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  • You Need a Budget

  • The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want
  • By: Jesse Mecham
  • Narrated by: Jesse Mecham
  • Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (145 ratings)
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You Need a Budget

By: Jesse Mecham
Narrated by: Jesse Mecham
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Summary

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 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 YNAB Licensing LLC (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about You Need a Budget

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great budgeting book

This is a superb book. Whether you are looking for a starter book to help you manage your money or whether you are a seasoned budgeter this book will help, inspire and guide you. The best thing about Jesse is he is non-judgemental and down to earth. He knows that everyone if different so he doesn’t give you didactic rules but more principles you can adapt to your unique situation. I would thoroughly recommend. I wish this book had been written (and I had read it!) 10 years ago. Goodness knows what my bank balance would look like now if I had!

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good book and helpful.

It's a good guide and has some general information which is particularly helpful and will change the lives of people that really struggle with budgeting .

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

No PDF available, just the audiobook.

This audiobook contains valuable advice as to budgeting etc. But it is a big disappointment that there is no available PDF book. What you get is just a four pages with simple illustrations. I know that the author has written a full version of the audiobook and I wrongly assumed that this would be available. Completely lost my taste for YNAB.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!

This book will change your life and your finances. YNAB is an amazing budgeting system but it's also so much more. You won't regret buying it!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I love the simplicity of this method

I have been listening and watching Jesse on YouTube (whiteboard Wednesdays) and recently the podcasts I did the free trial a couple of years ago and I was sold but when it came time to buy it I didn't press the trigger not until a year later (last October) I live in the UK and I think it is fantastic and you would think that after listening and watching all his other free resources there would be nothing else to learn/gain from the audio book but you would be wrong. I am going to get the book version of this as soon as it is available in the UK for my 15 year old. I am a total budget convert and a YNABer. Thank you Jesse for the tools to get back in control of my money. Keep up the good work.

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2 people found this helpful

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Best money management tools and advice

Love this book. We use the app and it really has transformed our money management. Highly recommend

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1 person found this helpful

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Really set a fire under us!

We cannot wait to start our budget up. Absolutely brilliant ideas and very helpful.
Thank you.

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

The greatest book of all time

I wish I had this 20 years ago. If you don’t have this book just get it, it will change your life for the better. It’s a great compliment to The Total Money Makeover (in fact it’s got all the vital info you need that Dave Ramsey doesn’t cover).

Thank you, Jesse. Seriously. Thank you so much.

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  • Overall
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great guide for 0 based budgeting using YNAB rules

I've used YNAB for a number of years already but still hearing the rules again and the stories illustrating how they have helped people reinforced / reminded me of the reasons to stick to them (which recently I have not). I'll certainly be getting the Kindle edition to highlight the best bits and bits I'm likely to forget to look over every so often again.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

an easy listen during chores

nothing major was revealed really - one or two good tips... apparently there is a PDF that goes with the book but it's not explained were to get it from - maybe I just missed it...

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