#136 - Our Favorite Things to Do In YNAB | 2026 Edition

#136 - Our Favorite Things to Do In YNAB | 2026 Edition

From Budget Nerds by You Need a Budget

March 11, 2026 · 59 min · Episode 136

About this episode

Ben and Ernie revisit their favorite features of YNAB, discussing new tools and classic methods for effective budgeting.

Nearly five years ago, in a very early episode of Budget Nerds (before the podcast feed!), Ben and Ernie discussed their top three favorite things to do in YNAB. Today they are revisiting that concept to share what still lights them up about using YNAB. Some things include slick new YNAB features such as focused views, others hearken back to the simple beauty of giving every dollar a job and reconciling accounts. Ben's current top 3: Reconciling accounts -- in typical nerdy fashion, Ben reconciles manually before his pending transactions clear with the bank, then compares the balances afterward to ensure they match. It's the harder, but (for him) more satisfying way. Moving money out of overfunded accounts with "fill up to" targets . Ben uses a lot of targets that require him to fill up to a target amount in the category, but not all of those dollars are used every month. By using the overfunded focused view, he can pull those unneeded dollars out of the overfunded categories and voila! It's like finding $20 in the pocket of your jeans. YNAB as a system of record . Ben's librarian comes through here. YNAB isn't just a tool for managing your money, it's also a useful database of…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ben, Ernie

Topics covered

  • budgeting
  • financial management
  • personal finance
  • YNAB features
  • account reconciliation

Keywords

  • YNAB
  • budgeting
  • financial tools
  • account reconciliation
  • money management

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: YNAB

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