YNAB Loan Guide (Cars, LOC, Student, CC's + more)

[@mappedoutmoney]

Download MY YNAB Checklists: mappedoutmoney.com/ynab-checklist Quick Jump Sections 0:00 - Two Types Of Debt 1:40 - Method #1 Setup 4:43 - Debt Snowball Setup 5:45 - Method #1 Payments 6:50 - Method #2 Setup 8:32 - Method #2 Payments 11:31 - Changing Account Types

[@exploresomemore7205]

We started using YNAB last month (thanks to your channel!) and are loving it so far. We don't have debt and aren't living paycheck-to-paycheck, but after analyzing a full year of expenses through Mint we found that we spend waaaaaay more than we would like to on things that aren't really important to us. YNAB is helping us make informed decisions about our money and gives us feedback in real time. Thanks so much for your channel!!!

[@mappedoutmoney]

Woohoo! That's so awesome. I'm really glad to hear that the videos have been helpful for you and that you're making changes because of it. Thanks for the comment :)

[@islandgalD]

omg thank you so much! I just deleted my YNAB acct (didn't even use the full 30 day free trial) because I was so confused lol. This vid is 3 years old and it this explained so much, and I'm so grateful 🥺 I mainly want to use it as a tool to pay down my student loans. I'm definitely going to be watching a ton more of your vids!! so happy and thank you, thank you again 🥳

[@Shawna_Bonana]

Not sure if you will read this comment but I just wanted to thank you so much. I commented on an older video last night (lol) so ignore me if you saw that one. I hope you have another class soon. You are so smart, explain things so well, and you’re the only reason I am sticking with YNAB. I didn’t understand it at all but I am learning quickly thanks to you. I have a mortgage, car loan, and student loans that my partner and I want to pay off in 8 years, and up until this point, I didn’t really have a plan. I “budgeted” and made sure bills were paid and items were bought, and if I had $300, $400, $500 at the end of the month, I’d put a bit in savings and then test toward the car loan. So I would have budget but not really. Now I see that making a plan first works better and I am less likely to spend extra on things i don’t need and end up feeling guilty. I was just telling my partner you deserve to be paid well for these videos, so I will 100% sign up for a class. I added myself to the mailing list so I can sign up for the next one. Thanks again! So glad I found you.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey Shawna! So so glad that the videos have been helpful for you. You’re totally right about the importance of making a plan The next class is going to happen in September. Enrollment will be towards the end of August so just keep an eye out. Reach out if there’s ever anything I can do to help!

[@GearHeadsGarageChannel]

Hey man, great videos. If I could make one suggestion to you it is something I do on my youtube channel, but at the end of your video where you have your end screen setup it pulls all the video suggestions and covers the screen showing what you are doing the last few seconds. Make an exit trailer or the like for your vids that you can put the overlay on that is 15-20 seconds long that way you aren't covering up any actual content of the video itself! Its really easy to do and gives the viewer a bit better experience I think! In any case, thank you for your help on YNAB you have been doing a great job with these videos and are a natural teacher!

[@406Guge]

I used tracking accounts before, but didn’t know you could use normal transactions with them. Thanks for the tips! So much easier now. Kudos to you sir, great video.

[@mappedoutmoney]

Well good! So glad this was helpful for you Jason!

[@allybird82]

I have been manually splitting transactions every month to allocate interest. This method via reconciliation is so much easier!

[@mappedoutmoney]

Nice! So glad it helped Alison :)

[@macalik2]

@@mappedoutmoney Hi Nick, but you cannot see it (interest) either on nor because Reports don't cover Tracking Accounts. Is there another way to solve it and be able to see princilaps and interests on one graph ? Thanks

[@dulcihrt]

@@macalik2 Wouldn’t it work to just treat it like a checking account and add the interest charges and reconcile each month?

[@FrugalRules]

Budgeting is hard for some. Thanks for sharing how to track your loans in YNAB.

[@jakobfreelemba]

Thank you for the video man! Been using YNAB every day and I absolutely love it. I have used your videos to learn the software and you have been 100% the expert I go to for YNAB. Thanks again and cheers! 🍻

[@lmmbchampion]

Wow! I had entered my debts incorrectly but I followed these steps to switch them to tracking and it worked perfectly ~ thank you so much!!

[@cjmiller5972]

Wow! This answered so many questions that I have had recently! Very clear and easy to follow. Thank you!

[@capnkoons]

Hi Nick - for the scenario where you’re changing the account type, what do you think about this approach in order to avoid all the recategorizing & cleanup? 1. Unlink the account 2. Create new tracking account with starting balance of zero 3. Create a transaction in the old account:
 Payee = Transfer: [new account]
 Category = Inflow: To Be Budgeted
 Inflow = the full balance of the old account 4. Close the old account 5. In the budget, hide the old account in the Credit Card Payments section

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey! That's a great suggestion, and yes, it would totally work if you're cool to sort of go-forth now without the full data. What you described would work perfectly because it would set the current account to $0 and allow you to close it out. Great thinking, wish I would've thought to include that! That's a great move.

[@PauloMesquita2067]

This will also work great if this "old account" was an account that you stop using, like if you have 3 credit cards and decide to use just one and "close" the other two, so you don't loose the history of transactions or have to go back in time to fix your budget.

[@simplelifemoneymatters3901]

Full disclosure and I guess a True confession (pun intended). This channel got me on to YNAB. Been using Everydollar for a year and a half with great results but needed more. Not willing to pay the $80 for Everydollar plus (no real extras you get with it other than account linking) I learned of YNAB from a True user and love it. However I paid the subscription without using your link. Not cool. YNAB has all the features the other one didn't offer but I knew I was ready for.

[@LeslieNicole]

This was very helpful. I'm just getting started with YNAB and ran into the problem of what to do with my Paypal Working Capital loan. It's a bit tricky, because my payments are taken out as I make sales and are a percentage of my store sales - so there's no way to decide on what the monthly payment will be. This at least tackles half of my problem. I am now just repaying the money and want to track that. Now to figure out how to budget for the repayments that are automatically taken out of my paypal account.

[@Subachacko]

Great video! I know it's cheating, or against how YNAB works, but I like to treat my student loan and car loan and set them up as "credit cards". Then I can take full advantage of the interest category for credit cards to track how much money I'm throwing away. It's how it motivates me to pay them off faster rather than reconciling 🙂

[@mappedoutmoney]

haha, yes, that's definitely one way to do it! And if it's more motivating for you to do it that way, then yes, go forth and conquer!

[@Subachacko]

I've been watching your videos for a little while now. You have given me a much better understanding the nuts and bolts of YNAB. Tracking money has been easier ever since. Thank you

[@IlsevandenAncker]

Thank you for this video, I will do this for my debt.

[@nonusexistus3105]

How did you entered numbers under goal column and make it appear on the screen? I set up my toolkit but it only showed under my goal column the letters like D, M, U , and S, no numbers. Help!

[@ashleycrouch2157]

Do you have any videos on how to handle a mortgage refinance in YNAB?

[@MarkBacas]

Hi Nick, at around 10:30 in your video, is there some reason you wouldn't create a transaction to that CC Interest budget category you have setup? When I saw that category I figured you'd be using it to keep track of interest paid?

[@dmitryclarke2127]

Sorry Nick i wont be watching this video because I have like 5 more hours of your other videos I need to watch first but I wanted to ask a question because this is your most recent video. I was taught/believe that you should drain your checking account every 2 weeks or whenever you get paid (it's an economics theory) and i am finding it hard to implement that strategy into my budget. I hope i am making sense. The money in my checking accounts is money I SPEND. I don't save a dime in my checking. Everything goes to my personal savings or to my business. I will be redoing my YNAB and trying the trick you recommended about putting the savings as an Asset but other than that any other tips? I think this would be a great video if you haven't made one already! Thank you!

[@DeterminedDev]

exactly what i was looking for. thank you.

[@jobustify]

So glad I subbed to your your channel. Im trying to set up YNAB but I cant figure out how to set up automatic monthly payments from chequing to my student loan. Any vids or tips?

[@kgoelz0103]

Thank you!!! You are so helpful!!!

[@mappedoutmoney]

No problem Karen! Glad the video helped.

[@frankvet1]

Thank you... great stuff, BUT..... I traded in my car (with a balance due on the loan) and purchased a new car (with a NEW loan)..... no idea how to do this in YNAB.

[@laurafuhrer4255]

Hey Nick, thanks for all the great videos you make. I've learned a lot from you. I was just wondering if you still have the deal where new users of YNAB can get two free trial months via your affiliate link? Thanks in advance!

[@martinfarrow2825]

Need the intro video back nick

[@mappedoutmoney]

haha, I like it too Martin! But you should see the dropoff rates. INSANE. losing 20% of people in the first 10seconds of the video. Constantly experimenting to see what sticks. But I do appreciate this comment. May bring it back, just trying out different stuff to see what the numbers do!

[@yaeljacobs9527]

When I tried to moving my student loan to a tracking account and changed the category it made my to be budgeted negative 2000+ and put my student loan category positive 2000+. Needless to say, I undid everything....😬

[@ExplorewithSvetlin]

Hey, Nick! Your guides are hands down the best! I don’t understand only one thing still. Looking at the mobile app of Ynab-sometimes I will have “0 to budget”. I get a, let’s say, small paycheck of 40 and I post those unto “To Budget.” = and what happens is, I gave, for example 28 in green “to budget”. Not the whole amount. But before getting the money I had no negative balance in “To budget”. I feel it has to do with credit cards, but don’t get it. Can you advice?

[@vickivee]

Someone else pays my car payments. How do I track the pay down using the loans section? Or must I manually track it? Seems counterintuitive to have to manually track the loan just because someone else is paying it from their budget. 😢 Helppppp.

[@jbell8027]

Nick the videos are great and help tremendously. Quick question tho. Every time I open my budget it opens to June and I do not know why. I just started YNAB in May. I watched your video on how to close out the end of the month and I believe i did that but it still opens up in June and we are almost at the end of July. Thoughts?

[@dylang7927]

Hey Nick, Firstly thanks for your videos they helped with the learning curve switching from Mint. Last month i paid off a vehicle which i had a budget category set up for specifically for that vehicle. Well now that the vehicle is no longer needing to be budgeted for, when i go to delete the category YNAB want's me to allocate the past transactions somewhere. Any suggestions what to do here?

[@cristinegarrison2329]

I have this same question Nick!

[@InvalidFingerprint]

This is great, Nick! I've been thinking about starting to track my few Sallie Mae student loans just so I can see those awful balances decrease! Quick question though: I'm planning on refinancing my Sallie Mae loans into one loan with a lower rate; how would you recommend going about that in YNAB? Ideally I'd like to keep all my past transactions in there, but should I just treat the new consolidated/refinanced loan as totally new loan separate from the Sallie Mae loans that it originally was? Cheers!

[@mappedoutmoney]

Hey! Glad it was helpful for you. If you're planning to refinance into one loan, I wouldn't worry about adding those current loan accounts in there. I would just wait until they are consolidated. Then I would follow Method #2 in this video and add that account in as a liability. I would also create a brand new category for that new consolidation loan. Don't delete the old categories so that you have the historic information. You can either leave them there and not use them, or you can right-click and "hide" them or you can create a group called "Categories I No Longer Care About" and drag them into that and keep them at the bottom out of site and out of mind. Hope that helps!

[@InvalidFingerprint]

@@mappedoutmoney that was a perfect response and exactly the info I needed. You're the best, Nick! Please keep at it!!

[@tiffanyharris9119]

Hey Nick - if I have a credit builder loan (every payday bank loans me $40 and deposits it into my savings account and then bank charges my debit card $40), would be the best way to set it up in YNAB is create a category for the loan and set a target for whatever I pay towards it every month? Then set up an asset account for the savings account? I don't want to count the savings towards my ready to assign as it will sit there for a few years...also there is no interest or fees on the loan. Thanks for your help with this!

[@christinemitchell6210]

I know I’m late to the game but I can’t help noticing the age of your money. I have aged my money before signing up for YNAB 4 days ago. Will my age start from four days ago or will the software take into account my linked accounts and my past before YNAB??? Thanks!

[@mikepawlikguitar]

Hey man, I want to send a donation for all your amazing help. It's so appreciated, would love to send you some cash. Can you tell me where to donate to? Cheers Nick

[@awilliams2516]

I’m loving your videos but your screen is SO small 😭 I really can’t see what your doing 🙁

[@mappedoutmoney]

Sorry Angela, I'll see if I can zoom in some in the future

[@izzyd.9864]

Hey Nick, I just started with YNAB and it is amazing and your videos give me really nice pointers and things to work on. I have a scenario I was wondering how to handle in YNAB. Let's assume I have a tracking account for dept repayment and one month I pay off the remaining amount off my dept and this account has a zero balance. Maybe that month I don't want to delete the account since I want to see the money that was allocated towards my last transaction towards this dept. But in the next month I would like to delete this account, would this be possible without disrupting any of my numbers? Thank you in advance!

[@alexanderlamothe1896]

Hi, Do you use the import transaction feature for spending? If so, do you wait for the transactions to appear 2 days later, or put them in manually and reconcile the duplicates? I ask this because I am having trouble waiting for the payments on my credit card to show up in the credit card category, after they show up in my checking. Thanks!

[@mappedoutmoney]

I personally do manual entry for most things because I'm inpatient and think it forces me to be "closer" to my money :) YNAB actually does a good job of matching transactions and not duplicating them, so you can actually do both at the same time!

[@davidchadwick5423]

I asked this question just now on the all things credit card video. "In this video you talked about setting up those 'tracking accounts'. Here, you dealt with interest during the reconciling process. You showed the example of an RV payment of $400 and the principle went down by that much. But then, there was interest, so during the reconciling process you said "no" to the balance YNAB asked if correct, and then you added the interest and then finished the reconciliation included the interest. ***So, can one do THAT process for their everyday CC stuff IF one is NOT paying off their CC every single month? Hope this makes sense!?!

[@mappedoutmoney]

No. Definitely do not do that. If you’re charging to a credit card at all ever, you need to set it up as a credit card in ynab, not a tracking account. Only use tracking accounts for debts that you aren’t using but you’re just paying down.

[@davidchadwick5423]

@@mappedoutmoney OK, my credit cards are set up normally, so I am good there. Let's say I have one card with a $1,000 balance and I can only pay $200 to it this month and I do NOT use it to buy anything (but I may a few months down the line). After I pay the $200 it shows $800 on the left side of the screen in the white/red area. Then I get my statement and there was $10 interest so now my balance is $810....AND I want the left white/red area to show $810. This is what I am asking. Am I mistaken to basically be asking if there are TWO different ways to deal with the interest: Either during the reconciling process OR doing it through the Interest + Fees category? (Or is it just silly I want that left white/red aspect to show my correct balance?) - thx you

[@mappedoutmoney]

@@davidchadwick5423if you have your card linked Ynab will automatically pull in the interest transaction of $10 for you. So you just need to categorize it to interest. If you are doing manually entry you don’t want to do the reconciling thing I show in this video. Instead you’ll choose “add transaction” and add an outflow of $10 and categorize it to interest. I cover this in the original CC video so go back there and look for the interest section and I think you’ll be off to the races! Happy ynabing my friend.