Top all-time · #615
YNAB Blog
Company blog · youneedabudget.com/blogbusinessproductivity
YNAB Blog is the company blog at youneedabudget.com, writing about business and productivity. Since 2012, 99 different Hacker News readers have linked it 118 times, most often “You Need a Budget”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
Commenters link YNAB, a budgeting app built on its Four Rules method, to recommend it for tracking spending and budgeting. Linked pages also include its method, workshops and job listings.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Have you ever worried about money? You're not alone. Download YNAB, get good at money, and never worry about money again.
Most-linked posts?
- You Need a Budget35 people · 40 mentions · first linked 2014-05-07
- /10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2013-01-17
- /8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2016-07-03
- /7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2012-09-04
- The Four Rules4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-02-11
- /pricing/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-05-01
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-10-19
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-07-28
- YNAB releases public API2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-06-19
- /security/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-01-03
What Hacker News says?
They should read things like YNAB: http://www.youneedabudget.com It is amazing how much money one has when one exercises restraint when spending it.
Comment linking /
on “That awkward moment when Apple mocked good hardware and poor people”Submitted The New YNAB Is Here as a story · 15 points
HN discussionThis is precisely why I went with YNAB [0], started budgeting better and saved quite a bit of money. Everyone who sees me paying for an app (I'm from India) ask me - "why can't you just use excel and do the same thing for free?". Excel sure is powerful, but in real life, your mileage may vary. [0] - https://www.youneedabudget.com/
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on “Missing Covid-19 test data was caused by the ill-thought-out use of Excel”Submitted YNAB API Contest as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf “burning a hole in my pocket” psychology is a struggle for you, a better banking overview screen will not set you free, but YNAB will: https://www.youneedabudget.com/ (Not affiliated, just a happy customer that finally broke decades of bad financial habits due to this app and its attendant personal finance philosophy.)
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on “Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)”Submitted The New YNAB Is Here as a story · 3 points
HN discussionActually getting a proper handle on my finances has been the single thing I did last year which has contributed most to my general mental wellbeing. Historically I've been terrible at it, I'm paid incredibly well compared to most of the population, but because I wasn't consciously budgeting I'd end up running down to the last few pounds in my bank account every month. Putting an effort into setting actual budgets at…
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on “Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?”Submitted YNAB Together for Your Shared Financial Journey as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe guy at https://www.youneedabudget.com explained this stuff very well to me. But this was years ago, when his program was a bunch of emails. You may have to just check out the free trial and see if it is helpful to you.
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on “Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee”Submitted The Four Rules as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI've been using YNAB since March 2014. I started doing manual entry with YNAB4 and was an early adopter of YNAB5. I manage my own personal budget as well a joint budget for myself and my fiance. Here's my takeaway: * The YNAB model to budgeting is how I want all future budgeting tools I use to work. They call the framework "The Four Rules" ( https://www.youneedabudget.com/the-four-rules/ ) and they are a very pragma…
Comment linking /the-four-rules/
on “Actual is going open-source”Submitted You Need a Budget as a story · 2 points
HN discussionTracking the amount of time I spend on various tasks at work. Here's a blog post I helped edit which explains the benefits in detail: https://blog.toughbyte.com/how-to-boost-productivity-with-ti... Another one is tracking personal expenses. I was looking for a solution for a while and even built something of my own, but in the end ended up using YNAB ( https://www.youneedabudget.com/ ) which I found out about in an…
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on “Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?”Submitted Product Management Lessons Learned at YNAB (You Need a Budget) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionExcel[0] has this functionality built in via Plaid[1]. There are other solutions like YNAB[2] or Wealthfront[3]. I agree with you though. I have a nice python program for understanding my finances, but I still have to manually update bank/credit card/loan balances. [0] https://plaid.com/blog/microsoft-announcement/ [1] https://plaid.com/ [2] https://www.youneedabudget.com/ [3] https://www.wealthfront.com/
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on “Spreadsheet formulas for personal finance”Submitted YNAB releases public API as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI highly recommend checking out https://www.youneedabudget.com for the ability to do this and more. (No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer)
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on “Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines”Submitted Introducing YNAB’s new API as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is not a hard problem to solve... Personally I use YNAB[1], but there are plenty of other options out there. [1]: https://www.youneedabudget.com/
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on “Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims”Submitted Background on the "why" behind our business model switch as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFWIW, YNAB never receives or touches your bank credentials — sign-in happens through MX and Plaid, which hands back a token to YNAB to use[1]. For banks that support it, the process goes through OAuth and you sign in directly with your bank, so even MX and Plaid never see your credentials. The whole process is end-to-end encrypted, with no credentials stored at rest (unless necessary on the MX/Plaid side, but they h…
Comment linking /security/
on “1Password 8 will be subscription only and won’t support local vaults”Submitted YNAB 4 Support Will End October 2019 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI was forced to ditch Simple after their ridiculous application policies wouldn't allow my spouse to create an account for us to have a joint account. Since doing so, I've signed up for YouNeedABudget (YNAB) [1], and couldn't be happier. Simple was a great service and I'm sad it is calling quits, but I've outgrown it. [1] https://www.youneedabudget.com/
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on “Simple Bank Is Closing”Submitted Age your money as a story · 1 points
HN discussionNot a direct replacement but I used YNAB years ago when it was still a desktop app with one time purchase to own. It's still available with most of the functionalities (probably more) but as a website. The app allows you to set up multiple budget accounts. Edit: link https://www.youneedabudget.com/
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on “Simple Bank Is Closing”Submitted Working at YNAB as a story · 1 points
HN discussionYou Need a Budget (YNAB) | Humbly Confident Senior Android Developers / Humbly Confident Full Stack Developers | Fully Remote Company | https://www.youneedabudget.com/careers/ We build “You Need a Budget,” the best budgeting software and education resources around. (Those in the know call us YNAB, which is pronounced “why-nab.”) We're bootstrapped and profitable. For more than a decade, people have been buying YNAB…
Comment linking /careers/
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2021)”Submitted A Budgeting Experiment: Is Cash Still King? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI use YNAB ( https://youneedabudget.com/ ), which requires inputting every one of your transactions by hand or importing them from your bank. The downside of the import is it takes a few days for the transaction to show up and you need to give YNAB your bank username/password, which I'm not comfortable with. I wrote this https://github.com/buzzlawless/ynab-live-import to import credit card transactions instantly wit…
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on “Ask HN: What automation tools have you used to replace mundane activities?”WellsFargo has some form of OAuth ( https://developer.wellsfargo.com/ ). I know that YNAB ( https://www.youneedabudget.com/ ) uses it.
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on “Stripe Financial Connections”
