In 2017 the Mecham family decided to live in Manhattan for three months to experience the city, soak up the food and culture, and just have fun doing something different. While they were there they chose to maximize their opportunity to eat out -- Jesse went back and counted over 140 different establishments during that 90 day stay!

After that experiment, Jesse and the family decided to try the complete opposite. No eating out for 90 days. The result? They didn't really care about it much, and now the family rarely eats out. What the experience in Manhattan taught them was that, for them, eating out is about the experience. They like big, "journal worthy" meals. Day to day eating out at average restaurants just doesn't hold much appeal.

They only know this because they have examined their priorities and tested things out. Jesse encourages you to do the same -- question why you do what you do, and try to live differently for a little while. You may find, like many, many YNAB'ers before you, that eating out is not as much of a priority as you were making it!

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

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It seems obvious that you should save money. It's the right thing to do, after all! But even the words that we use talk about saving money have problems -- should, ought -- loaded with moral baggage. Jesse reminds us that even money earmarked for savings is still spending, just spending that has been deferred to a later date, retirement for example. That money still needs to have a job, however. Saving for what in retirement? Utility bills? Travel? Presents for the grandkids?

Money for the future has a job just like money for the present, and when you view money through the lens of giving every dollar a job, you begin to see that money is only meant to be spent. There is no savings, only spending!

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

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When you really want to buy something, what do you do? Do you wait for 48 hours to cool off a bit and think it over? Or perhaps do you create a category for it in YNAB and fund it with a few dollars, just to see how it feels? Having the urge to buy something is not a bad or shameful thing, but there should be a process for weighing that purchase against your other priorities. That's what YNAB does -- it makes money more real by giving you a framework to evaluate your spending against your priorities. That way when you buy something, you can feel really good about it -- no shame, no guilt, just joy!

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Follow YNAB on social media:

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Tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025 are on sale now! Coming to Minneapolis and NYC:

YNAB.com/events

This week Jesse and the rest of the YNAB team are working hard prepping for the upcoming Fan Fest in Minneapolis, so today we are rebroadcasting an interview that originally appeared on Dr. Will Cole's Art of Being Well podcast. In this interview, Jesse talks about how money stress not only leads to poorer mental health, it has real physical impacts on the body as well.

We hope you enjoy this interview. If you'd like to follow Dr. Cole's podcast, check out the links below:

• Web: https://drwillcole.com/podcast/money-anxiety-is-ruining-your-health-heres-how-to-fix-it-jesse-mecham
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-being-well/id1539535133
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6z1lJ5dfKNHwGGQPOFTc7E?si=22d31749ba9142f7

Need last minute tickets to YNAB Fan Fest in Minneapolis? Get them here!

YNAB.com/events

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Follow YNAB on social media:

Facebook: @ynabofficial

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Twitter/X: @ynab

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It's no secret that money is a major factor in relationship conflicts. Whether it's misaligned values, a feeling that one partner is sabotaging the other's goals through their spending, or a desire to keep up with the Jones'... money has the potential to start or fuel a lot of conflict. But it doesn't have to! Often money arguments belie fundamental communcation problems, and YNAB can help by clarifying for both partners what the goal is for your dollars and whether that is aligned with your shared values.

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Follow YNAB on social media:

Facebook: @ynabofficial

Instagram: @ynab.official

Twitter/X: @ynab

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Tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025 are on sale now! Coming to Minneapolis and NYC:

YNAB.com/events

To many, the word "budget" brings to mine restrictions, guilt, punishment, and a general feeling of dread that they don't have control over their money, much less hit their budget goals. But this idea that a budget means setting hard limits on spending in various categories, then looking back every month to see if you were "good" or "bad" in adhering to those limits... it's all backwards!

Jesse has another way to look at "budgeting," or planning as he calls it. You give every dollar you have a job -- you look at what future expenses you know you have coming and put those dollars into categories to cover those expenses. Once you have your future expenses covered, then you start thinking about what else you'd like to do with your money: take a trip, buy some new clothes, maybe go out to a nice restaurant. Then, as life happens and your needs change, you can move the money around. It's not a failure that your spending doesn't perfectly adhere to some arbitrary category number, it just means you got new information, circumstances changed, and therefore your spending plan needs to change with it.

Once you wrap your head around this way of thinking about money, of planning for the future rather than looking backwards and punishing yourself, then you can start loving the way you spend. Guilt free.

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Follow YNAB on social media:

Facebook: @ynabofficial

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Tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025 are on sale now! Coming to Minneapolis and NYC:

YNAB.com/events

Judging from the difficulties many adults have managing their money, we don't do a great job collectively of teaching our kids about money. Jesse doesn't consider himself an expert on this, but he does have seven kids, and thus seven chances to instill good money habits in his own children. In today's episode he shares how he teaches his kids about money using the YNAB method, scaled down in language and concepts that younger children can understand.

At the end of the day, the goal for kids is the same as the goal for adults... Jesse wants them to love the way they spend, and imagine what money can do for them.

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Follow YNAB on social media:

Facebook: @ynabofficial

Instagram: @ynab.official

Twitter/X: @ynab

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Tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025 are on sale now! Coming to Minneapolis and NYC:

YNAB.com/events

Spendfulness is the new word around YNAB, but the concept goes back to the beginning of the company... and even before the company itself. In today's episode, Jesse recounts the very early days of YNAB, when the budgeting method was just a spreadsheet. Jesse realized that the spreadsheet was enforcing a set of behaviors, or "rules," around money and that those rules were the foundation of what is now referred to as the YNAB method. YNAB is more than a spreadsheet, and more than a software tool, it is a set of principles for managing money and, more importantly, learning about yourself. Knowing thyself is at the heart of spendfulness, and as it turns out, living spendfulness is what YNAB was about the whole time!

Watch The Jesse Mecham Show on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jessemechamshow

Got a question for Jesse? Send him an email:

askjesse@ynab.com

Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Follow YNAB on social media:

Facebook: @ynabofficial

Instagram: @ynab.official

Twitter/X: @ynab

Tik Tok: @ynabofficial

Tickets to YNAB Fan Fest 2025 are on sale now! Coming to Minneapolis and NYC:

YNAB.com/events