 and savings focus view.
Absolutely! One category can exist in several different focused views.
- Ben M 🎨
I was intrigued by Kats focused view of “empty” (?) and her process of throwing all the extra left over from regular expenses back into ready to be assigned. This seems to digress from YNAB’s teaching about saving a month ahead. Seems her method would counter that worthy goal ???? 🤷♀️
Not necessarily the case -- you can budget directly into a future month by selecting the month at the top. So one could be fully funded for the next month, and still empty out unused funds from certain categories in the current month. 👍🏼
@@meskobe I guess that’s true. Three months ahead is probably a better cushion than one month. But you’re point is well taken.
How would you setup the 50/30/20 view?
That's all up to you! It takes a little bit of number crunching on your end and knowing what actually makes up your needs / savings / wants.
But, the idea is use HALF of your income to accommodate all your needs (housing, utilities, food, transportation-all the important stuff) and collect all of those categories into a "50 Needs" focused view.
Determine what 30% of your income is, and pour that into your various savings categories (emergency fund, car repair, home repair, medical, new car, whatever!) under a "30 Savings" focused view.
And then the remaining 20% of your income can go to all the fun stuff (subscriptions, fun money, hobbies, whatever!), of course, all housed in a "20 Wants" focused view.
Again, this will take some number crunching on your end to figure out how much money should actually be going where, and YNAB doesn't *necessarily* abide by the 50/30/20 rule, but for those who like to use it as a guideline focused views can help keep your categories sorted into 50/30/20 categories without having to abandon your category groups!
🌻 Hannah
I was convinced that the best practice is to minimise the amount of categories?
It all depends on how your brain thinks and operates! For me, I like to have MORE granular categories to ensure that each expense I can pinpoint in fully funded. Some like to have LESS categories with more of a general budget, because spending plan with a bajillion categories stresses them out.
For example, we have a separate category for Netflix, one for Hulu, on for Disney+ (yes, we use all three of these often!), whereas some people like to have one general category that they filter all of their streaming subscriptions (or ALL of their subscriptions in general, not just streaming) into. Do whatever suits your peace of mind best!!
🌻 Hannah
Do y'all sell swag?
You want to pay to advertise for them? Do y'all give swag away for free?
Only in limited runs! If you keep an eye on Instagram, that's probably your best shot for knowing when our next merch drop will happen.
- Ben M ✏️
I just wish the focused views were unlimited!! 😞