制定预算是人们开始“成年”时首先要做的事情之一。也就是说，如果他们想在不断增长的账单清单上保持领先，并且随着时间的推移仍然可以省钱。
大多数人认为创建预算应该很简单。你拿你的收入，减去你的开支，剩下的你可以随心所欲地消费，对吧？
真的没那么简单。要正确地做事，您应该使用预算应用程序。两个最受欢迎的预算应用程序是 You Need a Budget ( YNAB ) 和Mint。本文将比较YNAB 与 Mint(YNAB Vs Mint)并帮助您确定哪个可能是更适合您的预算应用程序。
为什么我需要预算应用程序？
过于简单的预算是为那些从未真正想出人头地的人制定的预算。他们不会为紧急情况做好准备，他们不会退休，他们当然不会记得那些意外到来的账单。
最重要的是要记住，无论您选择YNAB还是Mint，都不会为您创建预算(create a budget)。总会有一些前期工作要开始。
入门：薄荷
Mint实际上确实尝试使您的预算创建过程自动化。它通过让您向其提供所有各种帐户的所有登录详细信息来做到这一点。
当您第一次注册时，Mint将引导您完成一个向导，您将在其中添加所有帐户登录详细信息。如果您已经完成向导并想要添加更多帐户，只需从菜单中选择添加帐户。(Add Accounts)
添加完所有帐户后，您需要给Mint 24小时左右的时间来提取所有帐户详细信息，并尝试将所有内容整理到预算中。
一切设置好后，下次登录仪表板时，您将在一个页面上看到所有帐户。
这包括：
- 支票和储蓄账户(Checking and savings account)余额
- 信用卡余额
- 贷款余额
- 投资和财产持有
- 您即将到来的账单及其日期的列表
- 各种图表详细说明您的消费模式
薄荷的整个“预算”方法是历史数据分析。它可以帮助您查看您的支出模式，以便您可以调整未来的支出以减少您超支的事情。
Mint根据您创建的预算了解您的所有支出“目标”。在下一节中，您将了解更多关于YNAB与Mint中“创建预算”的内容。
入门：YNAB
YNAB的入门有很大不同。这主要是因为YNAB(YNAB)的整个理念与您通常在考虑预算时所想的完全相反。
YNAB不在乎您每月赚取或花费多少。它只关心您计划如何花费您帐户中实际拥有的资金。因此，您需要提供的唯一账户信息就是您的银行账户(your bank accounts)。
YNAB将连接到这些账户并提取所有余额。
当您第一次开始使用YNAB时，它将为您提供与典型家庭预算中的大多数项目相匹配的默认预算。
您可以通过选择部分右侧的小 + 图标来添加新项目，并为每个预算项目添加一个新的“类别”。
在这一点上，您实际上不需要预算任何东西，您只需要尝试确保您希望花钱的所有东西都包含在列表中。
一旦你包含了任何东西，是时候将你银行账户中的所有可用资金分配给你“预算”中的各种项目了。我们将在下一节比较你在YNAB(YNAB)和Mint中是如何做到这一点的。
制定预算：薄荷
在预算方面， Mint(Mint)有点老派。这是因为它使用为每个账单分配“目标”的标准方法。意思(Meaning)是，您为它分配了一个您希望保持在其之下的每月限制。
要开始在Mint中创建预算，请从菜单中 选择预算，(Budgets)
接下来，选择创建预算(Create a Budget)按钮。
您将一次选择一个类别（预算项目），分配该账单的重复周期，以及您希望为该账单花费（或必须花费）的最大金额。
您需要为您有账单、想要储蓄或想要进行投资的每一个预算项目执行此操作。
这实际上与您可能在Excel(Excel)中创建的标准预算没有什么不同。唯一的区别是，Mint会随着时间的推移引入您的实际支出模式，然后将您的实际支出与这些预算支出目标进行比较。
你会注意到Mint的最终结果是这样的：
- 您会在月底前知道您的总体支出何时失控。
- 您会看到每个月在哪些预算项目上超支。
- 薄荷(Mint)往往会引起很多内疚，因为在预算项目上超支通常是不可避免的。
- 在Mint(Mint)中处理意外费用很困难，并且会增加您的财务规划压力。
- 如果您不将它们关闭，来自Mint的账单通知电子邮件会很烦人。
- 总体而言，预算界面和流程复杂且耗时。
制定预算：YNAB
在YNAB(YNAB)做预算一开始会让你头晕目眩。如果您一直使用老式的每月预算方法，情况尤其如此。
如果您希望在月初为每个预算项目“分配”一个月度金额，那么您将不得不重新学习您曾经考虑过的制定预算的所有内容。
YNAB的方法是，您将仅使用您目前手头的现金计划尽可能远的未来支出。每当您收到薪水或任何类型的正现金流入您的银行账户时，“待预算”都会加载更多资金。
您需要查看预算项目列表，并将这些“待预算”资金分配给最快到期的每个预算项目。
在您处理清单时，您需要确保仅将资金分配给到期日期最早的那些事情。
一旦您的“待预算”金额用完，您就完成了，直到您下次收到薪水。
预算的另一面是分配您最近的支出出现在哪些类别中。您几乎每次登录YNAB时都需要通过选择每个银行帐户并分配每个项目所属的类别来执行此操作。
随着时间的推移，当您分配支出活动时，您会看到该活动从您为这些活动预算的金额中减去。
这就是YNAB变得非常有趣的地方。如果您在某个类别中超支，您会看到红色。您实际上需要通过分配更多的“待预算”资金（如果您还有剩余）或从其他预算类别中重新分配资金来弥补这种超支。
你会注意到YNAB的最终结果是这样的：
- 它迫使您控制您的类别（例如外出就餐）的支出，这样您就不必从其他对您很重要的类别（例如为汽车存钱）中“偷”钱。
- 将收到的资金分配到预算类别感觉就像您实际上在花费这笔钱，这迫使您对支出更加现实。
- YNAB可帮助您在不同类别的预算中节省开支，并在您真正做到这一点时提升自豪感。
- 没有导入账单到期日会迫使您在另一个系统中跟踪到期日，以便您首先将可用资金分配给最关键的账单。
- YNAB预算的潜在心理使得在您的银行账户中积累资金变得自然而然。
YNAB 与薄荷：总体比较
那么在比较YNAB和Mint时，哪个赢了？在这种情况下，实际上有一个非常明显的赢家。
Mint 建立在老式的概念之上，即制定每月预算、设定目标，然后在每个月都失败时让自己内疚地屈服。
Mint确实具有与您有账单的每个银行账户和公司集成的好处，但这种集成带来了巨大的安全风险。如果有人入侵Mint服务器，您的每一个财务账户都会受到攻击。
另一方面， YNAB(YNAB)使用了一种非常创新的方法。从字面上看，它使您在收到所有资金时就计划好所有资金。如果您想省钱，您需要确保在下一次薪水之前到期的所有账单都已分配给他们，然后再为储蓄留出资金。
这样做的好处是您不再需要查看您的银行帐户来决定您是否负担得起。你在看你的预算。如果您还没有为那张全新的沙发分配资金，那么您将不得不从其他可能对您同样重要的东西中获取资金。
这就是为什么YNAB运作良好的秘诀，以及为什么它显然是Mint的赢家，毫无疑问。
YNAB vs Mint: Why YNAB Is The Better Budget App
Creating a budget is one of the first things рeople lеarn to do when they start “adulting”. That is, if they want to stay on top of thеir growіng liѕt of billѕ, and still save money over time.
Most people think that creating a budget should be simple. You take your income, subtract your expenses, and whatever you have left you can spend however you like, right?
It really isn’t that simple. To do things right, you should use a budgeting app. The two most popular budget apps are You Need a Budget (YNAB) and Mint. This article will compare YNAB Vs Mint and help you decide which may be the better budget app for you.
Why Do I Need a Budget App?
A budget that’s too simple is a budget for people who never really want to get ahead. They won’t be prepared for emergencies, they won’t have a retirement, and they certainly won’t remember those bills that arrive unexpectedly.
The most important thing to keep in mind, whether you go with YNAB or Mint, is that neither one is going to create a budget for you. There will always be some up-front work to get started.
Getting Started: Mint
Mint actually does try to automate your budget creation process. It does this by having you provide it with all of the login details for all of your various accounts.
When you first sign up, Mint will take you through a wizard where you’ll add all your account login details. If you’ve already finished the wizard and want to add more accounts, you just select Add Accounts from the menu.
Once you’ve added all accounts, you’ll need to give Mint 24 hours or so to pull in all of your account details and attempt to sort everything out into somewhat of a budget.
Once everything is set up, the next time you log into your dashboard you’ll see all of your accounts on a single page.
This includes:
- Checking and savings account balances
- Credit card balances
- Loan balances
- Investments and property holdings
- A list of your upcoming bills and their dates
- Various charts detailing your spending patterns
The entire “budgeting” approach of mint is historic data analysis. It helps you look at your spending patterns so that you can adjust your future spending to reduce the things you’re overspending on.
Mint knows all of your spending “goals” based on the budget you create. In the next section you’ll learn more about what “creating a budget” looks like in YNAB vs Mint.
Getting Started: YNAB
Getting started in YNAB is a lot different. This is mostly because the entire philosophy of YNAB is upside down from what you’d normally think about when you think of budgeting.
YNAB doesn’t care how much you earn or spend every month. It only cares how you plan to spend the money that you actually have in your account. Because of this, the only account information you need to provide are your bank accounts.
YNAB will connect to those accounts and pull in all balances.
When you first get started with YNAB, it will provide you with a default budget that matches most of the items in a typical household family budget.
You can add new items by selecting the little + icon to the right of a section and add a new “Category” for each budget item.
At this point you don’t actually need to budget anything, you just need to try and make sure everything you ever expect to spend money on is included in the list.
Once you’ve included anything, it’s time to assign all available money in your bank accounts to various items in your “budget”. We’ll compare how you do this in YNAB vs Mint in the next section.
Making a Budget: Mint
Mint is a bit old-school when it comes to budgeting. This is because it uses the standard approach of assigning a “goal” for each bill. Meaning, you assign it a monthly limit you want to keep it under.
To get started with creating a budget in Mint, select Budgets from the menu,
Next, select the Create a Budget button.
You’ll select each category (budget item) one at a time, assign the recurrence of that bill, and the maximum amount you want to spend (or have to spend) for that bill.
You’ll need to do this for every single budget item that you either have a bill for, want to save for, or investment you want to make.
This really is no different than a standard budget you might create in Excel. The only difference is that Mint brings in your actual spending patterns over time and then compares your actual spending with those budget spending goals.
What you’ll notice is that the end result of Mint is this:
- You’ll know when your overall spending is getting out of hand before the end of the month.
- You’ll see which budget items you’ve overspent on each month.
- Mint tends to induce a lot of guilt since overspending on budget items is often inevitable.
- Handling unexpected expenses in Mint is difficult and adds to your financial planning stress.
- The bill notification emails from Mint can get annoying if you don’t turn them off.
- Overall, the budgeting interface and process is complicated and time consuming.
Making a Budget: YNAB
Making a budget in YNAB is going to set your head spinning at first. This is especially the case if you’ve always used the old-school monthly budgeting approach.
If you’re expecting to “assign” a monthly amount to each budget item at the start of the month, you’re going to have to relearn everything you’ve ever thought about making a budget.
The YNAB approach is that you’ll only plan out your spending as far into the future as you can with the cash you currently have on hand. “To be Budgeted” gets loaded with more funds any time you receive a paycheck or any kind of positive cash flow into your bank account.
You’ll need to go down the list of your budget items and assign pieces of those “To be Budgeted” funds to each budget item that is due the soonest.
As you work down the list, you’ll need to make sure only to assign funds to those things where the due date is coming up the earliest.
Once your “To be Budgeted” amount is drained, you’re done until the next time you receive a paycheck.
The other side of budgeting is assigning which categories your recent spending appears in. You’ll need to do this nearly every time you log into YNAB by selecting each bank account and assigning which category each item belongs in.
Over time, as you assign your spending activities, you’ll see that activity subtracted from the amount that you budgeted for those.
This is where YNAB gets very interesting. If you overspend in a category, you’ll see that in red. You’ll actually need to cover this overspending by either assigning more “To be Budgeted” money to it (if you have any left), or reassigning funds from other budgeted categories.
What you’ll notice is that the end result of YNAB is this:
- It forces you to control spending in your categories (like dining out) so that you don’t have to “steal” money from other categories that are important to you (like saving for a car).
- Assigning incoming funds to budget categories feels like you’re actually spending that money, which forces you to be more realistic about your spending.
- YNAB helps you build savings in different categories of your budget, and promotes pride when you actually accomplish that.
- Not having imported due dates for bills forces you to track due dates in another system, so that you assign your available funds to the most critical bills first.
- The underlying psychology of YNAB budgeting makes accumulating funds in your bank accounts come naturally.
YNAB Vs Mint: Overall Comparison
So when comparing YNAB vs Mint, which one wins? In this case, there’s actually a very clear winner.
Mint is built upon the old fashioned concept of making a monthly budget, setting goals, and then beating yourself into submission with guilt as you fail every month.
Mint does have the benefit of being integrated with every single bank account and company that you have bills with, but with that integration comes an enormous security risk. Should anyone ever hack Mint servers, every single one of your financial accounts are vulnerable.
YNAB, on the other hand, uses a very innovative approach. It literally makes you plan out all incoming funds the moment you receive them. If you want to save money, you need to make sure all bills that are due before your next paycheck have money assigned to them before you set aside money for savings.
The benefit to this is that you’re no longer looking at your bank account to decide if you can afford something. You’re looking at your budget. If you haven’t allocated money for that brand new couch, you’re going to have to steam money from something else that may be equally important to you.
That is the secret behind why YNAB works so well, and why it’s clearly the winner over Mint, hands down.
