YNAB is a personal finance software. It's a great starting point for people that don't have a system for controlling their finance.

It's formula follows the principle of a Envelope System where you receive money and store it in different envelopes for each kind of expense (Energy bill, Internet bill, Rent, Food, etc). The problem is that today's world is digital.

YNAB brings this envelope system to the digital world. It's called zero budget system.

It has some rules:

Rule One: Give Every Dollar a Job

Every time you get paid assign every dollar you have to a specific category within your budget (Energy bill, Internet bill, Entertainment, etc). If after assigning all categories you still have money left great! Spent those into savings, vacations, investments, etc. until there are zero dollars left. That's why it's called zero budget and why every dollar has a job.

Rule Two: Embrace Your True Expenses

Do you have expenses that are charged annually? Make a plan to set aside each month a quantity for that. When the time comes to pay these expenses you'll have the money ready for it. This is eye opening regarding our true monthly expenses.

There are other rules, but for me these two are the ones that resonate the most.