Faness Wow, congrats! I can't imagine how you assign dollars jobs that may days out. Right now at 23 days, I am still having trouble imagining getting past 30 days AOM. Does budgeting feel different when you get so close to a full year out?

Peripherie No matter how high Age of Money climbs, I've never budgeted more than a month ahead. The budget is a well-oiled machine at this point, but giving every dollar a job still feels the same (just more comfortable)! :)

Faness So do you just hold excess income in a 'move to next month' category?

Peripherie The "excess" normally sits in different categories.  Things like true expenses or long term goal, and your fun target gets some.  That's the way it works for me. 

Peripherie I don't use a holding category for income. Like MsTJ, all of my funds are allocated to my spending and savings categories. 

Moohouse 

Congratulations on achieving an AoM of 374.  One day I will be there.  🏃‍♀️

Moohouse said:
When budgeting March my budget seemed a bit tighter than usual.

 I know I still have more to learn because I don't seem to understand why one month seems tighter than others. Most months my income doesn't change much. My expenses don't seem to change and one month I don't have quite enough to fully fund my budget (January) then another there is extra (February).  My card payments change but that should not have anything to do with what I budget to my separate categories, so long as I stay within my budget?  Some months I have to close my eyes and just follow the plan (budget template) and know things will work out in the end.  I don't like the "not knowing" so am constantly trying to understand.  Sometimes I make progress, and some months I don't.  All I do know is I have more in my bank accounts, and better funded goals most months.

MsTJ My income does vary quite a bit month to month, but lately I have earned more than this month. Or rather last month, as I budget last month's income this month. December, January and February are all high yield months for me. Then March becomes first 'normal' month - except this time I got no bonus - so it's bare bones normal, which by now is no longer normal for me. March is 12% lower than the lowest income month last year. And 28% below the average. But still, this used to be normal for me.

Are you sure the 'overspent in X' line in the budget header reads 0.00? Else your budget amount shouldn't vary much when you have fairly stable income.

There shouldn't be a problem getting to >300 days age of money if you either save a lot every month, or spend a really long time saving a little less each month, and don't spend much money. More than 365 days means you can't do a fresh start every January 1st.

Moohouse Yep, the one thing I am very clear on is I don't ever overspend my categories, without covering the overspending before it hits my budget.  

Wow, sounds like you have your income well in hand, congratulations, that is fantastic. Your savings rate is impressive. 

Alison G. But you made it work! Congrats!

Woolloomooloo That's true! After a couple of months using YNAB I had enough wiggle room in my budget to be able to pay cash for a new-to-me laptop. I definitely would not have been able to do that prior to starting YNAB so that is a big win. Thanks!

greenthum Looking at challenge this month for sure.  Had knee surgery last week and I will be off work for two weeks.  I worked really hard to get my budget in line ahead of time.  I get std but only 70%.  I don't imagine my aom will increase but I'll be happy if i hold steady.

ISuckatMaths Not to rain on your parade, but if you charge a considerable part of your expenses to credit cards then you should aim for 60 days age of money and not 30.

To quote the documentation:

If you never or rarely use credit cards, you’ll want to see the Age of Money stay above 30. Aging your money out to stay above 30 days makes everything so much easier. Your budgeting can be done less frequently, you can set up your bills on autopay (no timing paychecks to bills!), and your stress level will drop.

If you use credit cards for most of your purchases and you pay them off monthly, and you’re NOT just budgeting a credit card payment for all the stuff you bought last month (what we call riding the float), you’ll want to keep your Age of Money above 60. This reflects the fact that you’re letting cash sit longer because you’re borrowing.

Moohouse haha moo to you! Thanks for the info, I'm definitely learning AOM. I don't pay monthly my cc, more like right away for most purchases. But I'll work towards 60 as a goal and see what happens.

Peripherie Age of money as a metric is pretty flawed for many reasons. When you may fully budget the month at 1st of the month (or whenever you wish to really) using money you earned previous month(s) then you are (at least) a month ahead.

If you don't use credit cards and have a fairly stable income/expense monthly, then this could come around the 30 mark. If you use credit cards then you should apparently aim for 60 days AOM to get ahead (or somewhere in between).

The AOM metric didn't exist when I started using YNAB, but I budgeted my first ever paycheck to the next month from the very start as this is what was outlined as the old rule 4 (new rule 4 is 'age your money' as you may know). I could do this as I started out with some savings. Which was beneficial as I also didn't get any income for the first month and a half since getting employed. I would have asked for an advance if I didn't have savings, but I could easily manage on my own. As I imported the old YNAB data my first starting months now show 24 - 53 - 84 - 114 AOM and then it levels out as it moved away from my starting balances.

Just located some receipts from May last year which I'll now get reimbursed for. Not a fortune by any means, but every drop helps. 👍

Astro_Geo Edit: goal set to 120 😅

Beautiful symmetry lol