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  • spacepopper
    +15

    Learning to manage money at a young age is important.

    • Bastou (edited 8 years ago)
      +6

      That is so true and somehow, decision makers believe it's not worth teaching in school. Or not worth giving much time, depending where you live.

    • Nate
      +4

      Shit, I'm 24 and am still terrible at managing my money. I'd be happy to find some free class or something somewhere.

      • PushPull (edited 8 years ago)
        +3

        I know it sounds like I'm pushing this, but I actually used it and paid for the product. I can vouch that YNAB is totally worth it, and makes you see exactly how budgeting your money works. Within 3 months of using it, I (well, we) went from paycheck to paycheck (as in , almost always having $10 or less available to us) to having over a thousand dollars in our checking account. Granted, that money had a purpose, every cent of it was allocated for future use, but that is EXACTLY the point.

        It was about $70 or so for the desktop app and Android app, but completely worth it!

        • conception
          +2

          Whenever I talk about YNAB I feel like I'm part of a cult or something, but it has totally transformed my financial life. It's magic. Like foam rolling. Just do it.

          • picklefingers
            0

            I keep trying to get into YNAB cause I hear so many success stories, but I just can't get it to work for me. I feel like I'd need to go through one of the courses that they offer. I don't know, I'm only 19 so it's not extremely important, but I still have enough expenses that it would be pretty helpful for me.

            • conception
              0

              It took me a few weeks, and then when I was at Starbucks or something, and I entered my purchase and I saw the budget value drop it clicked. I felt that money disappear and internalized it.

              Then I started notice my YNAB and bank account balances were different. I had a bunch of cash in my bank account, because of budgeting and saving for rainy day stuff, but YNAB was like, "don't spend this!" And then when a birthday party came up, I just bought a present and didn't think anything of it, as it was already budgeted at like $5 a month or whatever. Ditto on car registration, PSN, etc etc. Just takes out the brain power of worrying about that sort of stuff, but you do have to think about it and track it in the first place. Then it's automatic.

        • NstealthL
          +1

          Just started using YNAB again after doing my own budgeting for a while. I love being totally aware of my spending outflows and what's coming in. Just a simple program, only takes a little bit to more or less understand what you need to do. Plus, it's all fairly well organized and looks neat!

      • Bastou
        +3

        I believe there are many available resources online to teach the basics. I'm too lazy to look it up now though. Be careful that some aspects (taxes, laws, etc.) can vary a lot from country to country and from state/province/region to the next in the same country.

    • conception
      +2

      In a similar vein- in the end all that matters is the friends around you, not things or money. Put good people around you and finding happiness in life becomes tremendously easier.

    • folkrav
      +1

      Came here to say this. "Happy" to see I'm not the only one...