#108 - Spendfulness: The Word We've Been Looking For All Along with YNAB Dave

Budget Nerds

In today's episode, Ben and Ernie are joined by Dave from YNAB, a YNAB teacher and contributor to many YNAB articles and blogs and a master of money analogies! Dave discovered YNAB while deeply in debt and making a move across the Atlantic. He saw the wisdom and value of the YNAB method quickly, however, and steadily worked himself out of debt over an eight year period. Along the way, he learend many lessons about sustainability and resilience -- learning to balance his priorities of enjoying life now and becoming debt free, while creating a buffer for unexpected expenses so they didn't put him further in debt. Two steps forward, three steps back, as Dave says.

When the YNAB team landed on the word "spendfulness" to describe this state of alignment with your money, it instantly struck a chord for Dave. The YNAB method, which for many years was represented by four rules, always really boiled down to one rule, the first one: give every dollar a job. There was always something special about Rule One, he points out. The problem was, the rules didn't fully explain the method in and of themselves. When Dave would run workshops, "embrace your true expenses" (Rule Two) was typically followed by the quesiton: what's a true expense? After spending so much time explaining and clarifying the rules, it became clear that YNAB needed a different way to explain what made it different from traditional budgeting advice.

Dave explains why spendfulness is such an important concept, and how the Four Rules have been transformed into 5 Questions which clarify the only rule that ever mattered: giving every dollar a job.

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