Cash Accounts in YNAB Are Awesome

[@Nick-pt2px]

I like that you all have longer videos. I love the rambling and being able to listen while working/driving. Thanks for your content. It helps YNAB to still feel "fresh" and "new." Cheers

[@jeweledsnail]

I don't currently use cash enough to use either a category or a cash account. I just assign it to the category I plan to spend it on.

[@Cclaudia228]

Ive been watching old episodes while waiting for new ones and I think I have watched them all now! Totally agree on getting rid of everything outside of quarters and half dollar coins 😂 even better - we should get with the program and include tax in the cost of goods!! That is always what makes me end up with random pennies

[@YNABofficial]

That would be awesome too! ~BenB

[@stevenreid_youtube]

Ben's rant about US currency really hits home for many of us! 😂 I found the discussion about cash accounts and reconciliations quite insightful. It's great to hear real-life experiences and tips on managing finances effectively.

[@kathinmaine]

haha Interesting, I feel like Ernie. I just don't care. I've just started my cash account so we'll see, but I'm going to just round up my transactions (or round down if I use some change) and not worry about all those jingly things.

[@MsAlexisMac]

Loved when Canada got rid of the penny - but I needed one last week to stick in a vase of tulips (the copper helps them stand straight!).

[@loricash5849]

If my accounts between banks, investments, savings, cash, and YNAB don't match I will spend hours tracking down pennies.

[@jessamineprice5803]

I am totally on board with ending the penny. It costs more than a penny to create a penny! Rant on, Ben. FYI, I’ve lived in some remote, underdeveloped parts of the world where people use US 20 dollar bills for large purchases, bribes, etc, but no one in those countries accepts US coins or small bills. They have local currency that works better for small purchases. I’ve traveled to a lot of places and NEVER found a place where people consider US pennies to be useful currency.

[@Eliz__p]

I use cash as a category, but in an adjacent topic.... gift cards! I end up with a lot visa gift cards (UX research and focus groups!) that I track as accounts, mostly so I don't forget about them.

[@newcreation19]

Yes!! I get a reimbursement every quarter from my health insurance for daily activities I do, it used to be a check but now is a VISA gift card. I have to add it in YNAB, it’s an easy way to know how much is left on it vs carrying the most recent receipt around with me at all times.

[@MkItMkCENTS]

This is RIGHT ON TIME because I’m employing cash enveloped for like 3 categories that I want to overhaul my impulse spending in: eating out, gas, groceries.

[@Johnnydhee]

I typically just categorize the cash withdrawal into whatever category im spending it on :)

[@fsmoura]

Ben and wife having huge fight after the episode's end... _"Where's the money!? Where did the gosh darn money go, huh!?! Eight dollars and thirteen flippin' cents!!!"_ _"OMG! Why do you need to nail everything down to the penny!?!? I can't stand this anymore!!"_ _"Put that in you appliances category! AHHHHHH!!-"_ *_*appliance flung over*_* .::( oДo)

[@angeladeborapontororing2435]

I have cash account since I started using ynab and I can't imagine the headache of having to match the budget with what's in my bank account and move money around in budget just because I took out cash or someone pay me back in cash. it sounds like nightmare. if you have the habit of putting in transaction the moment you spend it, tracking cash is not that bad. and if there's a difference? I just reconcile and move on.. simple :)

[@michellebash]

This was great, classic Budget Nerding! We've had 2 wallet cash accounts since beginning YNAB 13 years ago, I reconcile them both at the end of the month. I rarely have to go to the ATM having a cash bank at home. One of us doesn't like to remember to record cash spent, so I record his spending if I'm with him, otherwise he lets me count up his wallet and I randomly assign the discrepancy to however many categories I guess it could have gone to. I threaten to take it all from Hunting, but usually spread it over a few. 🤣

[@YNABofficial]

"I threaten to take it all from Hunting" - 🤣 I love it! ~Ernie

[@graffeodl]

Maybe when you fund your appliance repair category then Kaitlyn will reconcile her cash account. LOL

[@YNABofficial]

Oh, snap! ~Ernie

[@fsmoura]

They're just warming up for the big fight later lmao

[@hannahbudgets101]

i just started ynab end of july and have never felt more secure about my finances. i’m slowly going through all the ynab videos i get cash tips through my job and have been wondering how to handle this so i’m def gonna try a cash account for the month and see if i like it. i also agree with ben’s rant about currency, we can keep the quarter but the rest can go lol

[@ErinRose94]

I am quite passionate about KEEPING pennies! As a not wealthy person, all I can think about with rounding transactions is I get screwed and the big corporations are milking us all, pennies at a time. To a lot of people it would never matter but to me who has needed to borrow money from family to eat, pennies matter a lot.

[@dorothy_j]

We do both, my wife isn’t a budget nerd so if I take money out of the ATM I first categorize it as a transfer from checking to cash, then I make a transaction in the cash account, payee = her, category = her fun money. Any money I spend, I list the exact transaction in the cash account. That way I only need one cash account and her transactions stay simple. Only occasionally do I need to recategorize some of her cash account spending, if she bought groceries or gifted it to someone, for example. Most of our spending is by card.

[@elizabethgadsby9641]

🤣 You're in good company with thinking that change shouldn't be a thing anymore, Ben!

[@michellemackay336]

I keep a Cash Account for myself to keep track of my cash spending. And I also have a CASH category for my husband where he doesn't have to track any spending - it's just money out to him and I don't have to get involved with how he decides to spend it. Glad I found this podcast and feel validated knowing that there are some just as budget-nerdy as me.

[@YNABofficial]

Welcome, Michelle! Good to have you and your budget nerdiness here! ~Ernie

[@jennivanhart3016]

Having a cash account is a life saver as a parent of two student athletes - meet admissions and parking fees are pretty much ALWAYS cash only. During competition season my cash account stays around $100, off season it drops down to just farmer's market levels of $20-$40. I typically get cash from one of my daughters who earns/receives the cash but wants it put into her bank account, so I transfer from my checking to her account and then take the cash. It's been working well. And yes I LOVE reconciliation day 😍

[@elizabethgadsby9641]

I've been seeing more businesses accept not just cash, but ACH payments. Our state park's parking permit program just switched to accepting ACH and charges a fee for debit/card purchases. I'm pumped to move another step away from the high transaction fees that card companies are charging 🎉

[@YNABofficial]

Interesting. I've started using ACH payments more for bills because it eliminates having to go in and change my payment information every time a new card is issued. Set it and forget it. ~Ernie

[@elizabethgadsby9641]

@@YNABofficial That is an excellent benefit that I had not realized yet! 🏆

[@Baoran]

Main reason I made cash account called wallet is because I receive cash from other people often and sometimes when I have enough I use the cash to pay for things that I have categories for and if I would have had cash category then the spending would not end up in correct category and just in the generic cash category.Also since I never actually withdraw cash from account I never need to move money from bank account to cash account so I would need to put it as income anyway and not just transfers between accounts.

[@MightandMagic88]

Similar YNAB Win: A couple of days ago my water heater burst and I currently have just enough money in my Appliances category to buy a new one outright without worry!

[@amandabender7216]

Why should you keep cash in the house? So when it drops 6 inches of snow and you really don't want to shovel, you have cash to pay the neighborhood kid looking to make some money!

[@YNABofficial]

Sooo worth it for this reason alone! ~Ernie

[@Tycobb10]

Living in Mexico we have a US checking account and a Mexican checking account. I have to run two budgets, one for USD and one for Pesos. Since Mexico is basically a cash economy, the Pesos budget also has pesos cash account. USD are transferred to the Mexican checking account (using the likes of Wise or similar). Then I transfer pesos from the Mexican checking account to the pesos cash account from which we spend. It works.

[@summersoulmate]

Maybe for you guys this is specific to your location where cash is not used most of the time. But other countries where cash is more king than cards.

[@natashabrandstatter9724]

I have a cash account and reconciling it is the bane of my existence 😂 100% with Kate on this

[@sabinapieterse5855]

In the Netherlands they don’t use the 1 and 2 cents for euros while neighboring countries do. The number is just rounded up or down to the near 5 cents if you pay in cash.

[@jameshalper5864]

Once I pull cash out of the budget that’s it. There is no further accounting of it. I have a cash withdrawal category that Supports ATM and bank withdrawals.

[@1esk192]

I do that, too. Tracking it would be a nightmare for me.

[@dawnkoplitz1825]

I also have a cash account. It’s only used a couple times per month. Mostly for tipping a delivery person or if we need to reimburse someone for a random reason. I do reconcile it because my husband would otherwise use it as his petty cash source. ( We each have a pocket money account).

[@jamesandersonwalsh]

Don’t use cash, but shocked that so many still do and for such a wide variety of reasons

[@terrya.stevenson5861]

I have both a cash account (Cash Stash) which is in a safe. Whatever comes out of it goes to the appropriate category. If it's 20 bucks to replace what cash I spent out of my pocket, it goes to an "untracked cash" category. I make sure that my untracked cash category total remains small over time.

[@oldmaninthemirror]

Spending way too much time discussing struggling with reconcile cash account in my opinion. I like a cash account to track my spending and being able to get reports where cash spending went. I only ever use cash rarely and i never reconcile if it’s off a bit I could not care less it is a cash account. I just want report of spending to be correct.

[@amanda5408]

The idea of keeping a cash account never excited me. It always seemed like too much upkeep, but this idea of house cash sounds nice. I'm gonna give it a shot and see how it goes!

[@libbysworld7649]

Guys, I LOVE this episode. Awesome segment. I agree, I love cash too. Didn't even realize it until about a year ago! I'm 51. LOL

[@doc2w534]

It’s me. I’m the person who drives by the ATM on the way home and puts that $1 back in the bank and re-assigns it to the category it came from. Change goes into my piggy bank.

[@cheriellis9215]

I have a cash account, and try to pay cash for everything I do in person. It’s a personal conviction of mine that banks are making too much money off of me! I round up or down to a dollar based on whether I used change to cover the cents portion of the payment. I rarely have more than a dollar in change because I always try to spend it if I have enough. The downside of a cash account is at least once a month I’m stuck wondering, where did I spend $10, I’m short when trying to reconcile. I usually remember where it went when I’m falling asleep that night! 😜

[@cheriellis9215]

We spent a few months in rural TN last year and found that many of the small businesses we patronized charged extra for paying with a card. My frugality would never let me pay that fee if at all possible!

[@lw1405]

I never carry cash or use cash. Canada uses debit cards much more than the US does and we also have e-transfers where we can electronically transfer money to someone very easily. I can see its usefulness with the poker game scenario or in Ernie's case, with kids. But that's about it.

[@dpayne1943]

Cash is an account. I round up and throw the change in a jar.

[@YNABofficial]

🤜 🤛 ~Ernie

[@pejfectlife]

I do the same-ish. I round up. Sometimes I use the change to get all bills back from the cashier, no coins. So then I round it down so the change isn't counted. But, whatever coin-change is left when I do my weekly budget stuff, I throw that cash back into my budget towards a specific savings goal.

[@theWiseBudgeter]

I move money from the bank account into a cash category, and then post say $5 in the cash category to the Post Office for stamps.

[@kathinmaine]

Oo, thanks for discussing this. I was using some wacko combination of getting cash out of the bank for trips and then not using it all and trying to put numerous splits into the withdrawal. It was a mess. I just set up a cash account and I FEEL BETTER ALREADY! I had a moment of uncertainty when the cash amount I started with showed up as Ready to Assign and my tired brain said Wait I don't want to assign this money! What do I do? And then I realized I didn't have to. I could put it in my Waiting for Next Month category just like all the rest of the money I wasn't ready to assign, and voila! I am good to go! Yay!

[@YNABofficial]

YAY! Cash becomes so much simpler with an account! ~Ernie

[@fsmoura]

Another thing you come to realize you don't really need are those 'holding categories' like 'waiting for next month' and such (which many people end up keeping continually loaded due to being afraid of uncertainty/the future). With time you realize that each category is also a sinking fund (it rolls over the balance to next month) so you can just beef up your regular expenses categories' balances as much as you can _right now,_ and then you're covered for that amount of time into the future. There's no rule that you can only spend X in category A if you assign X to category A in that same month. You also don't need to jump into future months in the budget to assign funds corresponding to your expected expenses to their categories in each future month. If you have 10 times the mortgage payment at hand, assign 10x now. The balance will increase and you're covered for 10 months for that expense. Same with all other categories. If you get a 12x ratio on all of them, you can live a year without new money coming in. If conditions change at _any_ point you're well prepared to deal with it by "rolling with the punches"-moving the money to other categories as needed. Your beefy 12x-ratio expenses categories are your "what-if-something-happens-slush-fund." - It's never a defeat to move money around in categories to reflect changed priorities.

[@krystalbullers7188]

I have two cash accounts. One for hurricanes (live in FL) just because they always say to have cash on hand for after in case electric is down, etc. The other one is for my "wallet cash" which I only need because I refill water bottles at the grocery store and it's $0.25/gal. This brings up my biggest issue with cash accounts. The water machine is extremely annoying - it will give me change back and then refuse to take it or occasionally it doesn't give me change at all. Every once in a while it gives me back way too much. Reconciling that account makes me angry every time because ot NEVER matches up!

[@ryanb509]

No way I want sales tax rounded up to the nearest quarter. Also its 2024 why do we even still have cash at all? I'd actually be annoyed if my friends paid me back with cash, its like just Venmo me. Literally the only thing I use cash for is to get quarters for the laundrymat or change for the parking meter (technically the parking meters do take cards but then you have like a $1.50 minimum and if I just need like 15minutes of parking I'd have to overpay).

[@marccoppejans1046]

I have a cash account but I hate counting cash. But I do not round :)

[@user-br7bm3qo3s]

I have a cash account set up and on payday allocate my pay to my categories as I always have. My issue is when I need to pay actual cash back into the back it wants to allocate this money again. So I’m ending up with too much money in my categories!! Any suggestions? Many thanks

[@YNABofficial]

Set it up as a transfer in YNAB (which is done in the payee field)-outflow from cash account, inflow into checking. Then you won't have to re-allocate the money. ~Ernie

[@conureron3792]

I do both. But my “cash” category is like a slush fund/buffer. And I track all me cash expenditures out of my cash account.

[@mayalinquinones97]

Ben I KNOW you are talking about The Cav! 😂 (Fellow Lynchburger)

[@YNABofficial]

OMG, you nailed it! 🤣I go there probably too often. If you ever see me there, say hi! ~BenB

[@YNABofficial]

It was great to meet you last night Mayalin! 😄 ~BenB

[@eliskamiller7085]

I have a cash account and love it! We reconcile to the Penny Ben !!! 😂

[@shana91212]

Ben, I think you would have a love/hate relationship with how Canada handles currency. They stopped using pennies, but they also use $1 and $2 coins (and stopped using paper $1)

[@newcreation19]

I’ve been considering adding a cash category, this might be the push I need! Whenever I withdraw money it’s only ever for a specific purpose, so I’ve been coding it to that purpose (mostly some type of entertainment or charity). I do end up with a little extra cash afterwards, and I’ve never taken the step of re-depositing in the bank, it’s free money at that point 😂 A gas station near me offers a cash discount, and I have regularly bemoaned my inability to take it, because I don’t have enough cash on me to pay for a tank of gas and didn’t want to have take out cash from the bank (out of my way) just for that. A cash account with $100-200 could solve that problem!

[@YNABofficial]

Do it! 🤣 ~Ernie

[@BethAnnesBest]

Trying to use cash as an account and category sounds very confusing. I use an account. I often have to reconcile $20 or so to "stuff I forgot to budget" but it works. When I first started YNAB I tried to be super detailed and track even the change and that got way too complicated I started rounding everything.

[@jennygirlminer]

Ernie, With cash coming in for your sons, you put that in your cash account, then what? I have a similar cash inflow for my kids and they want me to transfer money into their bank account. I have a kid's money category, but when I spend the cash it will be a different category. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[@YNABofficial]

Yes, I put their cash in my cash account and then assign that money to their spending category. I took their individual accounts off YNAB because it made things too complicated. By running everything through a simple spending category, it means I can buy stuff they want using debit, credit, or cash. ~Ernie

[@corkspa]

The hardest part of YNAB for me has been the 'balancing by account' mindset. I've been using YNAB for years and am still doing this. I HATE not knowing where x money is and why it's there and what that specific money's job is. I just can't seem to wrap my brain around the concept that it doesn't matter.

[@YNABofficial]

Here's an experiment, if you choose to accept 😉 -right now open up the YNAB web app (this has the undo button which you'll be using later) and transfer all the money from every savings account into one checking account (don't actually make the transfer in real life-we're just playing with things in YNAB). Then look at all your categories balances in the budget. Do you still have complete clarity over what your money is doing? Then create a transfer in YNAB where all your money goes to one savings account and look at your category balances again. Same clarity! Where you keep your money doesn't matter-only the categories do. Now hit the undo button until things are exactly as they were. And remember, no worries if the "accounts don't matter" approach doesn't work for you. You get to set up YNAB however you want! We're just having a little fun here 😃 ~Ernie

[@sherrydiddle]

I match category groups to accounts (which limits the number of category groups to the number of accounts I have). I, too, am scared to stop doing it that way. I know I don't need to do it because of clarity. I get that totally. What I live in fear of is that I don't pay attention to the account balances, especially since I'm used to just checking category balances, and I end up with an overdraft. I'm afraid I won't notice that I need to make a transfer from savings to checking! As I type this I realize that it is a fear of mine, but not a realistic one. For at least 2 years I have never made any transfers out of savings to checking. I have only made transfers from checking to savings! Lightbulb moment!

[@fsmoura]

> I hate not knowing where [the] money is. But you do know _where_ your money is. That's the accounts. You also know _what_ the money is for. That's the categories. And those "groups" (accounts/categories) don't need to match. That'd be crazy. (Incidentally, there's no "X money/Y money". Money is fungible, i.e., each dollar is exactly the same as any other dollar. You don't need to corral them in separate pens and keep track of who's who.) People only feel the need to make their bank accounts structure reflect their plans for their money because they are afraid that they will comingle funds, forget their plans, and ruin everything they planned. But that only is at risk of happening because they don't have a written record of the plan. The budget _is_ this written record of the plan. It cannot be forgotten. So, there's no need anymore to be afraid to comingle.

[@trackchik6]

I think you’ve convinced for my one year YNAB-iversary coming up, to give a cash account a try.

[@YNABofficial]

I can't think of anything better to do on your YNAB-iversary! 🤣 ~Ernie

[@jonstrongman3292]

Curious question, how much cash does everybody keep at home?

[@pejfectlife]

I have two budgets. One for my Norwegian currency. And one for my Thai currency. In my Norwegian currency I don't use cash at all at this point. But in Thailand my budget is mostly cash, and most of my categories are cash. I do have a Wise account ( and some jars ) with Thai baht, and those get their own accounts in YNAB. One being a Checkings Account ( for the spending ) and one being a Savings Account ( for the jars ) But each of these accounts get their own Category GROUP in the budgets. My Brain can not deal with specific categories being both cash and card. So I separate them and use them differently.

[@fsmoura]

>My Brain can not deal with specific categories being both cash and card The whole point of budgeting in YNAB is not having to match accounts to categories. You need to give every dollar a job, not give every dollar a name/place! Then look at accounts and distribute/move funds among them purely on practical considerations of cash flow and payment method requirements you usually have. (If you know you will need to do about $500 in cash payments for the month and you don't want to go to the bank/ATM more than once per month, get more than $500 in cash every month. It really doesn't matter for the _purpose_ of the money in which account-cash/checking/savings-it is; it only matters for the daily requirements of actually making the spending.)

[@shanny5993]

A question on cash accounts vs categories - most of the cash I have I receive from people paying me back for meals, gift cards, etc. I think I would have to set up a separate cash account to track these, to keep these separate from my bank accounts, but I'm trying to think about the easiest way to track these amounts. I tend to forget to use my gift cards for months and sometimes years at a time. A part of me wants to set up cash categories for general cash I have laying around, and then each gift card, so I could see how much is available on each card. On the other hand, the gift cards I have on hand would all apply towards fun money, and I have a category for that. But if I assign all these cards there, when I go to make a purchase I may just go to a store that doesn't accept these gift cards, or I may forget to use them anyway. Any suggestions/thoughts? Might be totally overthinking this lol

[@YNABofficial]

Maybe add the gift cards at tracking accounts. That would give you visibility and reduce the chances of not spending them, but it would keep that money out of your budget. ~Ernie

[@beachandtea]

Ben, I'm not sure why Kaitlyn needs to reconcile her cash account. If the money is already "spent" in the budget then is it not hers to do as she wishes, and therefore the next month shouldn't depend on what is in her wallet?

[@potoftea]

You have to reconcile because it may be "Spent" in the budget, but YNAB thinks the cash is still available to cover the actual purchases once made until transactions are entered in the system. The reconciliation process makes sure that all of the transactions have been entered correctly so that there is enough money to cover planned spending. For example - Someone has $100 in his Cash account and has assigened $70 to groceries and $30 to gas. He spends $35 on gas, but forgets to enter the transaction. YNAB thinks he still has $100 in his pocket and so he has $70 available to spend on groceries. But in reality, he has $65 in cash, so he can't spend $70 on his groceries. Reconcilation catches that issue.

[@conureron3792]

I do need quarters sometimes for the air pumps when tire pressure is low. But even those now have a card option, just like every vending machine. So, “change” is being rendered useless. Or, in reality, change has become a nuisance.

[@YNABofficial]

Wait, paying for air is a thing? YIKES!! ~Ernie

[@hn9382]

Canada has got rid of Pennie’s years ago - AMAZING!!!

[@lisarechsteiner2618]

How do you setup cash account?

[@YNABofficial]

Add Account > Unlinked > Cash account type. More details in this article support.ynab.com/en_us/handling-cash-in-ynab-a-guide-BJVYYkXR9#spending ~Ernie

[@jameshalper5864]

There are $1.3 billion worth of pennies in circulation. About $62 million are lost by people every year. I will take any pennies you don’t want.

[@dawnkoplitz1825]

I agree, end the penny!

[@KBell-sd3dx]

Time to move to New Zealand Ben, we can make your change dreams come true 😂 We only have 10c, 20c and 50c for small change.

[@YNABofficial]

Just one MORE reason NZ wins best country. ~BenB

[@GMPetti]

A penny LOSES THE GOVERNMENT MONEY. Or at least that's what I've heard. It costs more than a penny to mint a penny

[@mirainoivuyo984]

22:00 I’m too intent on accuracy and precision to round up. If you pocket the change and then bring that back in, you are double counting that inflow 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@voorhammetje]

please give Kaitlyn a cash category and stop nagging her 😉. We have cash in the house for craigslist stuff (buy and sell) but we don’t track that in ynab(only with pen and paper). all our cash transactions go in the cash category or specific category like furniture or food if its a big amount. way easier than counting your money every week. but i think its one transaction a month. Here in Holland we stll have 1 and 2 eurocents, but we don’t pay with them in most shops, it’s rounded up or down to 5 cents. Only if you pay by bank transfer you pay in cents. Would like to see your wives on the show sometimes!

[@balazsotvos2530]

I felt the discussion could have been more concise. Perhaps focusing on key points would be helpful. You wasted 37 minutes of my time. Say your point in 3 minutes, than get out.