I feel the same as Vibrant , next month's income is VERY high priority. I used to prioritize savings and never seemed to get a month ahead on budgeting. Forest Green Commander I find it most efficient to categorize those Jan. checks directly to the holding category. For whatever reason, it never occurred to me to RECATEGORIZE the income transactions. Just click “HOUSING” and type your preferred title. This follows YNAB’s Rule # 4: Age Your Money. We had a similar experience when we started ynab. I have continued adding to that category with the aim of building it up to one month's expenses (now over $5K). After it's said and done, the holding category will always be 0 when looking back at budgets or reports, the income will still be income. YNAB dropped the budgeting 1 month ahead features, it’s one of the reasons I switched to Mint. then as you go, build up the monthly. Want to budget more than one month ahead? On the last day of the month allocate all those dollars to the following month. Move Light exactly nails the rational for the "release on the last day" advice. You can release it on Sept. 20th and distribute it if you don't expect any more income. As mentioned, you can always reallocate the money to your EF if an emergency comes and you still haven't built that up (fingers crossed you don't have an emergency!) Take some of your EF and fully fund the month of January. It will come in handy should you lose your income, although I hope you never have to deal with that! KrypticPhish Opinions vary on this one. My question regards sinking funds, for those "emergencies" that should be planned for like a pet getting sick or needing to replace a broken cell phone. YNAB says new budgeters typically save $600 in their first two months and more than $6,000 in their first year. When you sign up with Personal Capital, you … Don't leave anything in TBB or the Income Next Month category. Many use goals to make this a one-click affair. We are officially retiring and moving to another state near the end of 2021. If you have more dollars in income for January than you "need" to fund your February categories, that's an awesome problem to have and it becomes a bigger-picture discussion - can I start saving more for my next car, is my Job Loss fund where I want it to be, can I increase my retirement contributions, etc. It lets you highlight categories of interest and make them more visible at a glance (lock screen / widget.) One Month Ahead. YNAB is an online budgeting software with humble roots that has grown into one of the most popular destinations online to plan your monthly finances. After a break that was far too long (and that paved the way for our lifestyle inflation), in 2016 I realised I needed more. Again, no big deal assuming sufficient funds in the holding category to cover the deficit in TBB. JoeDid I never noticed that setting. $20 in groceries and $5 in transportation—shown in the green pills below. At some point, you will again have money in TBB that can go toward the holding category (and next month), and the process repeats: Move money you don't need that month into the holding category. And I guess the reason you wait for the next month before releasing the fund into TBB is link to what you shared before in this thread, that leaving TBB nonzero is not a good idea. I wonder why they can code it to work in the arguably more complicated scenario, and what is basically "Amount Spent Last Month" is indeterminable til the 1st. LOL, Wendy Valencia  You might be interested in the third-party app Allowance for YNAB. My question would be then what would be the impact to leave the money in that holding category until the month flips for real? Nothing special, release on day 1 if you like. When I decided to get serious about budgeting, I had a sneaking suspicion that limiting my spending would do me some good, but I had no friggin’ clue where to start. I'd say that true even when only partially on last month's income. Do you think we should take it out of X, Y, or Z?". My husband and I are a full month ahead in our incomes and have been for a while. One of the benefits of the new cloud version of YNAB is the ability to set goals for the future. I’ve been talking about the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle the past few days, but what I didn’t tell you yet is that one of the best parts of the bundle is that … If you release at the end of the month, you might have a day or two of needing to watch for SFTF. In the end, everyone should be looking at category balances, and the money should be budgeted in accordance with joint priorities. Then at the beginning of the month, you can budget it all out. Reallocate from your EF category to fund the categories in the CURRENT month you would normally fund when you are paid. It seems like filling all categories at the beginning of the month from the buffer has increased my attention to budgeted spending and the savings has now increased as well. Hope you don't mind if I add a related, I think, question. And while this may not be the case for others, in the process of getting a month ahead I actually found and reclaimed money in the budget that I didn't need. Taking that money screws up that plan and makes for potentially a lot of work. I guess the reason you wait for the next month before releasing the fund into TBB is link to what you shared before in this thread, that leaving TBB nonzero is not a good idea. After using YNAB since August, I recently did a budget re-set and transferred funds from our emergency fund into our checking account so that we could get a month ahead - or really, just a paycheck ahead. I'm trying to get away from moving money from my EF category to cover overspending since the it messes with my goal (so many details,lol). A common choice of category name is (creatively named!) 1. I just may not be doing it quite like any of you. Forest Green Commander this is just my take - once you are budgeting on last month's income, you shouldn't be leaving any "extra money" in the next month category. Forest Green Commander You got the first part. There would be plenty of time to get TBB to $0 on a timeline that is not exactly "recommended practice". After using YNAB since August, I recently did a budget re-set and transferred funds from our emergency fund into our checking account so that we could get a month ahead - or really, just a paycheck ahead. That new behavior is worth every penny I'm paying for the subscription. Getting a month ahead means that you are able to fully fund July with income received in June. 6 of My Favorite YNAB Features. (i.e., money meant for Oct.) into the holding category with a budget entry (rather than directly categorizing the transaction). If you're paid multiple times per month, I'd prioritize getting ahead. YNAB is free for students. Can someone clarify for me how this "one month ahead" works? I’m using Option 1 based on past reading on this forum in the topic, I also found your post on the topic really useful thanks Move Light Sound Life. My take is the money that's just sitting there for such emergencies is doing nothing until you need it. It's a slight tweak on what you're already doing that provides a progress indication. It could take up to a year . Either use the Move Money tool by clicking on TBB or use the inline calculator to add to the existing negative budget entry. From that point I will just start another 'emergency' category of $1K. TechieM2 I've given up on the black hole that is feature requests, and I know I sound like a broken record "=("Toolkit." It doesn't matter when you receive your next paycheck, you'll know exactly where those dollars are needed as soon as they're in your account. I have been struggling ever since YNAB switched over to the new platform to figure out the best practice way to designate income from this month for next month. They just swipe the CC without any thought as to the ramification of that spending decision. Since that's obviously a priority, we'll have to spend less elsewhere. IF, and I repeat, IF, I actually needed to reallocate from those future categories for an emergency, then so be it. Knowing myself, I will probably forget to do this within month so I'd like to understand the impacts. That way, by the 1st of the month, we have 100% of the income we will spend for the month and do not need to time our expenses based on … Personal Capital will help you manage your money. Each month, you ha… I have read this a few times and am somehow just missing something! How the money gets into the [TBB Next Month] category should mirror how it gets out again. If this has already been covered in a previous post, just let me know. I've been trying to figure out the month ahead and just filling goals under the next month when possible, but the organization of it doesn't sit right with me, i cant seem to get a good view on where I am, I also have a decent amount of cash in my EF and my money says its aged 80 days or something but i assume that's just because of my savings account. This makes it a little easier to add to it (e.g., if you have leftovers later in the month) or pull back (e.g., if you were a little too optimistic about allocations elsewhere). Here's one description of specific workflows I would recommend (elsewhere in this thread) for both the fully and the partially buffered cases (i.e., when all or only some of this month's income can be sent to next month's budget). Just kidding, you may have higher priority goals than being better prepared for those later bills. I wanted to clarify one element here. 7) YNAB has a killer support team and offers free, online daily budgeting classes. So yes, I'd skip budgeting toward those emergency categories until all income can be pushed. In fact, I'd reallocate the EF to facilitate it. Related Articles January 3, 2021 4 Simple Rules for Less Money Stress January 1, 2021 How to Create a Budget Template in YNAB December 30, 2020 3 Habits of Successful Budgeters Your Next Step Budgeting is not restrictive. Money - there 's no difference except visibility your money approach, either still there... Average of your income into TBB and you can play with the heal of the month ahead '' simply that... Medical bills scythe can you elaborate why the EF to facilitate it think, question says November. The summer bills are higher put the remainder in the real world we officially. 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