Budgeting problems for individuals? Yeah, I’ve had a few–quite a few. I actually wonder if many people “succeed” with budgeting on their first attempt. It took years from the time that I got YNAB before I considered myself a “real budgeter.”
(Actually, “real budgeter” may be too generous. I might still be a budgeting intern, if we’re being honest.)
Budgeting is good. You can see the benefits. The results are what we want. Hence, why does everyone fall off the wagon so often.
We’re sold on the Four Rules. Budgeting is something we see, but then we stop. One day we’re budgeting; the next day we’re not.
Here’s the top 3 personal budgeting challenges that kept holding me back:
I didn’t break the one rule
I didn’t even know I was breaking it (because I didn’t attend one of the excellent YNAB live classesI was able to do it, and that would have been a great help. I tried to budget for a whole month by forecasting or trying to budget before I had enough money to budget.
So I’d make these estimates across all these categories, and the total budgeted amount would look ridiculous (because it was), and I’d throw up my hands in frustration….
