Category Structures in YNAB

[@elizabethgadsby9641]

You did the Bert & Ernie bit 😂😍 Love that you mentioned using emojis in category names. I do that to add some more fun to the budget! The values discussion was insightful! I'm now considering reframing my budget to better align with my values.

[@leezee5435]

I legit hear Bert and Ernie in my heart & inner ear at the beginning of every episode, and did a HARD double take at the beginning of this one

[@elizabethgadsby9641]

@@leezee5435 I most definitely rewound just to make sure I had heard it correctly 😂

[@jenniferlarregui3315]

I'm cracking up because I hear "I'm Bert and I'm Ernie" and I had to stop because I was like "His name is Ben. Did he really say Bert?" I had to rewind the video to double check. lol

[@pmblu]

Me too!

[@YNABofficial]

I still can't believe Ben did it in one take without laughing! ~Ernie

[@saralep]

@@pmblu me too!

[@Mustela8098]

OMG the first few seconds, I had to restart to make sure I heard that name right. LOL

[@YNABofficial]

Ha! We've been watching to see who would be the first to say something! 😉 ~Bert

[@Mustela8098]

@@YNABofficial You guys are hilarious and always feels like Christmas morning as a kid when I see a new video from you guys!

[@17jdub]

I hear Bert and Ernie every time. It's nice that it wasn't just in my head this time

[@ksk881]

@@17jdub Me Too !

[@itsGabrielaCristina]

YNAB Win: I just got under contract (yay!) and they asked me to detail every single non-payroll deposit on my account. There were quite a few, but I was like “no problem at all. I’ll get those to you in 15 minutes.” Can’t imagine what someone without YNAB would’ve done! 😂

[@MightandMagic88]

In my regular budget I mostly use the Themes type (Housing, Auto, Living, etc.) but I have also drawn up a template based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. 1st group is Physiological Needs like housing, water, groceries, etc. 2nd group is Safety with Clothing, Medical, and Security. 3rd is Love/ Belonging and has Social Activities, Holidays/Gifts, Vacations, and Date Nights. 4th is Esteem/ Personal Accomplishments is Fitness,Wellness, Education. 5th and lastly is Self Actualization with Creative or Introspective activities. I haven't run this template yet but I like the idea of it.

[@dawnkoplitz1825]

That’s awesome!

[@noneya154]

I love the sound of this! It sounds like a great way to keep from forgetting that there is more to a happy life than just food and shelter (though these are most appreciated as well)!

[@zeteta]

Haha. I just re-did my budget to follow Maslow's heirarchy as well and I thought I was being soooo original. Obviously not. Right now I have: Physiological & Safety (1,2) together in one category: food, health/wellness, property tax, liability insurance, household things. Social, Esteem & Community (3,4) with transportation, travel, pet care and gifts for friends Self-Actualization & Cognitive (5) with entertainment and my major hobby Transcendence (6) with giving & philanthropy I do struggle a little bit with where to put clothing. The basics seem like a physiological need, but some of my fashion purchases are clearly done for social reasons. I'm thinking about splitting it into two categories.

[@deborahwager5883]

What I've set up for now is three category groups: Past decisions (bills, including non-monthly), Present decisions (spending, from personal accounts, to medical out of pocket, to auto maintenance), and Future decisions (wish farm, appliance replacement categories, etc). I'm sure I'll shake it up in the future, but for now that's working for me.

[@toddw8396]

I used to separate things out by home, auto health, etc. About two years ago, I re-vamped everything! I realized it was WAY more important to me to ensure everything was covered at the right time. My two main groups of categories are monthly obligations and yearly one-time expenses. Monthly is a pretty short list (living expenses)…Yearly is a huge list that includes every birthday, every yearly subscription, etc. Monthly is in order by due date (2nd, 10th, etc.) and Yearly is order by date (Jan 12, Feb 1, etc.). I really don’t care about historical data…I care about funding items before they hit the calendar. Once I move to a new month, I hide (not delete) the previous month’s items (under yearly) I use Hanna’s method of hashtags to add definition. Example #Honda and #Ford for separation of what each car is costing.

[@VikingKittens]

YNAB WIN! Started YNAB a year ago after we sold our condo. Goal was to pay off the CC each month while we waited for our new home build. Well, we moved in Jan 31/22 and that goal has been achieved! Now I'm ready to start fresh and include new categories to go with my new home sweet home! Thanks for this timely video on category structures!! Cheers

[@issalaye2780]

I am as minimalist in life as I am with my budget. Just 2 category groups (monthly and non-monthly) and categories as generic as possible as long as it's not hurting my awareness of what's going on. For example, I just need to know how much I spend on transportation and don't care if it's gas, Uber, bus tickets, etc. I might want to add a Wish List category group though as holders for those big one-time expenses.

[@SarahEpieikes]

I follow the principle, "Where would I look for it first?" in setting up categories now. For example, we have 4 category groups for true expenses: Our Stuff, Ourselves, Education and Cars&Bikes. It's so easy to find things now. Immediate obligations are divided into regular bills and essential costs. And my very favourite category group now is "Who we are". It covers all the things that are to do with our values and intentions for our lives: giving, hospitality, books, music, family fun, garden joy, making life prettier. Not everything in there is funded regularly, but knowing it is there helps me choose the kind of life we want for ourselves.

[@RandomFandomDragon]

Right now I have a LOT of category groups (I'm the type of person who has subfolders five levels deep), but over time I'll be able to simplify. When I'm at that point I think "Themes" will be very helpful. Just to share - my true expense category is named "Winter is Coming", and I have one group (Minions) for everything pet-related.

[@bookworm1956]

Yes! I found it! The one where you said "I'm Bert"... So happy. And now I'll actually listen to it 😁

[@noneya154]

I've tried pretty much all of these methods as I've learned how to budget and worked my way towards getting out of debt. Now that I'm in a place where we've paid off both cars, my husband's student loan and more credit cards than I care to admit, we just have a handful of bills, the mortgage, my student loan and all of our sinking funds (or true expenses). So I like to keep it simple. I've got 4 categories. Fun Money (personal money for each person in the family), 2022 Goals (priority savings for the year like a vacation, car fund and non-emergency house repair), Bills & Funds (all bills, debts and sinking funds in ABC order) and Fully Funded (funds that have been fully funded but have no specific use by date like emergency funds). This works for me because it's easy for my husband and kids to find their fun money (since that's all they care about, lol), we can prioritize our goals, and it draws less attention to spending categories which in turn keeps me from spending money just because I see I have some available.

[@alibopper199]

Bert and Ernie 🤣 also digging the matching headphones and mics!

[@YNABofficial]

We just had to...and Ben pulled it off without even flinching! ~Ernie

[@amyelynch1]

This killed me and I am shocked there aren’t more comments about it! I truly lol-ed.

[@laurenevam6305]

Such a timely video because I’ve been struggling to decide what my categories should be. I have OCD and I get hyper fixated on my budget so at the moment I’m probably the most chaotic budget nerd to minimise that… I only have two categories - Expenses and Living.

[@Natazavrik]

Bert!! 😂 Thank you for doing that. I hear “Bert and Ernie” in my head every time I start to listen to an episode, and this time I had to check to make sure it was outside my head 🤣

[@ksk881]

I have very simple budget categories. "Savings" , "Regular Expected Expenses" (my bills), "Future Debt Prevention" (I think I 'borrowed' that phrase from Ben - it's for what others call Sinking Funds) and "Holding Category" (used only to hold money that I either owe someone or money that I'm going to write a check to my credit union for since I keep that amount in a separate facility thus making it less accessible!) The things that are under each category change from time to time as needed, but the four basic categories remain the same. It works for me because if I try to put money in too many places I get frustrated. It took me awhile to get used to YNAB and now that I have I love it and want to keep things as simple as possible for my own sanity. I LOVE to hear about other people's categories though !!

[@joannaraquel78]

I have a hybrid budget- I sort some things by monthly bills, goals, etc... but I also have themed groups, like "debts" and "food". The food group in particular has been helpful since groceries and eating out are categories that we always struggle to get just right.

[@skent]

"In truth, everything's a need and everything's a want." I appreciate this sentiment a lot! Tools, for example, are my weakness. I can easily justify needing a new tool to do a specific project, because hey - that's the best tool for the job. It's really a want though, because I probably already have a tool that would work. Or even if that tool IS really a need, then there's the sliding scale of "want" in that I'll want the really nice tool vs. the cheap tool!

[@ReeceBowman1867]

I have my category groups as 1. Weekly Expenses 2. Monthly expenses 3. Quarterly/Yearly Expenses 4. Savings Goals. All other expenses should fall under these 4 as a basic outline

[@rachaelbyrd3331]

Just wanted to say I am loving the new Budget Nerds podcast! Usually I don’t have time to sit down and watch the KZbin video, but being able to listen in my car has been awesome. Hope the podcast will continue. 😊

[@YNABofficial]

Glad you're loving the podcast, Rachael, and thanks for listening! ~Ernie

[@samahaidouni6934]

I Love your new filming equipments haha , those are the podcast special equipments and I love It !

[@beckybarrett7452]

I started YNAB in January. My categories are monthly bills that’s what I have to pay each month. I get paid weekly so I put numbers next to the expenses. I have a 1 next to the rent that way I know it’s paid in week one. My monthly expenses are variable items that I can move money around and if I overspend.

[@RandomFandomDragon]

That's a good idea! I get paid twice a month, and I started putting dates in mine to help me keep track, but I think 1 and 2 might be simpler.

[@StephaniePrattUX]

Yes, I organize my categories by themes. It's super helpful! I currently own an apartment that I had rented out but am also living/renting somewhere else. So having those as different groups is really helpful and will be helpful for expenses for taxes next year too.

[@mayhelenaplumb7002]

My budget always gravitates towards categories based on target type - my frequent expenses & bills are Spending Targets, my non-monthly & goals are Savings Targets, and quality of life stuff I budget using the "leftover" money each month. I distribute my non-monthly goals into theme-based categories, but I mostly think of my budget in terms of target type. The "values" method is so intriguing though!! I'm not sure it would work for me but I kinda want to try it out...

[@breeannwright9028]

🤣🤣 just made me want to change some categories around. I do have lots because I like to see the reports. Love that you said Bert because every time I listen that's what I normally think but I know it's Ben.

[@yancypol]

I’ve been inspired to restructure my budget, thanks!

[@sincere355]

We have eating out separated for family dining and then we each get a lunch allowance for the week that is also eating out but in a different category. Works great!

[@amyelynch1]

You will henceforth be Bert and Ernie in my mind. Congrats on the new baby, Bert!

[@periteu]

1. Monthly: Cellphone bill, rent, water bill; Frequent groceries 2. Future: electricity bill (bimonthly), YNAB (anually), christmas event (anually) 3. Others: reimbursement, out of budget (cash i don't want to record), infrequent purchases (stuff i didn't budget) 4. Funds: Next month fund and emergency fund 5. Goals: a mattress, external hard drive (when i buy them, i eliminate category and put it on infrequent purchase)

[@himexkoneko]

My partner has no interest in messing with YNAB, but we have a joint account that we each fund equally to pay for a couple house bills and groceries. So in my regular budget I have that account linked, and I have just one category group with about 8 categories that I simply fund with both our contributions. It works for our situation, because it eliminates shock and upset when he says "Oh we can use the joint account on this just-for-fun purchase" and suddenly we're out of money for the upcoming bills (caused a big fight because I make less than him and couldn't easily reimburse the account without messing up my personal budget). So this removed that stressor and so now anytime he suggests it, I consult our fun money category and we decide based off that.

[@CitizenPlane]

I have 47 expenses I'm tracking, and they are sorted into 4 categories: Needs, Credit Cards, Savings, and Wants. Needs are expenses I can't avoid. If I could figure out how, I'd merge Credit Cards with the Needs category. Needs are sorted by how much I am putting in every month, and Wants are sorted by how close I am to being able to buy the item I'm saving for. Although I have a lot of expenses in those two categories, I have no trouble finding what I'm looking for.

[@kielhawkins9529]

Speaking of needs and wants, you could technically have the same "item" within multiple categories. Food was the example used, I have a grocery budget in needs, but I also have a "eating out" within wants. I need groceries, but I want to eat out occasionally. You could also consider eating out to be a culture item instead.

[@muhsina_khan]

I use multiple transportation categories in my budget to know how much i m spending going to work and how much is being spent on going out with friends or running errands.

[@ShoelessJoeChristian]

Great video! I'm new to YNAB and I love to see the different category setups people use! I'm attempting to do the paycheck category structure, but it's difficult because sometimes the last paycheck of the month needs to cover expenses in the next month (before the first paycheck of the next month arrives). It would be great if someday YNAB could be setup to allow for deviating from the "monthly" structure, since budgeting by the month doesn't really make much sense for those of us that get paid more (or less) than once a month!

[@YNABofficial]

Sounds like you're starting to get a month ahead with your money-excellent! In that case, maybe one of the other structures would be a better fit. Then the flow of assigning dollars to a future month would be a lot more seamless. ~Ernie

[@RandomFandomDragon]

One of my pay dates is always the last day of the month (or a couple days earlier depending on weekends/holidays), and I always consider that as the first check of the new month. I created a "roll over" category to basically park the funds, that way everything was accounted for, but I wasn't spending out of next month's money. I think eventually when I'm a month ahead it won't be an issue.

[@Mollyblob]

I think what might be missing is having a way of flagging a category on the budget. This would allow us to red flag flexi/fixed within our categories giving us the best of both worlds. Currently I update the wording so I know which ones must be paid at a quick glance.

[@SparksandBubbles]

I have like 4 main categories Account 1 (everyday transactions) Subcategories are all the monthly bills, food, health insurance, car insurance, clothes and utilities Account 2 (sinking fund) Subcategories are the yearly bills and savings for house maintenance, car maintenance, ynab yearly, costco, Christmas, birthdays, anniversary, annual life insurance etc... Perso (for perso spending) small amount for books and small stuff Person A Person B Savings and projects Emergency fund, Saving for a new car, cash on hand I love this way because I know right away if I have enough $ in the account by looking at the totals but the ynab report are worth nothing since it mostly shows the main categories...

[@hlindenberger1540]

You mentioned making a budget line item for each vehicle you own, in order to get more accurate data on how much each vehicle is costing you as a whole (gas, maintenence, etc). I keep all our vehicles in the same gas category, auto maintenence category, etc... but I use flags. My eco friendly car has a green flag on ANY expense related to it. My blue van has a blue flag attached to ANY transaction that involves that vehicle. Then i can search "blue flag" in the search bar to find out how much the van is costing us.

[@noneya154]

Ben, if you're feeling bored with your budget its probably because you need a new goal to feel excited about.

[@VioletEmerald]

I don't use like any of the defaults lol... Definitely like organizing my budget totally differently especially because my life and budget is not very normative

[@kme06d]

I'm commenting in the middle of the video, so you might have already addressed it, but is there a way to create different category "templates" within ynab and switch between them? My categories are currently setup super granularly, but sometimes I want a "bird's eye" view of my spending by putting categories in more broad groupings like needs, wants, savings. Everything in the budget would remain the same, but just the category groupings would be different. Is there a way to do this within ynab?

[@YNABofficial]

Right now there is not a way create templates, but I'm wondering if you could still get that bird's eye view you're hoping for in the Spending Report. From there, you can filter by categories to get the granularity you're looking for. ~Ernie

[@reneelance8688]

I structure my groups by themes (yes for the reporting), but I was struggling with putting the right amount into Family - Kids, because there was so much to consider there and so many monthly variables (school supplies in august, pictures in October, their 4 birthdays, etc…). I was also struggling to put any effort in true expenses, because I still can’t wrap my brain about saving for Christmas in February or property taxes in December. So I now group my true expenses by quarter, these include all known events and expenses in that quarter. I’m always working on this quarter’s expenses and next quarter, but the other ones remain hidden when I don’t need to worry about them yet. Loved the subtle Bert & Ernie bit. I won’t deny it had crossed my mind some time ago.

[@hhail]

This intro 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

[@philipsanangurens7771]

Awesome, conversation thanks.

[@nickewer5584]

Is there a way to add another layer of organization above Category Groups? For example, I have a Category Group for Christmas Gifts of Individual People, Birthday gifts for individual people, and seasonal spending for Holidays (eg. Easter dinner, etc). I would love to keep those category groups separate, but easily see how much I budgeted for all 3 categories on a report. Right now I'm manually selecting those categories and using the "Budgeted this month" value but it's pretty tedious.

[@YNABofficial]

Focused Views would be perfect for adding another layer of organization! support.ynab.com/en_us/focused-views-a-guide-BksnNYqLh ~Ernie

[@nickewer5584]

@@YNABofficial Thanks. I looked at these but it looks like a pain to maintain since I can't add entire category groups to them. Any changes I make to my categories would need to also be reflected in the views. I'd really like to be able to say "These X Category Groups cost Y per month", focused views seem like a workaround for that and not a solution for it. Is there somewhere I can request that as a feature?

[@lakeisharhyant2045]

I'm new and I feel I have a lot of categories well maybe I should say things I pay under each category but for me I need to know exactly what I am using the money for. I'm scared if I title just subscriptions I may forget what thr subscriptions are. But i see how i can group things but maybe once my money ages I will feel more comfortable grouping things.

[@janellerowe609]

I live in China right now… so I pay rent every three months, and utilities bimonthly. So where would they go in my category group… they feel more like Bills to me. So I think I’ll leave them there.

[@vincentapa1376]

Has the new frig made it to the budget?

[@NettieFIRE]

Time to hit the bubble bath perhaps. You’re just doing research 😉 😂

[@shadowsystems9972]

Geeze guys, I just want to know how to alphabetize my YNAB categories!

[@aspynsgrove]

I'm so torn, to listen to the podcast or watch the video... Today is both.

[@Tesla-Cannon]

Forever thinking about categories lol

[@rleebond]

I think the main thing with categories is to be flexible with changing them overtime, but my basic structure is: Long-Term Goals (retirement, investing, cash savings, etc) Recurring Expenses (rent, debt, utilities, cell, etc) Essential Spending (pets, groceries, fitness, etc) Flexible Spending (restaurants, entertainment, etc) Travel & Transport (hotels, airfare, car rentals, ride share, travel packages, etc) I think this setup because it helps me see fundamental breakouts in reporting.

[@janellerowe609]

You both are coming across as much quieter than before these podcast microphones… but particularly Ben.

[@blainetheplanner571]

Hahahaha, BERT and Earnie!

[@astrid-fp]

Video starts at 2:20. You're welcome

[@BlaineReyes]

Hi Bert! lol

[@Tiredmum]

This does not help my 'Bert and Ernie' tic

[@noneya154]

Yayyyyy! Lol

[@heatherk569]

Had the hardest time hearing