A happier way to manage money: Saying ‘yes’ to you
Organize your money to create a yes fund that lets you spend freely without planning, restricting or tracking every dollar
This is the latest guide in my Budget-Free Basics series, actionable ideas from my book You Don’t Need a Budget to help you manage your money without restriction or shame.
Despite an almost universal reliance on budgeting as “good money management,” the few studies that actually look into it find that budgeting doesn’t work. The restrict-and-splurge cycle of typical budgets gets you nowhere.
Instead of a budget that depends on restriction and discipline, I recommend a simple reframe to get money off your mind and spend with ease.
Create your own safe-to-spend “yes fund”
I started to devise my own budget-free approach — long before I gave it a name — shortly after I left my full-time job at a personal finance start-up. Through that work, I’d discovered hundreds of money management apps that were all pretty much the same: all encouraging restriction toward an assumed goal of hoarding money.
Just before I left, though, I’d learned about a banking app that made it easy to manage money through an anti-budgeting method and what it called a “safe-to-spend” account. Instead of a total account balance, the app displayed only what was left to spend in your checking account after financial commitments and big spending goals you created were automatically funded. None of the restrictive budgeting methods that are common in most financial apps.
That company no longer exists; it was bought by a big bank that absorbed its customers and discontinued the product like the capitalist giant it is. I was devastated to lose that intuitive approach to money management, and it sparked my minor obsession with fixing what’s wrong with the personal finance industry.
I couldn’t find another app or method like that safe-to-spend account, so I developed a system I gave the very corny name of “yes fund” to continue the ease of the safe-to-spend method without relying on a particular app.
A yes fund is a metaphorical bucket for spending money — and it has no limit. Just like my original safe-to-spend account, using it is simple:
Automate a process for funding your financial commitments and goals at levels that make sense for you. That could be through a money management app, your bank account, digital or paper envelopes, or just reminders to move money manually.
The money left in your spending account is your yes fund. That’s money you can use freely without restriction or tracking (i.e., it’s “safe to spend”).
Here’s an example:
Say you earn $4,000 in take-home pay each month.
Between rent and regular bills, your monthly commitments equal $2,000. You’d funnel that amount into a commitments bucket in a money management app, a separate bank account for paying bills, a fund you manage through a spreadsheet or whatever method works for you. Maybe you automatically transfer $1,000 from each of two paychecks per month or $500 a week.
On top of that, say you want to set aside $300 a month into a big spending fund for travel, $100 into a big spending fund for fashion and $200 toward paying down outstanding debts. You’d create a separate savings bucket, bank account or fund for those goals and funnel money into those in the same way.
Once that money is automatically set aside for its various purposes, you still have $1,400 left in your monthly income that’ll land in your regular spending account. That’s your yes fund — available to use for any day-to-day spending without tracking or counting pennies.
💡 Use a money map to create an overview of your monthly resources and see how allocating money toward various commitments and goals could affect your yes fund.
The point of separating money into a yes fund isn’t to say this is all the money you’re allowed to spend, the way a budget does. Instead, use the information in your money map to understand how various financial commitments and goals impact your yes fund. Maybe you want to shift money from a monthly investment toward your yes fund, for example. Maybe you want to downsize your apartment to shift money away from rent and into your yes fund. Maybe you want to cancel streaming subscriptions and spend that money elsewhere each month. Maybe you want to take a promotion at work to boost your resources and have a more joyful yes fund.
A yes fund isn’t a restriction on how much you can spend.
It’s information that shows you how your overall financial situation impacts your day-to-day spending. A money map lets you see the strings you can pull to find the resources you need and use them to support the life you want.
The best thing about a yes fund is that you can spend it without planning or tracking.
Beyond commitments and goals, a money map doesn’t include categories for spending. You won’t plan, restrict or track how much you spend on eating out, fashion, concerts or groceries the way you do with a budget. You fund commitments and goals so you don’t have to think about them, and the money in your yes fund is safe to spend without all that other hassle.
Apps to help manage your yes fund
You can always keep your money in your existing bank account (or mattress) and use a money map to get the lay of the land and make financial decisions.
But using a yes fund is a little easier if you can physically or visually separate your money. You could use separate bank accounts for commitments, goals and a yes fund, but that might be more complicated than it’s worth for you. Another option is to use a money management app that lets you keep your money in a single bank account but lays a skin over it so you can visualize your money in different spending buckets.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a perfect replacement for my beloved “safe-to-spend” app. But here are some (imperfect) apps you can set up to get a similar effect:
Qube Money:This banking app lets you organize money into “qubes” for spending. You can create a qube for each of your commitments and goals, plus a “yes fund” qube for the rest. You have to select a qube to make money available on your debit card before a purchase — kind of like taking an envelope of cash with you. That’s a pretty budgety design, but you can use it to support mindful spending instead.
YNAB (You Need a Budget): I’m not above recommending this app, despite its unfortunate name! (The cult of it? Skip that.) Similar to Qube Money, YNAB lets you organizes money across spending and saving categories of your choice. A main difference is that YNAB has no backing bank, so you use an external bank account and connect it to the app. That could be a benefit if you already use a bank you don’t want to leave; or it could be a drawback, because these apps are often bad at reading and categorizing external transactions.
Qapital: This banking app is focused on automatically funding savings goals, but it also lets you organize money for spending. This is a little trickier to use with a money map than the other two, because you dedicate a percentage of income toward buckets rather than an exact dollar amount. I could see this working best if you bring in far more resources than you spend each month and want an automated way to organize big spending goals.
Lots of other money management apps exist that might help you sort money this way. The three I highlighted are the most focused on bucketing your money and the least focused on investing and net worth charts. But they’re also imperfect. They’re riddled with budget culture messaging and are based on restricting spending and hoarding savings. I’m recommending them because I want you to use anything that helps you get money off your mind, but be wary of the ways they might encourage you to judge or restrict how you use money!
Choosing a money management app
Money management apps change on the regular (see above: the app I lost to a corporate bank! 😭). If the apps above have disappeared or changed by the time you read this — or you just want more options — here are some features to look for:
Offers a mobile bank account or connects directly to an external bank account. The app should be able to see whenever money is deposited into or withdrawn from your bank account without you manually entering that information.
Create “buckets” for your money. You should be able to designate separate funds for various purposes. These might go into actual separate bank accounts, or (like the apps above) just visually separate your money while holding the funds in a single checking account. Ideally, you can create unlimited buckets; some apps limit how many you can create based on your subscription level.
Set rules to automatically move money. As money is deposited into your account, the app should assign it to your commitments and goals automatically, so you never have to worry whether those are taken care of.
Show you a “safe-to-spend” amount. The key to spending with a yes fund is never having to do math in the moment of a spending decision. When you look at the available balance in your account, you want to see what’s available after commitments and goals are covered, so you don’t have to account for those when deciding whether or not you can make a purchase.
No graphs, goals or rules about how you’re allowed to spend money. A yes fund doesn’t plan or judge your spending for you; it simply gives you information about the money you have available. Apps that highlight data about your spending, force you to set savings goals, or rely on rules and categories for day-to-day spending encourage budgeting behavior, and we don’t want that!
Say “yes” to you!
“Yes fund” is a silly name — I know that, and I chose it on purpose. It’s positive. It’s affirmative. Putting that name on your money map and on any bank account or bucket for your spending money is a reminder to say “yes” to yourself more.
You look at your bank account when you’re wondering Can I afford that? As often as possible, I want the answer to be a resounding Yes!
That’s not about being frivolous about spending or consumption. It’s about letting go of budgeting rules and restrictions that add labor, stress and judgement to your life.
It’s about trusting yourself to use money in a way that’s right for you.
🤑 Want more ways to manage money with ease?
My Budget-Free Fundamentals series gives you everything you need to gain a fresh perspective on your relationship with money. In a few short lessons, you’ll gain tools to use money the way you want without relying on restriction, succumbing to shame or following advice rooted in greed. Paid subscribers have full access to this and all Healthy Rich classes.
The app Weekly does exactly what you describe including the Safe-to-Spend fund. I have finally found success with a budgeting app using it the last few years.
I don’t think ‘yes’ fund is a silly name at all! I’m a baby Xer and we told ourselves ‘no’ as girls and women constantly. Saying YES to just ME without shame or having to justify it is a revolutionary way to look at my spending. I felt an enormous sense of relief when I read that chapter in YDNAB and I will admit- I spent way too much money taking that restrictive thinking off! But I have regained equilibrium and we are on a really good money journey now.