The Marble Jar Channel

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll show you how I set up YNAB to work best for me as someone with maybe a non-standard profile: I'm debt-free and have money left over at the end of the month.   I'll admit that my profile looks different than most folks starting out with YNAB: we don't have any debt and we generally have money left over at the end of the month.  In addition, I'm a former Mint user and have that standard budgeting mindset, so the way I use YNAB reflects that a bit.  My hope in putting this out there is to provide some ideas to those who may have been really successful in reining things in with YNAB and also those (like me) who budget even when they don't absolutely need to just to keep things on track.  I've been keeping a budget religiously since I was in college.  Since I like financial data and reporting, I do it regardless of whether we really need it.  We've gon...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel.  This is the last video in this four part series where I will walk through the steps to start budgeting using Mint.  This video will cover tracking your spending progress against your budget and making adjustments when needed. In the 4 steps to successful budgeting, this video will cover the last 2: tracking progress and making adjustments.  So far we have linked all of your spending accounts to Mint, developed a list of budget categories, tagged your historic transactions, set an amount for each budget category, done a quick savings check, and entered your budget into Mint.  Now you are ready to start to spend some money and Track Your Progress I split this step into two different parts: categorizing your ongoing transactions and reporting on your budget.  Let’s start with Categorizing Your Transactions As you spend, Mint automatically imports your tran...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel.  This is the third video in a four part series where I will walk through the steps to start budgeting using Mint.  This video and the last one cover all of the steps involved in creating a budget.  In this one, we will do a quick savings check and enter your budget into Mint. In the 4 steps to successful budgeting, we are still on the second step -- create a budget.  So far we have linked all of your spending accounts to Mint, developed a list of budget categories, tagged your historic transactions, and set an amount for each budget category.  Now it is time to do a  Quick Savings Check I’m assuming that the whole reason you are budgeting is to save a little more money, right?  Or pay down some debt? Well, let’s check to see if your budget is going to allow you to do this.  First figure out your monthly take home pay -- that is the money that ...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel.  This is the second video in a four part series where I will walk through the steps to start budgeting using Mint.  This video and the next one will cover all of the steps involved in creating a budget.  In this one we'll tag all of the transactions that we've pull in from Mint and set an amount for each budget category. In the 4 steps to successful budgeting, we are still on the second step -- create a budget.  In the last video, we linked all of your spending accounts to Mint and developed a list of budget categories.  So, now it is time to Tag Historic Transactions This part takes some time, so make sure you block off some time to do this.  To figure out how you have been spending your money, you need to go back through the historic transactions that have been pulled into Mint from each of your accounts and tag each transaction with one of your budget cat...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel.  This is the first video in a four part series where I will walk through the steps to start budgeting using Mint.  In this first video we will talk about gathering historic data (which involves linking your accounts) and choosing budget categories. Okay -- I've done a bunch of videos recently about budgeting.  The last series of videos that I did was an overview and explainer on the process of budgeting and the types of budgets that exist.  This series will break down exactly how to get started with budgeting using the platform that I use -- Mint.com .  There will be some repetition from my other videos, since the overall budgeting process is similar, so apologies about that in advance.   If you watched my 3 part budgeting series, you'll know that the 4 steps to successful budgeting are: determine your current behavior, set a new plan, track your behavior, and make adju...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll talk what I don't like about  Mint.com  -- my budgeting program of choice.  This is the last of a 3 part series on how I use Mint. In the last two videos, I did a quick tutorial on  Mint.com , which I use for budgeting and I talked about what I like about Mint.  In this video, I'll share what I wish it did better: Security  - I wish I didn't have to give my bank account login credentials to Mint.  That said, if I want the convenience of having all of my transactions in one place, this is the price I have to pay.  Thankfully, Mint isn't some 2 bit, fly by night operation.  They are owned by Intuit, who also owns TurboTax and Quicken.  They have some experience in keeping data safe.  Here's what Intuit says on their website about how they store this data: "Login user name and passwords are stored securely in a separate database usin...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll talk what I like about  Mint.com  -- my budgeting program of choice.  This is Part 2 of a 3 part series on how I use Mint. The first video in this series gives an overview of how I use Mint.  In this video, I want to cover all of the things I like about Mint: Consolidation  - prior to using Mint, I had an elaborate process by which I would log into both my bank and my main credit card website and export transactions from each.  Then I would put them all into a spreadsheet.  This required me to be at my laptop and would take some doing.  Plus there were inevitably duplicate transactions.  It was, in short, a pain in the rear.  Mint makes this process SO MUCH EASIER.  Once you establish a connection inside Mint with your bank account and credit card accounts, it seamlessly pulls in all your transactions each time you visit the webpa...

Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll give you a quick tour of the program that I use for budgeting,  Mint.com .   This is the first of a 3 part series on how I use Mint. I’ve been compulsively keeping a budget since I was in college.  My parents made it a mission to spend as little money as possible when i was growing up, so I guess some of that rubbed off on me.   I'm also someone who loves systems, tracking things, and data -- so budgeting is a natural fit for me.   Obviously, the technology has improved a lot in 25 years. My favorite software used to be Microsoft Money, but they phased that out years ago, which is when I switched over to  Mint.com .  Mint has some real advantages and some annoying drawbacks, but having tried many of the alternatives, I’m convinced it’s the best thing out there at the moment for my needs.  I have two separate videos where I share my lik...