The Ultimate Get Started Guide

OK—you’re ready to go, and we’re ready to go! You’ll be guided through creating your plan in YNAB. If you’ve already gone through onboarding but you’re wanting to start afresh, you can start over anytime.

Step 1: Personalize your categories

If you scroll through your YNAB plan, you’ll see a list of pre-built categories like a mortgage, groceries, home maintenance, and vacation. They currently roll up into category groups like bills and savings. You’ll want to go through these categories and customize them for you: tweak the name or add a little emoji flair.

Don’t worry about needing to think of every single expense you’ll ever encounter *right now*—just add categories to the plan as they come to you over time!

Step 2: Add non-monthly expenses

It’s pretty easy to tabulate your monthly expenses (shelter, food, internet), but if you don’t consider—and, more importantly, plan for—the things you’ll need to pay for in the future, you will be perpetually stressed, living paycheck-to-paycheck, and always on the verge of going into (more) debt. Sound familiar?

Part of YNAB’s secret sauce is teaching you how to think about irregular expenses—the ones you know about and the ones you can anticipate—and treat them like monthly expenses. If you put $50 into a “Holidays” category every month, when December rolls around you’ll have $600 dollars whose only job is to make the month magical. No stress. No guilt. No credit card hangover.

Same goes for insurance premiums, car repairs, travel, back-to-school shopping, a new computer, etc. Even if you don’t know exactly when your car will start making a terrible noise, or how much the repair will cost, you know it will happen at some point and future you will be glad you prepared.

Browse a list of non-monthly expenses for inspiration.

Step 3: Add targets to your categories

Once you have your categories, you want to tell YNAB how much you want to set aside in those categories each month, and by when.

Examples:

• Mortgage: set aside another $2,400 by the 1st (monthly)
• Groceries: Refill up to $100 every Saturday (weekly)
• Amazon Prime: set aside another $139 a year from now (annual)

For expenses that ebb and flow, like an electricity bill, go ahead and make your best ballpark guess, leaning toward the higher end, and you can always change this number over time. In fact, we want you to change your plan at any time, and guessing is totally okay!

Learn more about setting up targets in YNAB.

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Step 4: Curate and customize as you go

Making a plan for your money shouldn’t feel boring and restrictive. Want to save for a splurge-worthy summer vacation? Have a fierce devotion to the local coffee shop? Yeah, those things definitely deserve a spot in YNAB.

But it’s not just these daily sparks of joys, don’t forget to add some of those big, life-changing goals too—maybe you want to renovate your kitchen, or buy a house, or travel the world. Even if you can’t fund them right away, it’s a powerful visual to see those aspirations sitting in YNAB.

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For a quick start on setting up categories and targets, try our YNAB Beginner Template. You can import common categories and targets right into your YNAB plan to get up and running in no time.

OK—you’ve got the good solid bones of a YNAB template. Now, let’s amass the pile of money you have to work with. It’s time to start working with your real numbers and add your accounts. You have two options here: you can link your bank accounts and it will pull balances in automatically, or you can enter balances yourself.

In this step, be sure to add the following accounts to start:

• Checking account: If you have multiple checking accounts, it’s simplest to start by adding only the one you use most.
• Savings account: Your savings dollars need jobs too, even if that job is to sit there and look pretty in an emergency fund!
• Credit card(s) that you use regularly.

What NOT to add to YNAB (yet):

• Loans
• Retirement accounts
• HSAs
• Investment Accounts

What NOT to add to YNAB (ever!):

• Your paycheck coming next Friday. We know it’s tempting to start adding in money you anticipate you’ll earn in the very near future, but resist that temptation! We only add dollars you have right now because that’s what gives you a crystal-clear view of your current reality and your current priorities. You’ll still add that Friday paycheck, but only once it actually hits your account, and not a moment sooner.

All the cash you have right now gets pooled into a big giant pile to fund your priorities. But those dollars won’t stay there for long! That brings us to the next, very important chapter.

Now it’s time for the magic, the secret sauce, the moment of all moments: it’s time to ask “What’s it for?”

We want you to take the money you have in your pile, and figure out what every dollar is for, right down to zero.

Every time you get money, ask yourself “What’s it for?” and make a thoughtful, flexible plan for your spending based on what matters most:

• For Now: Decide what you need your money to do before you get paid again. Making a plan for your spending in advance helps you avoid spending more important money on less important things.
• For Later: Non-monthly expenses like car repairs and holiday shopping are a fact of life. Anticipate irregular expenses and set aside manageable monthly amounts to save yourself from the emotional drama of one big bill.
• For Ease: Get a month ahead on bills. When next month’s expenses are covered, payday and due dates don’t really matter and financial emergencies become minor inconveniences.
• For You: Consider what you really want out of life and put your money to work to help make it happen. Start to think about money as a possibility instead of a problem.
• For Change: There’s no such thing as a normal month and your priorities aren’t set in stone. And that’s okay! It’s your money and your plan for it can change at any time—without guilt, stress, or second-guessing.

Take a moment, look through how you’ve mapped your dollars to your categories. You should see your life reflected back at you and the stress start to fade away. You should start to see your money coming into alignment with the life you want to live, and, wow, does that feel good.

Wahoo! Take a moment to celebrate this grand accomplishment. You are now well on your way to getting good at money.

What happens next?

Now as you spend and earn, record or import all your transactions into YNAB. As money comes in, you’ll ask “What’s it for?” Move money as you need to.

When the month rolls over, don’t fret you’ll just keep on keepin’ on asking the question and deciding what each of your dollars is for.

And there you have it, the start of never worrying about money again. Let your goals be the destination and YNAB be your GPS. Happy YNABing!

Asking “What’s it for?” is easier with company. Join a free live Payday Hangout and assign your money alongside other YNABers.

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To learn more, tap the help icon for more info or to chat with our award-winning support team. So, cheers to saving more, paying off debt, sleeping better at night, and never worrying about money again.