Personal finance journalist, news anchor, Certified Financial Planner, and now author, Bobbi Rebell explains what it means to be a "financial grownup." The essential part of being grown-up with your finances is realizing that it's no one else's responsibility to make a budget, put money in your retirement account, or educate yourself about financial terms and concepts. It's all up to you! Luckily, there is a wealth of easily accessible information that you can learn from, including Bobbi's own p...
Jun 30, 2021•30 min•Ep. 506
After receiving shocking financial news that credit card spending in 2021 is up over 20% compared to 2019 , Jesse asks the question: are you still budgeting out there? Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
Jun 28, 2021•6 min•Ep. 505
Jesse chats with two people that are passionate about personal finance and share a common trait: they are high income earners. YNAB doesn't often talk about people earning high incomes, but contrary to popular belief, earning a lot of money does NOT mean you don't need to budget! As Ivan Smirnov and Daniel Chen attest, high incomes often come with high cost of living areas, where housing costs can run well into the 7 figures for homes or multiple thousands for rent. High income can also come wit...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 504
After years of experimenting with his budget and budgeting process, Jesse decided to do the unthinkable in 2020. He went an entire year *without* a budget! Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
Jun 21, 2021•13 min•Ep. 503
Jean Chatzky, long-time personal finance writer and correspondent for The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC and other high-profile shows, joins the podcast to discuss the unique issues women face in their financial lives. She has recently written a book about her research and experience working with women on improving their financial security, and she runs a website dedicated to educating and coaching women in financial matters called Her Money. Jean's book -- Women with Money https://womenwithmoneybook.co...
Jun 16, 2021•28 min•Ep. 502
Jesse offers six tips for newlyweds learning to manage their money as a couple for the first time. Check out the YNAB blog for more! https://www.youneedabudget.com/money-lessons-i-wish-i-had-learned-when-i-was-25/
Jun 14, 2021•7 min•Ep. 501
Jesse celebrates -- can you believe it?! -- the 500th episode of the You Need a Budget podcast. Nearly 10 years ago, Jesse started this podcast as an experiment. Over the years the mics have been upgraded, the acoustics have gotten better, but the message has remained the same: follow the Four Rules, and make your dollars work for you and your priorities. Jesse reminds us that, much like doing the podcast, budgeting is mostly just doing the work, day in and day out. Budget is a verb, an activity...
Jun 09, 2021•12 min•Ep. 500
Jesse interviews Steve Colon, CEO of Bottom Line, an organization that helps students of color navigate the complex, time-consuming, and high stakes college admissions process. Bottom Line doesn't stop with admissions, either. Through their unique DEAL rubric, they help each student set a plan to graduate within six years, with no more than $31k debt, and find high quality jobs. Along the way they meet regularly with students, to provide a network of support and ensure students can meet their go...
Jun 07, 2021•27 min•Ep. 499
Today Jesse gives a sneak peak at a new show launching on the YNAB podcast network -- Beginning Balance. Together with his friend and business mentor Mark Butler, a virtual CFO and business expert, they explore the financial issues of small businesses and how to solve them. This is the first episode of Beginning Balance, which will begin airing weekly on Fridays. Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
Jun 02, 2021•43 min•Ep. 498
Jesse chats with Chanel Reynolds, author of What Matters Most and founder of the Get Your Shit Together website, dedicated to helping people navigate the confusing, difficult, and emotional aspects of end-of-life planning. In 2009 Chanel's husband was killed in a road cycling accident, and she found herself, very suddenly, a widow, a single parent, and overwhelmed dealing with the many medical, legal, and family issues that death brings with it. Today Chanel helps others plan for the what-ifs an...
May 31, 2021•31 min•Ep. 497
Today Jesse is sharing an interview he did with Jaclyn Johnson of the Work Party podcast for her Budget Broadcast Series. Jesse talks about the early days of YNAB, how to get serious with your side hustles, and explains the Four Rules to a new audience. You can find more from WorkParty, including the original interview, here: https://dearmedia.com/shows/work-party/
May 26, 2021•33 min•Ep. 496
Jesse chats with Sami Womack, who paid off nearly half a million dollars of debt after hitting financial rock bottom during the birth of her first child. Stuck in a different city on business travel, her husband almost missed a flight home to be at the birth... because they had maxed out all their credit cards, and the last minute ticket was $800. Sami and her husband had made most of the financial mistakes you could make. They were behind on all of their bills, including mortgage payments and p...
May 24, 2021•24 min•Ep. 495
Former NFL athlete, husband, father, and coach -- a man of many identities you might say -- Anthony Trucks joins the podcast to talk about how what's holding you back from reaching your goals might just be an identity problem. Anthony runs a coaching program call Make Shift Happen where he helps people to make consistent action toward their goals in 90 days. Making an identity "shift" is a key part of the process, visualizing yourself as the kind of person that does the things needed to have suc...
May 19, 2021•40 min•Ep. 494
Jesse does NOT like payment plans, and neither should you! Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
May 17, 2021•10 min•Ep. 493
In today's episode of Money Stories , Jesse chats with Abbie Shepherd, a clinical psychologist who recently earned her PhD and is working her first real job after her long journey in higher education. Most people understand that earning a PhD takes a lot of academic rigor, but few realize that it is very taxing on the budget as well. In addition to incurring student debt during the multi-year PhD process (usually preceded by a Masters degree and Bachelors degree, for which you may incur debt as ...
May 12, 2021•30 min•Ep. 492
Jesse chats with marketer and entrepreneur Noah Kagan, former Director of Marketing at Mint, former Facebook employee, and currently the owner of AppSumo, a daily deals website which offers entrepreneurs discounted software from top software companies. In a sprawling conversation, they touch on the critical importance of taking action on your ideas in business, determining why you want money in the first place, setting one-year gameplans, and more. AppSumo https://appsumo.com Noah Kagan on YouTu...
May 10, 2021•44 min•Ep. 491
Assets? Liabilities? Balance sheet? FBI's? What does it all mean? Jesse helps you understand some of the basic financial terms that come up often in YNAB, as well as some YNAB-specific lingo related to the software and the budgeting process. Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
May 05, 2021•8 min•Ep. 490
Jesse walks through some hidden features of the YNAB software you probably didn't even know existed! Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
May 03, 2021•4 min•Ep. 489
While there's no way to prepare for being a parent without actually becoming a parent, you can prepare financially for the experience. Chelsea Brennan shares some tips on how to do this, and what kind of difficult conversations you need to have with your spouse and family as part of the process. After a successful career as an equity analyst and hedge fund portfolio manager on Wall Street, Chelsea became a mom and followed a new passion in life -- helping other moms be more financially stable an...
Apr 28, 2021•35 min•Ep. 488
At YNAB your data is exactly that -- YOUR data. Financial data is personal and sensitive, and as Jesse explains, YNAB does not and will not touch that! Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
Apr 26, 2021•6 min•Ep. 487
Jesse chats with productivity master Jeff Sanders, host of the 5AM Miracle podcast. As the title of his podcast suggests, Jeff loves to wake up early, but he doesn't necessarily think you should. Instead, Jeff focuses on setting clear boundaries around your work time, family time, and personal development time (especially physical fitness). Especially in the remote working arrangements that are increasingly common today, it's important to separate the home office from the kitchen, living room, a...
Apr 21, 2021•23 min•Ep. 486
In today's money story, Jesse chats with Erika, a 32 year old married woman who found herself struggling in the deep end of credit card debt. Until YNAB, Erika always managed her money with her bank statements -- if there was enough for her current outflows, good! There wasn't much of a plan or cushion for surprises, however. Shortly after getting married Erika began to feel trapped in her debt payments, which had become burdensome due to the credit card debt she and her husband had racked up fo...
Apr 19, 2021•34 min•Ep. 485
Jesse chats with author Mary Marantz about her book Dirt , the story of her life journey growing up in poor, rural West Virginia to eventually attending Yale Law. Mary grew up with a strong, hard working father who instilled in her a vigorous work ethic and a love for her hometown. However, her working class roots cast a shadow of doubt over how high she could climb in the world, and how qualified she could feel amongst those from different, more economically priveleged backgrounds. Dirt is the ...
Apr 14, 2021•35 min•Ep. 484
Student loan payments have been frozen for several months due to COVID-19, but that doesn't mean your budget has to be frozen. Jesse strategizes ways for you to address student loans during the grace period. Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com
Apr 12, 2021•6 min•Ep. 483
Jesse chats with Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger, two time management experts and the hosts of the Best of Both Worlds Podcast, a show all about balancing busy lives and careers. Sarah is a pediatric endocrinologist while Laura is a writer (and author of I Know How She Does It ), and both of them are also busy mothers. While they approach the challenges of time management with different strategies, they are both experts in making things fit in a busy life without getting burned out. Sarah a...
Apr 07, 2021•31 min•Ep. 482
Whether it's because of changing careers, preparing for a child, or some other life event, you and your partner may need to downsize from two incomes to one. This has a major impact to your budget! But, with some planning, you can make a smooth transition. The easiest way, Jesse says, is to live on a single income before actually losing the second income. With a little help from YNAB, you can practice this and ensure that when the second income goes away, you know how to make your dollars stretc...
Apr 05, 2021•7 min•Ep. 481
New York Times columnist and bestselling author Ron Lieber joins the podcast for a frank discussion about the ever rising cost of college and whether it's even a good idea for young people today. Evaluating the true cost of college, as it turns out, is essentially a budgeting exercise. There's the sticker price for tuition and room and board, but the real analysis lies in examining the hidden costs, as well as the hidden benefits. Ron Lieber helps us break those down and demystify the college pr...
Mar 31, 2021•50 min•Ep. 480
Buying a house is a stressful experience, especially in the current market where low supply and high demand have pushed prices up and up. Naturally, house shoppers worry about overpaying for a house, or whether they've overpaid for a house they've already bought. We'd all like to perfectly time the market and buy at the lowest possible point, but it's very difficult to do. Jesse reminds house shoppers to check in with their reasons for owning a house before they worry. Is your house a real estat...
Mar 29, 2021•5 min•Ep. 479
What does budgeting have to do with nutrition? A lot, actually, explains Kali Langevin, a nutritionist and Registered Dietitian who has spent 16 years working with athletes in United States Soccer Federation. Kali is also a long time YNAB user, and joins the podcast to explain how the Four Rules can be applied to nutrition. Much like Jesse encourages people to be mindful of their spending habits -- giving dollars jobs that accomplish the things that you value -- Kali encourages people to be mind...
Mar 24, 2021•38 min•Ep. 478
This week's Money Story comes from the vivacious Diania Merriam, founder of the EconoMe Conference which brings together speakers in the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). After finding herself working for a decent salary in NYC but falling deeper into debt, Diania decided to pull her head out of the financial sand and figure out where her finances stood. Around the same time, a friend introduced her to the Mr. Money Mustache blog and the concept of FIRE. Armed with these tool...
Mar 22, 2021•39 min•Ep. 477
