You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want
Written by Jesse Mecham
Narrated by Jesse Mecham
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
For most people, budgeting conjures up the same feelings as, say, prison and dieting. But your initial instinct couldn’t be further from the truth. You just haven’t budgeted the right way.
You Need A Budget will teach you four simple rules to completely revolutionize the way you think about managing your money. With a budget, you’ll break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, get out of debt, and save more money. A liberating, enabling, empowering budget will actually make you feel more free, not more restricted. The YNAB philosophy is centered around these four rules:
- Give every dollar a job. Take your cash, checking, and saving accounts and assign jobs to that money. Begin now with what you have on hand. Then follow your plan. Pick your priorities, and make sure your dollars are helping you move closer to the things you care about most.
- Embrace your true expenses. Look ahead and identify the larger, less frequent expenses that tend to sneak up on you. Break those expenses into manageable monthly amounts. Consider insurance premiums, birthdays, holidays, charitable giving, car repairs, etc. This practice evens out your cash outflows, decreases your stress, and helps you make better decisions.
- Roll with the punches. Accept the fact that life always changes and you’ll likely always go over budget somewhere. If an unexpected expense comes up and you need to change your budget, just change it. The YNAB philosophy not only tolerates changing your budget, but rather encourages it.
- Age your money. The goal of this rule is to increase the time between the moment you earn money, and the moment you spend that money. In other words, if you’re going to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, you need to learn to live on money you earned a month or two months or even three months ago.
YNAB’s four rules are the pillars of a tried-and-true system that gets you to engage with your money every day. It helps you change your behavior so that you’re proactive and in control of your finances. It’s not about stressing over last month’s statement; instead, you’re looking ahead and actively deciding how you want-and need to build a life of meaning not stress.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editor's Note
Get your finances on track…
You don’t have to be a mathematician to start a budget and get your finances on track. YNAB (that’s what true fans call it) teaches you four simple rules that will help you save money, spend wisely, and stop living paycheck to paycheck.
Jesse Mecham
Jesse Mecham founded YNAB in 2004 to help him and his new wife, Julie, watch their money. Studying for his master of accountancy at Brigham Young University at the time, he put his numbers wizardry to work to develop a system to track their expenses, and that became YNAB. He lives in Utah with his family.
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Reviews for You Need a Budget
414 ratings27 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really just amazing book/audiobook...once you start with it, u’ll start to change your life, and the way you spend money
Helped a lot!!!1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love the personification in the narration.
The content of the book has allowed me to see age long errors I have made with my money.
I'll definitely re-read this book!1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very helpful book compared to the others and the app is great!! I have read many budget and debt relief books and this one is great for me! I'm excited to use the app. hopefully I can afford it and won't have to cancel.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Motivating and simple but effective steps to follow. I will get the app and become a member and will update my review after 2-3 months.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is a huge upgrade from the typical "budgeting" how-to guide. So much great insight. I'm sold on their product now!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I become aware about the importance of having a list of necessities and to allocate a budget for each item of the list. I made already my excel sheet.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Audio Book has really inspired me to get my Budget together.. Thank you so much. Loved everything about this philosophy.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well read, with great advice. This is a book I'll listen to over and over again. Definitely worth paying for.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I can't get enough of YNAB! highly recommend this book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the best book on budgeting that I have read so far.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book has changed my life!! The 4 rules will stick and I know now how to reach my financial goals.
There is a section for single people, for married people and for kids and how each should strive to do a budget.
Excellent - my time was definitely well spend by listening to this book. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5nice clear ... a must have ...love it great job
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I thought it was okay and I enjoyed it a lot
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. Easy to follow. Great examples. Great job guys.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love all these content, their articles, their advertisements, the ease they have to leave each person satisfied, as much as I do, I have really loved everything, from the least, it has been a great experience these products, as well as their advertisements.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's my introduction to the YNAB method, and it's helping me understand what it is I need to make my budget work for me. I'm excited to use this book as a jumping point into my YNAB journey.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just discovered YNAB from another financial podcast. Went online to see their budgeting app and the creator of YNAB recommend checking out his book from the local library. I loved that! Downloaded with Scribd and it’s a fantastic deep dive into the psychology and methodology of budgeting in a wildly different method from any other. These author has such a nice guy personality, shares his story of how this came about, and just an excellent quick listen!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The idea of giving every dollar a task is phenomenal. Personally, I work with excel but i do more forecasting than budgeting. I’ve learnt a lot from this book and can’t wait to put everything in practice.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well worth the listen. Will check out the app and see how well I do.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love how he tackles every day money problems and helps you to figure out how to live life debt free asap. The emphasis on how to assign every dollar you have to a certain task. my favorite part was how he helped his children understand how to handle money.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excited about this, listened to the book after trialing the app, and this made me believe in the concept/approach even more!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I listened to this is tandem with my initIal foray into YNAB. I have never used a budget in my life and I’m in my fourth decade! Using YNAB is such a break-through for me, to be CONSCIOUS of my spending. I was ignoring subscription charges as well as interest and fees, just paying into crap I didn’t need. Sort of like getting caught in a flowing current and keeping afloat but not getting anywhere.
This book is good motivation even if you don’t use YNAB, but want to be responsible with money. It’s cool that scribd has it, because it’s worth $10 usd or so as a kindle read! Also, there’s lots of podcasts and free videos about YNAB and by YNAB. I didn’t even know what YANB was, and what the big deal is, but I’m so glad I looked into it. It’s also much more “fun” to use and be motivated by. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great, a budget will change your finances! A must read I would say!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very good book on budgeting very practical and useful approach
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's a good book, but I had to relisten to a few chapters. Couldn't find the spreadsheet that was mentioned in the first few chapters that's to go with the book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very inspiring, easy to understand. Guy voice isn't too boring
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An enlightening and interesting way to go about your personal finances. I just picked this up because it was the new years and it sounded like a good idea and I was very impressed. I had not been aware of Jesse Mecham, the founder of YNAB and the finance platform that went with it, but after I read this I joined a few Facebook groups so I could keep up on this. I haven't invested in the software yet, but I am definitely tempted. This plan sounds a lot more doable then a lot of other budget plans I've read. I'd describe it but I don't want to butcher it. Just check it out! It seems easy to use and follow and has great results!