Latest news with #YouNeedABudget
Business Insider
25-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
I retired at 52 and only have enough money to be financially secure for the next year. I'm still happy with my decision
Walter Green worked in IT for 30 years before retiring in 2024. His job's retirement fund match and a six-figure inheritance allowed him to retire early. Green said he doesn't mind working part-time or pulling from investments in the future. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Walter Green, 52, from Northwest Arkansas. It's been edited for length and clarity. I officially retired from my 30-year career in technology at the end of 2024, at the age of 52. When both my parents passed away, at 85 and 91 respectively, it recentered my priorities. I always thought I'd work until the typical retirement age, 65 or 70, but I realized I wanted to retire while I was still young and healthy enough to enjoy it. I experienced euphoria after retiring, but it's not all easy. I don't have enough money to go the rest of my life without working My job gave me a generous retirement match, which I had contributed to for many decades. I also received a six-figure inheritance from my parents, which was the bump that made me really believe I could retire earlier than expected. Still, it's not enough to stop working for the rest of my life. There's this widely accepted idea that retirement means you're done working for good, but I see it as a new phase for me to fill as I'd like. It's a great season to take some time off and do jobs that perhaps pay less but can provide a lot of fulfillment. Before retiring, I started tracking my costs very closely Before retiring, I started using You Need A Budget or YNAB, an online service with a subscription fee. I wanted to truly understand how much money I needed to cover essential needs while feeling comfortable doing some extra fun things here and there. There are some common retirement guideposts to follow, like the 4% rule or having 25x your income in savings, but for me, it felt most important to stick to my basics: food, healthcare, utilities, transportation, and veterinary care. I've used websites such as Boldin, FI Calc, and Honest Math, which have free tools that allow me to view my savings aggregately, predict investment returns, and project future expenses. Retiring was a scary decision, and it felt like a lot was at stake I had some hesitation because what if I found myself in a tough financial position after I quit my job? I questioned whether I'd be able to go back to my old employer or even get a job as an older person with a career gap. I also worried whether it was responsible to potentially impact my family — my wife, who does not work, and our three adult children, who depend on me — by making this decision. The economy changes, personal things happen, and I have a general plan, but I am ready to tweak it as needed. An important aspect of my retirement plan is flexibility. I'm loving my freedom, but it's been stressful spending money I'm loving the slow mornings and freedom of retired life, but it's been stressful spending money without having a paycheck coming in. I have to keep reassuring myself that I have the financial resources to spend money and go do fun things. I'm still fine-tuning my budget, but I find reassurance when I go back to my spreadsheet and see that I have at least enough money to be fully secure for the next year. Despite not having a steady paycheck, I'm happy with my decision I see retirement as a blank canvas of endless opportunity. I can choose to work again full-time, volunteer, or work part-time; it doesn't matter. It's a new chapter of life to find purpose, and I can't wait. I probably think about budgeting and money more than I should, but I've redefined what retirement means to me.
San Francisco Chronicle
30-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Can a budgeting app break up with the word ‘budget'?
People like spending money. People like feeling rich. People like feeling in control. So why don't people like budgeting? Lead educator Erin Lowell addressed this thorny question last weekend in San Diego at a fan convention hosted by personal finance and money management program YNAB, and attended by hundreds of enthusiasts. As she delivered her talk, titled 'Your Money, Your Rules: Designing A Life You Love,' to the crowd, she clicked to the next slide. It was a depiction of Sisyphus: A photograph of a man endlessly pushing a boulder up a hill. That, she explained to us, was what it was like trying to get the general public to feel good about the word 'budget.' A subsequent slide showed words people associate with budgeting: Stress. Restriction. Guilt. Deprivation. Frugality. Anxiety. Shame. Then, a slide depicting the words people associate with what YNAB allows them to do: Spend. Joy. Confidence. Awareness. Relief. On Saturday, hundreds of app users paid to attend a day-long YNAB Fan Fest, where they could hear finance personalities speak, learn about upcoming company news (there's going to be a new book and a permanent online merchandise store) and sip YNAB-branded mocktails while socializing. YNAB began its life in 2004 as an Excel spreadsheet developed and sold by founder Jesse Mecham to make ends meet for his growing family. He asked his wife what he should call it. She told him, 'You Need A Budget.' A method, and a brand, were born. But in the past few years, the word 'budget' has all but vanished from company messaging. When I asked Mecham in an interview last August if his title was still 'founder of You Need A Budget,' he gently corrected me: The company now goes exclusively by 'YNAB.' Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find the word 'budget' anywhere on the website other than where it notes the many, many times it has been named the best budgeting app across the Internet. A 'massive brand refresh' was announced in 2023, with a redesigned website, new logo, and more emphasis on user success stories. In December 2024, YNAB announced a major change to the method itself: Instead of 'the four rules' users had been given to guide their money journey, they'd be prompted with five questions, including 'what does this money need to do before I'm paid again?' and 'what goals, large and small, do I want to prioritize?' A new word had been created to summarize what the platform allowed users to engage in: 'Spendfulness.' 'Spendfulness' is defined as 'the alignment between how you spend your money and how you want to live your life.' It's meant to evoke spending, mindfulness, intentionality and living better — all concepts that are more popular than budgeting. At Fan Fest, I had a chance to sit down with Todd Curtis, who joined YNAB in 2010 and became CEO in 2021, and talk about why he thinks people hate the word 'budgeting.' 'People view it as a last resort,' he said, as a punishment they have to put themselves on when they've exhausted every other option. It makes them feel sad and resigned, he said, and 'we knew all along that people weren't becoming sad or resigned by what we were giving them.' So the company made the decision to pivot. 'It was really key for us to say, 'let's give up that fight. Let's let budgeting have that meaning of restriction and control, and let's let us just talk about something else,' he said. Hence, spendfulness. 'We're a spendfulness app,' YNAB content marketing writer Dan Cayer wrote in the announcement. 'We always were.' That may be true. But in practice, it's also a budgeting app. My budgeting app. I attended YNAB Fan Fest as a member of the media, with a comped press pass. But I'll admit, I also felt like I belonged among the fans. I have been a budgeting nerd since New Year's Day 2017. On that day, I woke up determined to follow through on a resolution: I was going to get on top of my money stuff. I was going to put my skills as a Los Angeles Times reporter to work to find the best way to budget, and I committed to sticking to it for three months. I settled on YNAB, eschewing the 34-day free trial and plunking down the full $89 for the year, hoping a little skin in the game would motivate me. (YNAB currently costs $109 annually or $14.99 per month.) I am not a math person. I am not a numbers person. I had flirted with free apps like Mint before, but had never gotten the hang of tracking my expenses and reconciling what I'd spent with what I had left over. At first, I used YNAB wrong. I calculated my expenses for the month, but we got paid every two weeks and were living paycheck-to-paycheck, so I was never quite sure we had enough to make it to the next direct deposit. But I stuck with it. I put in my three months and then kept going. I figured it out. Over the next few years, I paid off all my consumer debt and saved for a down payment on a Los Angeles-area house, where I'm typing this article now. I can afford to have two kids in day care and still save for retirement and even go on vacation sometimes. I stopped losing sleep at night stressing about money. I started telling friends about my new budgeting wisdom gleaned from YNAB, and then I volunteered to teach interns at the Los Angeles Times about the basics of money management based on what I'd learned. Our then-business editor found out about it and assigned me to write a newsletter about it. Last summer, I was hired to be a personal finance columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Last month, I danced on a television studio stage with Joan Baez. Budgeting changed my life. On the drive back from San Diego, I decided to cool off from budgeting mania by listening to an episode of the podcast 'Money With Katie' where she interviews personal finance writer Dana Miranda. Miranda's new book is called 'You Don't Need A Budget,' based on her viral 2022 essay titled 'Budget culture and Dave Ramseyfication of money.' Miranda holds the opinion — heterodox in the personal finance world — that no one should budget. She equates what she terms 'budget culture' with diet culture, saying it relies on restriction, shame and greed. The idea that you can be 'in control of your money' is an illusion, she argues, and people shouldn't feel ashamed about taking on debt to facilitate their lifestyle, and shouldn't necessarily be in any hurry to pay it off. When people can't stick to a budget, she says, it makes them feel like they've failed twice: first, at making enough money, and second, at having the self-discipline to manage it. Budgeting sells you on what she calls the false belief that a better life is within your grasp, if only you could handle your money better. She argues plainly: Budgeting doesn't work. Miranda says budgeting can't make 'not enough money' into 'enough money.' That's true for some people. But for others, including me, it offered life-changing insights into our finances that told us how much money we actually had and where it was going, and helped us make and stick to plans that turned 'not enough' into more than enough. Some of the people I spoke to at Fan Fest were born money managers: Accountants and CPAs who landed on YNAB after sampling other methods. But others were like me: People with no background in math or money who felt like this budgeting tool put their lives on a better path. I spoke to Monique Beauchamp, a retired therapist from La Mesa who said saving diligently with YNAB allowed her to pay $87,000 in home repairs in cash. And I spoke to Kacy Smith, a former private school teacher from San Diego, who said she and her husband accumulated $70,000 of debt over 28 years of marriage and were able to finally pay it off in 18 months by using YNAB. Alora LeBaron told me she'd cut a trip visiting her dad in Alaska short to attend Fan Fest, where she got a permanent YNAB tattoo — her second. YNAB had allowed her to take a break from her career and work as a barista in Portland, Ore. Could budgeting really be so bad? I haven't sat down and read Miranda's whole book, though I have a review copy and look forward to doing so. I will say this: She's right that our economic system has created a class of people who live in poverty and won't escape it by pinching the few pennies they have. Budgeting is not a panacea. Access to affordable housing, health care, higher education and better-paying work would fundamentally benefit more people than budgeting. But since we can't snap our fingers and make those things accessible to everyone, a different tactic seems like it's worth a try. Keep track of what you spend — an exercise even Miranda recommends in her book, calling it a 'spending diary.' Call it whatever you want. Just try to make sure you're spending money on the things that matter to you.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Humphrey Yang: 3 Apps I Use Daily To Make More Money
Learning to maintain or regain your financial health can be tricky if you don't know where to start. Since the invention of smart devices, apps have made life easier. Today, thousands of financial apps are available and they can help you do everything from sending payments to budgeting and investing in cryptocurrency. S&P Global found that eight in 10 Americans use at least one financial app, while a third use three or more. Check Out: Read This: 5 Subtly Genius Moves All Wealthy People Make With Their Money Personal finance expert and YouTuber Humphrey Yang is one of those financial app enthusiasts. He uses several of them to maximize his productivity. In a recent video, he broke down which apps he uses the most to boost his income. Pew Research reported that only 54% of American adults know at least a fair amount about their finances. Keep track of your money coming in and out to guarantee your financial health. For this, you'll need a budgeting or expense-tracking app. Learn More: Budgeting apps simplify money management, improve financial discipline and are essential for building wealth. These apps allow you to set goals and track your spending to ensure you meet them. Some apps require you to enter your expenditures manually but others link directly to your bank accounts and credit cards, helping you track your budget in real time. Yang breaks down this idea into an easy analogy. Think of earning an income as your offense. Even if you get a high salary, it can only take you so far if you spend it all. This means you need a strong defense. Implementing a budget is the perfect defense, helping you hit your savings and investing goals, pay off your debts and live within your means. While certain apps, like YNAB (You Need A Budget), require a paid subscription, others, such as Spending Tracker, don't. Using just about any budgeting app will get you to pay more attention to your finances and should lead to improvements. Wealthy people don't just save money and let it collect dust; investing is the best way to increase your wealth over time passively. Many brokerage apps are available, such as Robinhood, Charles Schwab and Fidelity, and what's best for you will depend on your preferences. For Yang, it's not about getting the right app, timing the market or getting lucky. Instead, it's about consistently putting a percentage of your monthly pay into a brokerage account, or dollar-cost averaging. Dollar-cost averaging puts a fixed amount of money into your investment profile each month, regardless of whether the market is up or down. If the market is down, you'll get more shares for your money; if the market is up, you'll buy fewer. This will all average out over time. Because the markets have historically trended up over the long term, you should gain money over time. While not directly related to finance tracking and money management, productivity apps can also help you earn more money. Task management and scheduling apps can help you organize your time and keep you on schedule so you have time for side hustles and don't miss any payments. These apps are growing in popularity, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 16.1% between 2024 and 2032. As a creator and freelancer, Yang emphasizes the importance of these apps for his line of work. He details how Notion has helped him organize his YouTube and social media workflows. Also, keeping a weekly planner with an app like Google Calendar helps him prioritize his tasks and stay on track to attain his daily goals. More From GOBankingRates 5 Subtly Genius Moves All Wealthy People Make With Their Money 4 Unusual Ways To Make Extra Money That Actually Work 3 Ways a Balance Transfer Helps You Manage Debt (And How Much it Could Save You)This article originally appeared on Humphrey Yang: 3 Apps I Use Daily To Make More Money Sign in to access your portfolio
