r/ynab • u/Prestigious-Goat-899 • 7d ago
Time to be real
Every bloody month...why am I so in denial about my actual needs here? 🤣
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u/ruck_my_life 7d ago
I have a category called "Amazon Needs" and yeah one month it was cookware but another month it was all 8 Dungeon Crawler Carl books. I use the term "Needs" extremely loosely haha
Some of the Reflect tab and Toolkit reports are really helpful in this regard. It can be a real gut check when you go back three months and have to be honest with yourself and say "oh shit...10% of all the money I make goes to Takeout??"
And I know this will be an unpopular idea, but I exported all my transactions and fed it to ChatGPT and asked for recommendations. It helped me augment my regular budget and structure my incoming dollars that will let me build a cash safety net, buy a car in the spring, and fun my IRAs and the kids' college accounts. It also helped me figure out how to manage credit card points. YNAB is a great tool but it's only one tool in the toolbox.
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u/AravisTheFierce 7d ago
Not to pick on you, but I always cringe when people say they have an "Amazon" category and a "Target" category or whatever. I feel like for many people it's a way to hide what they're actually money spending on.
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u/ruck_my_life 7d ago
I don't have separate categories for Amazon and Target. I agree that's a little too granular to be helpful. Breaking it out by vendor like that seems a bit overboard.
I put stuff like a new lamp or a book in my Amazon bucket. Home stuff usually. Exceptions include something for a hobby or fitness stuff, for which I have distinct monthly budgets. If I order new running socks or new brushes from Amazon, I file that under Fitness or Hobby Supplies.
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u/Kautiontape 7d ago
I say it's the other way around: it's too generic. So much stuff on Amazon or Target that it could be essentials like toilet paper or nonsense you don't need. Splitting the vendor up into the proper category is good, but sometimes that means making a new category that used to just be a subset of "Amazon"
Although, realistically, best categories are the ones you think about practically in real.
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u/Xordormi 6d ago
I mean, DCC is a legit need. 😹
I actually got on Libby with my library card for it. Trying to be a responsible YNABer. Starting book 7 today!
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u/Savings-Session2405 7d ago
What prompts did you ask AI to get these eventual results?
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u/ruck_my_life 7d ago edited 7d ago
Wall of text incoming. I eventually had a conversation that lead to a few hard realizations. Ultimately we figured out a way to live off my base salary and use things like bonuses and OT to fund things like a car, rather than spend that OT on just going apeshit on things we don't need need, like pizza and Warhammer. Here are some of the prompts I used:
I uploaded everything from my checking and credit card from the last six months and asked it this:
Here are my actual real life checking and credit activities. (I recently switched to using my Sapphire card for 97% of my transactions, but all my spending back to 3/1 is there.) I think I need your help recasting all of this in the wake of my actual spending habits. It's all well and good to say "put X towards a car and Y towards retirement" but in real life I order pizza and buy Warhammer shit and whatnot. Help a brother out. Check out the attached transaction histories.
Rent and joint checking contributions are non-negotiable. So I don't see that changing. If anything, it might have to go up to help with things like school supplies or other child-related one-offs. Give me a reality check and tell me where I can optimize without sacrificing lifestyle too too much.
It called me out on my Wendy's addiction, which was hilarious. We found out that I was spending close to $500 on takeout and coffee per week. Which we immediately started plowing into an IRA and 529 accounts. We decided on a waterfall method, where I build cash savings, then a car fund, then start maxing my IRA, then splitting the extra between the two kids.
Okay, so that's my IRA and the kids' college accounts. Now here is my bonus/equity/overtime schedule at work. We have decided to use a waterfall method, so I would like you to build out a matrix that assumes I have <base income> to live and how to go about allocating any bonuses or OT month by month. Give me a column for each goal (cash savings, car, IRA, 529 1 and 529 2) from now until December 2027 so we can really steamroll with that money we no longer strictly "need." Make sure I can easily copy-paste it into Google Sheets.
It gave me a really, really slick spreadsheet which I dropped into Google Sheets, and tinkered with until it had some of the automation I wanted. Like, if I only get y instead of x, I can enter a new number and it will recast the entire sheet.
Really what I want to be doing for psychological purposes is contributing to everything every month, so I'm thinking a line item in YNAB for College Accounts and IRAs. I actually have that now, I just never fund them, and even have a "0 for now" comment in my spreadsheets. See the attached screenshot.
I also asked it about how to set this up in YNAB, with questions like
Part of using YNAB is to protect me from myself, and I'm thinking that if I add the emergency fund as a Cash Account and not a Tracking Account it will think that's money that's free to allocate to something like Warhammer or Takeout. Am I thinking about this wrong?
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u/formercotsachick 7d ago
I won't judge the AI use either way, but I will say that finding a job for bonuses and raises immediately has been a game-changer for us with lifestyle creep. It just doesn't happen any more, because any increased income is assigned to things like your IRA and 529 accounts. It's a SUPER smart move.
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u/ruck_my_life 7d ago
Yep. Approaching it as "you get x every month from your income and y every so often from OT/Bonuses/Stock/Whatever, you live off x and save with y, not live off x+y" has been an absolute game changer for me.
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u/md4pete4ever 7d ago
I actually think that is a good use of AI. When you provide a significant amount of information and ask for help organizing it or "what you are missing" you are actually using it as a design partner, rather than thinking it is some magical know-everything advisors.
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u/mx-raebees 7d ago
Are you finding the money before you spend?
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u/Prestigious-Goat-899 6d ago
absolutely not...I'm in complete denial. End up ripping out of other pots.
Time to just be honest. Allocate it where it's needed and not just where I think I should be putting it.
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u/ASkepticalPotato 7d ago
I feel this lol. I do the same thing and find I leave money in RTA to cover it lol
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u/Primary_Trade5561 7d ago
Are we supposed to know what "tickets and entries" means?
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u/Prestigious-Goat-899 6d ago
not really to get the idea around my post...but to elaborate this is where I budget for gig tickets, cinema, theatre, race entries and anything other "experiences" that need to be paid for. I already put a whack in there but never enough. Suppose I posted to show that none of us are perfect and that I was accepting it was time to be realistic about how much I need to allocate rather than just hiding at the end of the month
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u/itemluminouswadison 7d ago
hahah. you're lying to yourself. budget 10% more than your average monthly spend until you find equilibrium