You Need a Budget (YNAB)是最受欢迎的预算应用程序之一，可帮助人们控制自己的财务状况。YNAB 使用所谓的零基预算(zero-based budgeting)来帮助您将所有传入的财务分配到其应有的位置。
YNAB最有用的功能之一是内置的应急基金(Emergency Fund)功能。它可以让您为您的紧急储蓄计划一个目标，并在您想要实现它时设定一个目标年份。然后，YNAB 会(YNAB)自动计算您每个月需要节省多少才能到达那里。
什么是应急基金？
每个人都应该留出一笔应急基金，作为生活意外恶化时的缓冲。应急基金是一笔相当大的现金，可以支付意料之外的大笔开支，或者足以支付几个月或更长时间的所有账单。
可能需要应急基金的事件包括：
- 失去工作。
- 有医疗紧急情况。
- 主要的家庭或电器维修。
- 大修车。
- 因家庭紧急情况出差。
人们在建立应急基金方面存在问题，因为在任何预算中都没有足够的空间。但是，由于YNAB将所有收到的资金分配给特定的预算类别，因此它鼓励您每个月至少为该预算分配一些收入。
拥有这个小小的积蓄可以减轻您的压力，因为即使发生灾难性事件，您也会知道您有一些时间来解决问题，而不会破坏您的生活。
您应该(Should)在应急基金中节省多少？
大多数金融专家都同意，您应该拥有这样的安全基金，以帮助您支付至少 3 到 6 个月的重要账单。
要弄清楚这一点，请查看您的所有账单，并将那些您因 3 到 6 个月不付款而无法逃脱的账单加起来。这些将是这样的：
- 抵押
- 汽车贷款
- 杂货
- 上下班的燃料
- 电力、热力和水等公用事业
如果您的预算(in your budget)有足够的空间，您还可以包括信用卡、个人贷款和娱乐服务等费用。但是，如果您致电公司并询问，其中许多可以延长或取消一段时间。
一旦您计算出您需要生存 3 到 6 个月的总金额，就可以在YNAB中配置您的(YNAB)应急基金(Emergency Fund)了。
设置您的 YNAB 应急基金
打开YNAB 网站(YNAB website)并登录您的帐户。滚动(Scroll)到紧急基金(Emergency Fund)项目并选择它。
这将在右侧窗格中打开紧急基金编辑器。(Emergency Fund)随着时间的推移，您可以在此处配置和管理您的应急基金。
此窗格的顶部是您的基金的当前状态。您会在顶部看到目标，以及在建议框下为它提供资金的情况。
中间的建议框为您提供了一些提示，告诉您本月需要为紧急基金(Emergency Fund)分配多少资金才能更接近您的目标。你会注意到这里有几个选项。
- 本月您从该基金中花费的任何费用（取出的钱）要转回基金中来弥补。
- 您本月需要分配的总金额，以保持从现在到目标年份的整体储蓄趋势的目标。
- 您本月需要分配的金额，以至少在实现目标方面取得适度进展（即使它低于目标储蓄趋势）。
如果您想调整目标储蓄目标(target savings goal)（或者如果您尚未设置），请选择Edit Target。
这将打开目标(Target)窗口，您可以在其中设置应急基金目标以及您希望该应急基金完全可用的日期。
完成后选择保存目标(Save Target)。既然您的应急基金目标已经设定，您就可以开始每月为其分配资金并监控您实现该目标的进度。
管理和监控您的 YNAB 应急基金(Monitoring Your YNAB Emergency Fund)
每个月，当您选择应急基金时，顶部窗格都会为您提供快速建议，告诉您在指定日期之前需要做什么才能达到该基金目标。
理想情况下，您应该点击顾问在此框中提供的“保持正常”金额。这将确保您正确掌握 YNAB(YNAB)估计的储蓄趋势。
如果您在任何一个月都落后于这一点，那么您将不得不在下个月添加更多。这是一个很容易进入的滑坡，并且很难在您想要的日期之前实现您的目标。
YNAB还提供了一些快速链接，以帮助您分配正确的月收入金额。只需(Just)向下滚动到“自动分配(Auto-Assign)”部分即可查看这些内容。
选择(Select)以下任一链接以自动分配显示在其右侧的金额。
- 资金不足(Underfunded)：预算刚好足以为目标提供资金，因此您取得了一些进展。
- 上个月分配(Assigned Last Month)：使用您上个月分配给您的基金的相同金额。
- 上个月花费(Spent Last Month)：与应急基金无关。
- 平均分配(Average Assigned)：将预算您过去分配的 12 个月平均值。
- 平均花费(Average Spent)：与应急基金无关。
- 重置可用金额(Reset Available Amount)：将可用资金重置为 0。
- 重置分配数量(Reset Assigned Amount)：将本月分配数量重置为0。
在右窗格的底部，您将看到与您的基金相关的总数。在这里您可以找到当前的总余额以及从上个月到本月的余额。
您还将看到本月到目前为止您已分配给该基金的金额。
Cash Spending和Credit Spending与(Credit Spending)Emergency Fund无关，因此您可以忽略这些余额。
关于使用YNAB 应急基金(YNAB Emergency Fund)的另一件事是，您可以快速查看过去随时间进出基金的金额的记录。
只需选择您本月分配给基金的金额旁边的小时钟图标即可。
将出现一个窗口，您可以在其中滚动浏览该基金的所有进出交易的整个历史记录。
立即设置您的 YNAB 应急基金
YNAB的应急基金(Emergency Fund)是您应该分配资金的第一件事。不要忽略此功能。弄清楚你需要多少生活才能维持 3 到 6 个月并设定目标。
努力分配实现该目标所需的金额。一旦你这样做了，你就可以在晚上睡得更好，知道即使生活给你一个曲线球，你也会有经济支持来吸收它。
YNAB Emergency Fund: How to Build Your Safety Net
You Need a Budget (YNAB) is one of the more popular budgeting apps that helps people take control of their finances. YNAB uses what’s known as zero-based budgeting to help you assign all incoming finances to their rightful place.
One of the most useful features of YNAB is the built-in Emergency Fund feature. It lets you plan a goal for your emergency savings and set a target year when you want to achieve it. Then, YNAB automatically calculates exactly how much you need to save every month to get there.
What Is an Emergency Fund?
Everyone should have an emergency fund set aside as a cushion for when life takes an unexpected turn for the worse. An emergency fund is a fairly large sum of cash that’ll cover either unexpected large expenses or enough to cover all of your bills for a few months or more.
Events that might require an emergency fund include:
- Losing your job.
- Having a medical emergency.
- Major home or appliance repairs.
- Major car repairs.
- Unexpected travel for family emergencies.
People have a problem with building up an emergency fund because there’s rarely room for it in any budget. However, as YNAB assigns all incoming funds to specific budget categories as the money comes in, it encourages you to allocate at least some income to this budget each month.
Having this small nest egg can reduce your stress because even when something catastrophic hits, you’ll know you have some time to figure things out without it ruining your life.
How Much Should You Save in an Emergency Fund?
Most financial experts agree that you should have a safety fund like this to help you pay your critical bills for at least 3 to 6 months.
To figure this out, look through all of your bills and add up those you couldn’t get away with not paying for 3 to 6 months. These would be things like:
- Mortgage
- Car loans
- Groceries
- Fuel to get to and from work
- Utilities like electricity, heat, and water
If you have enough room in your budget, you could also include expenses like credit cards, personal loans, and entertainment services. However, many of these can be extended or canceled for some time if you call the company and ask.
Once you’ve calculated the total amount you need to survive for 3 to 6 months, it’s time to configure your Emergency Fund in YNAB.
Setting Up Your YNAB Emergency Fund
Open the YNAB website and log into your account. Scroll to the Emergency Fund item and select it.
This will open the Emergency Fund editor in the right pane. Here you can configure and manage your emergency fund over time.
At the top of this pane is the current status of your fund. You’ll see the target at the top and how well you’re doing funding it under the advice box.
The advice box in the middle gives you some tips on how much you need to assign to the Emergency Fund this month to get closer to your goal. You’ll notice several options here.
- How much to move back to the fund to make up for anything you spent from it this month (removed money).
- The amount you need to assign in total this month to stay on target with the overall savings trend from now until your target year.
- The amount you need to assign this month to at least make moderate progress toward your goal (even though it’s below the target savings trend).
If you want to adjust your target savings goal (or if you haven’t set it up yet), select Edit Target.
This will open the Target window where you can set the emergency fund goal and the date when you want to have that emergency fund fully available.
Select Save Target when you’re done. Now that your emergency fund goal is set, you’re ready to start assigning funds to it every month and monitoring your progress toward that goal.
Managing and Monitoring Your YNAB Emergency Fund
Each month when you select the emergency fund, the top pane will give you quick advice about what you need to do to reach that fund target by the date you specified.
Ideally, you should hit the “stay on track” amount that the advisor offers in this box. That will ensure that you’re staying right on the savings trend estimated by YNAB.
If you fall behind this in any month, you’re going to have to add even more the following month. This is a slippery slope to get into and will make it very difficult to hit your goal by the date you want to.
YNAB also provides some quick links to help you assign the right amount of your monthly income. Just scroll down to the Auto-Assign section to see these.
Select any of the following links to automatically assign the amount displayed to the right of it.
- Underfunded: Budget just enough to fund the target, so you make some progress.
- Assigned Last Month: Use the same amount you assigned to your fund last month.
- Spent Last Month: Not relevant for an emergency fund.
- Average Assigned: Will budget the 12 month average of what you’ve been assigning in the past.
- Average Spent: Not relevant for an emergency fund.
- Reset Available Amount: Reset the available funds to 0.
- Reset Assigned Amount: Reset the assigned amount this month to 0.
Toward the bottom of the right pane, you’ll see the totals related to your fund. This is where you can find the current total balance and how much you had leftover from last month that rolled into this month.
You’ll also see the amount that you’ve assigned to the fund so far this month.
Cash Spending and Credit Spending aren’t relevant for the Emergency Fund, so you can ignore these balances.
One more thing to know about using the YNAB Emergency Fund is that you can quickly see a record of the past amounts you’ve moved in and out of the fund over time.
Just select the small clock icon next to the amount you’ve assigned to the fund this month.
A window will appear where you can scroll through the entire history of all of the transactions in and out of that fund.
Set Up Your YNAB Emergency Fund Now
The Emergency Fund in YNAB is the first thing you should assign money to. Don’t ignore this feature. Figure out how much you’ll need to live on for 3 to 6 months and set up the goal.
Be diligent about assigning the amount you need to reach that goal. Once you do, you’ll be able to sleep better at night, knowing that even if life throws you a curveball, you’ll have the financial backing to absorb it.
