
He also suggests changing your credit card due date to the last day of each month and paying your entire statement balance that day. Mecham says a better approach is to set aside some time on a monthly basis to run through the charges. Tracking every detail of your credit card charges on a daily basis can be tedious, particularly if you charge on your card a lot. If you find you don’t have enough money, you know you’ll have to spend less in the future. This simple exercise can help you get ahead of your credit card bills instead of always playing catchup. Mecham says to start by allocating each dollar in your bank account to expenses you have to pay for the month. “We want people to be in a situation where a dollar spent today was earned at least 30 days ago,” Mecham says. Jesse Mecham, founder of You Need A Budget, says a better method is to limit your spending to the amount saved in your bank accounts. Because both can change, you could end up spending more than your income. If you rely on a traditional budget to figure out how much money to spend every month, you have to forecast what your expenses and your income will be. If you’re looking for ways to do a better job of staying on top of your finances, here are some suggestions. "Consumers who struggle to deal with inflation and rising interest rates find themselves especially challenged when it comes to saving while managing the debt they owe." “People are experiencing mounting financial pressure," says Bruce McClary, a spokesman for the NFCC. Yet despite these growing balances, fewer than half of Americans said they closely tracked their spending or had a budget, according to a 2021 consumer financial literacy survey from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), a nonprofit that oversees a network of agencies offering advice to consumers struggling with debt.Īlthough two in five consumers surveyed were carrying some amount of credit card debt from month to month, less than one in three reported having a plan for how they will pay down those balances. 16.4 percent at the end of April, Bankrate data show. The average credit card interest rate recently rose to 17.58 percent vs.
YOU NEED A BUDGET JESSE MECHAM SOFTWARE
I actually plan on keeping this book on my shelves for future reference because I do hope to be able to invest in the software one of these days.That debt is getting more expensive. I found it to be motivating and inspiring. I understand the gist of the rules and can understand their importance, but beyond that, I think I would personally need the program in order to work this system.Īll that said, I enjoyed this book and the advice it offered. He said many times you can use your own spreadsheet or pen and paper, but I personally couldn’t quite see how I could make this work without the software. Please note that Mecham in no way tries to force the software on you, which I appreciated. Without having that software and seeing it all laid out, it was a bit hard at times imagining how this system would work for me, and envisioning running through these rules in my personal life. Though I’ve been really interested in checking the software out, I just can’t commit to paying for it right now.

I could definitely get on board with that!Ī downfall about this book for me was that it seems difficult to really put his methods into practice without the YNAB software. He only wants you to prioritize money based on YOUR individual wants and needs.
YOU NEED A BUDGET JESSE MECHAM HOW TO
He doesn’t tell you how to spend, what to buy, how much to save, etc. He wasn’t pushy or preachy at all, and believes that you should prioritize your money in a way that makes YOU happy. I also enjoyed Mecham’s casual, friendly writing style and tone. I like how this book was pretty short and to the point, but still managed to go into depth on each of the four rules. If I could break that cycle, it would relieve a lot of stress from our lives. I love this concept! I hate waiting for that next paycheck to hit all the time, and lining up bills with paychecks.


YNAB is a popular software program that follows four “rules” of budgeting that will help you get out of that paycheck to paycheck cycle in order to start saving and “aging” your money. Not only have I been really interested in finances over the past few years, I had also heard about the You Need A Budget (YNAB) method and system before, and had long been intrigued by it. I was all over this book from the moment I heard about it. Genre/Audience: Nonfiction, finance, adult
