Monarch Money Tutorial // How to Budget with Monarch Money

This is a full walkthrough tutorial on Monarch Money. I show you how to customize your budget, create automation, handle sinking funds, and use goals. Click ‘more' to see my recommended money tools.
⬇️ RECOMMENDED TOOLS ⬇️
ONLINE SAVINGS/BANKS:
⭐ SoFi Banking: bit.ly/3thoNqY
⭐ SoFi Credit Card: ​​bit.ly/3TPjzOc
⭐ Ally Savings: bit.ly/48nuPWt
⭐ Marcus Savings: bit.ly/marcusonlinesavings
⭐ Wealthfront Savings: bit.ly/41Mr8XG
⭐ Chime Online Bank: chime.com/r/brittanyflammer
BUDGETING APPS:
⭐ Tiller: tidd.ly/3t4p0Oa
⭐ Simplifi by Quicken: bit.ly/48zTHdE
⭐ Monarch Money: bit.ly/48nhg8L
⭐ EveryDollar: www.ramseysolutions.com/ramse...
FREEBIES
⭐ 101 Ways to Save $: bit.ly/tosavethousands
⭐ Money Saving Challenges: bit.ly/moneysavingschallenges
CASH BACK APPS
💵 Rakuten: bit.ly/rakutenaccount
💵 Ibotta: bit.ly/ibottaaccount
💵 Fetch: bit.ly/fetchcashback
0:00 Start
0:23 Budget setup and customization
16:12 Rules and atomization
23:02 Sinking funds
29:32 Goals and credit card debt
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[@jvaughnthelonious8259]

Brittany has done an excellent job breaking Monarch down. I decided to give it a shot after viewing one of her videos. Monarch fits my needs very well and I actually like it more than Mint. However, I'm unsure if it's $100 better than Mint. Luckily, I was able to get it for 50% off but I'm not certain if I'm in for the long haul, particularly if there's another price increase. I would love to see Brittany's evaluation of the more popular Rocket Money and Copilot. Her budget app summaries have been the most useful imo.

[@chiocca1]

This was incredibly helpful Brittany...thank you. I feel much more confident in using Monarch now. Spent the afternoon getting familiar with it thanks to your video!

[@BrittanyFlammer]

I’m so glad! I hope you get the hand of it and learn to like it!

[@wdeemarwdeemar8739]

Looks like monarch money is really good.

[@BrittanyFlammer]

It is not perfect, but there is no perfect budgeting app. I have had a lot of clients using it lately and liking it. It’s great for automation and visualizing all your spending.

[@atwellwilliams2400]

Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial!! Can you please do a video on recurring transactions and the relationship between them and your budget setup. It seems to me that it's redundant to set up my recurring transactions and then have to do the same thing in the budget. I'm new to Monarch, though and may be missing something. Thanks!

[@BrittanyFlammer]

I hope it was helpful! As for recurring transactions/budget setup.....I'm not entirely sure I understand the question. I like to setup the budget under settings when you create your budget for the 1st time...just because it's easier to edit/rename/rearrange the budget categories. Monarch will automatically note recurring transactions and you can create rules so they get categorized correctly. If that doesn't help, feel free to explain your question and I"ll try to respond.

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

Is there a way to split up a purchase on two separate categories? So like if you bought medicine for both yourself and your dog at the pharmacy, can you split that into 2 different categories?

[@BrittanyFlammer]

Yes. I don't know of a way you could automate it, but you can open up any transaction and split it into multiple categories. It's not hard - if you need an explanation on how to do it just let me know.

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

@BrittanyFlammer got it I found out Just that when the transactions were still pending I couldn't do it. Thanks!

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

Great tutorial! Did I miss it or did you not mention how to activate categories? After I deactivate them I can't find them :D Also... How do you CREATE categories? That create category button you have doesn't exist in my trial version of Monarch.

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

Just found how to create categories. I was in the wrong view in order to do it. But I still can't find where the deactivated categories go.

[@BrittanyFlammer]

Deactivated categories will stay in the group they are in, just grayed out. To reactivate them, go to settings

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

@@BrittanyFlammer thanks I found it! 👏👏

[@williamcaldwell6476]

I created a category named "Savings Categories" but am unable to move "Travel & Vacation" into this new category. It won't let me even after several attempts. What am I doing wrong? Thank you. I appreciate all your advice.

[@BrittanyFlammer]

It's so frustrating when things don't work how they're supposed to. Are you wanting a savings group and to move the travel & vacation category under the savings group? Or are you wanting to create a savings category and transfer all transactions from travel & vacation to your savings category? These are totally different, so I want to make sure I understand what you're trying to do. IF you want to create a savings group: Make sure you go to settings

[@zporiri]

Can I roll over negative amounts with the sinking funds? For example, if I budget $1200/year ($100/month) for auto expenses, then pay $300 for an auto expense in January, can I roll over -$200 to the next month? Which will then become -$100? I'm a long-time user of YNAB but I don't like that it makes assign money to every dollar that was spend each month, as I like to think of my expenses in annual terms as there is too much variance month-to-month and I'm not living paycheck to paycheck. So I'm trying to figure out if Monarch lets me do this. Thanks!

[@BrittanyFlammer]

Yes - you can roll over negative amounts. It will work just like you described. I hope that helps. Good luck with it!

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

I do both grocery shopping and get my pharmacy meds and walmart pharmacy. On my credit card statement the transactions end up in two different categories, such as "Healthcare/Medical" and/or "Groceries" Is there a way to see that in Monarch?

[@BrittanyFlammer]

I know exactly what you mean....in my experience they will come in as the same category even if they show up differently on your cc. That's just what I've seen, but I'm not sure about every specific situation. You could create rules to prevent this. For example, if you are getting a prescription every month for a specific amount you could create a rule that any transaction from that store for that amount is under health/medical. You could also message Monarch Money to ask about your specific store. To do this

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

@BrittanyFlammer thank you I'll try that. I have too many prescriptions unfortunately and sometimes they end up being refilled at the same time, so I'll most likely talk to customer support. Thank you once again 😊

[@joseffoureauxdaelander774]

How do you recommend that I use "GOALS"? Should they be entirely separate or can they connect to the other budget categories that are grouped? For instance.. you had a lot of categories as sinking funds grouped. Could you make it a "GOAL" that these sinking funds could reach a certain value? Or will that lead to "double budgeting" in the app" Also.. what if I have a rollover account (category)... I want to save for a new dishwasher for instance (50 USD a month). If I have an actual bank account that I need to tranfer that to, how do I do that for it to reflect in the budget? If I log it for the category of dishwasher then I will have 100 USD to rollover instead of just 50 USD. That's not very logical?? How should I do this?

[@vishal0812]

for us, spending at Costco blends shopping and groceries, sometimes bleeds into home improvement or auto.. depending on what we bought. maybe Costco becomes its own category..

[@BrittanyFlammer]

That's a great way to handle Costco. I have several clients who have their own costco category in their budget. Personally, we mostly buy groceries and occasionally clothes there, so I just split the transactions when I need to. But if I was using it for all those categories that would make the most sense!

[@anderspedersen6750]

I like Monarch and just paid for a year. Only big problem I have is 15% of my salary goes to buy company stock, then those are sold every two weeks. So there are like at least 4 transactions that shows up for this.

[@BrittanyFlammer]

That is kind of annoying. Their investments is in beta, so hopefully soon they'll be able to import investment transactions and you can link that to a goal.

[@anderspedersen6750]

@@BrittanyFlammer yeah, it gets even more confusing as I also divert some of that same back to checking account, but some to my Roth IRA. First month in Monarch my income was HUGE until I got most of it figured out ;)

[@BrittanyFlammer]

@anderspedersen6750 I can definitely see how that would complicate things. I have had several clients come to me wondering why their savings was so high in the app at the beginning….once everything gets organized it’s much more accurate

[@BrittanyFlammer]

If Monarch isn't for you, try one of these apps: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2TMfWupnq6ZY5osi=po_9msjAgRZYcXn9