budget
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Student Loans for Living Expenses: A Risky Move?
Can you use student loans for living expenses? Yes. Is it in your best interest to do so? No. Let me explain… Once I’ve gotten to know someone, I’ll usually ask the question, “Do you budget?” The res
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Essential Life Skills They Don't Teach in College
I remember my last few months of college being entirely over it—the jumping through hoops, the tests, the group projects. Oh, the group projects! I was eager and antsy to get on with my grown-up life
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Budgeting Mistakes & How to Avoid Them: A Realistic Guide
Our budget is intended to serve as a source of truth, our North Star of spending, the fire alarm that warns of financial inferno, the seismograph of—okay, yes, I’m taking the metaphor too far but the
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Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): A Powerful Tax-Advantaged Tool
Health Savings Accounts (or HSAs for short) crept into our lives in 2003. While HSAs are often misunderstood, they’re an incredibly powerful tool for you as a taxpayer. Perhaps even epic. With
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YNAB Reports for Effective Cost Cutting & Retirement Savings
One of my biggest long term financial goals is to invest more aggressively for retirement, which, for me, is a little less than 10 years away. Yikes. I want—er, actually, I need—to ramp up my savings
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Affordable Fun Ideas: Budget-Friendly Activities & Socializing
Sometimes finding ideas for budget friendly fun feels more like a mythical quest than a realistic goal. As an adult, it’s already hard to make new friends and maintain a social life—and it can
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Understanding Debt: Is All Debt Bad?
There are different types of debt, and it’s easy to try to lump debt into two distinct Wizard of Oz witch-like categories: good debt and bad debt. Debt can’t be that bad for you, right? E
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Budgeting Days Off: A YNAB Approach for Financial Freedom
Many years ago, I was the kind of person who didn’t use all my paid vacation days. I didn’t have a lot of money at the time, I was new in my career, and while I can’t specifically remember anyone tel
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Effective Tax Planning for Small Businesses: A Practical System
Owning a small business is like a rollercoaster ride; you feel trepidation upon your initial approach yet courageous for attempting it, you experience the exhilaration of high points and the anxiety
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Debt-Busting Date Nights: A Couple's Smart Financial Strategy
Dillon, a software engineer, and Carly, a corporate recruiter, of Crofton, Maryland, graduated from college in 2015 with a hefty $105,000 of student debt between them. Luckily, Dillon knew all about
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Unexpected Expenses: The True Cost of Pet Ownership
When you really think about the concept of having house pets, it’s kind of wild. We basically go find some weird little creature and decide to bring it into our home to care for it for the rest of it
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Understanding Student Loans: A Comprehensive Guide
If you’re thinking about pursuing higher education, you may be wondering, “How do student loans work?” anyway. You’re not alone in that—even with Google and guidance counselors, navigating how the st
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Home Office Makeover: Before & After Remodel Ideas & Expert Tips
Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. No commute? Amazing! Pets and babies interrupting meetings? Funny every single time! An “anything goes” dress code? Yes, I am wearing a button-up
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Tax Refund Strategies: Smart Ways to Utilize Your Refund
Ah, tax season. For some of us, it’s a mad scramble to gather up receipts, 1099s, W-2s, and all of that mail that has “Important tax documents enclosed” stamped across the front while frantically ema
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Tax Refund Drawbacks: Why a Large Refund Might Not Be All It's Cracked Up To Be
Tax season—the most wonderful time of the year! Well, OK—it’s not exactly cinnamon-rolls-on-Christmas-morning wonderful, but this time of year means money is coming back into your pocket for many peo
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Simplify Tax Season: Your Guide to Preparation & Key Documents
W-2? 1099-MISC? 1098-E? Check, check and bingo. It’s tax time! Tax season has arrived and, with it, a flurry of trifold, self-mailers with perforated, tear-away edges—each containing a mathematical s
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Meal Planning Myths Debunked: Save Money on Groceries
This post was written in collaboration with our friends at Plan To Eat —an app many of us on the YNAB team have been using for years to help save money on groceries. If there’s one category in the bu
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Understanding Tax Withholdings: A Simple Guide
Taxes are complicated, but there’s a sneaky little trick we can learn from a boring thing like tax withholdings, and that’s how to painlessly save more money. First, what are tax withholdings? When
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Quarterly Taxes for Businesses: A Simple Calculation Guide
We’re smack dab in the middle of tax season and as more business owners use YNAB to manage their small business budgets, I think it’s important to specifically address how to calculate quarterly taxe
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Simple Budget Categories for Beginners: Take Control of Your Finances
Budgets are often associated with boring stuff like spreadsheets, receipts, and “belt-tightening.” As we all now understand, belts are unnecessary and so is negative baggage about budgeting. Imagine
budget
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Cash Back vs. Travel Rewards: Which Offers Better Value?div.cus...
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COVID-19 Stimulus Checks: How Americans Are Spending Relief FundsIn a few short months, the new coronavirus has changed everything about the way we live. With nearly 900,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed globally at the time of this writing and nearly 185,000 conf...
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Cheesecake Factory Itemized Receipt: How to Obtain a ReplacementThe Cheesecake Factory can give you a duplicate itemized receipt if you have lost the original. After paying for a meal at the Cheesecake Factory, every restaurant guest should be given an it...
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Strategic Borrowing: 3 Smart Reasons to Consider Taking Out a LoanMany or all of the products here are from our partners that pay us a commission. It’s how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts’ opi...