Set up YNAB to work with your specific income and bill schedules. Learn how the YNAB method uses a monthly plan to accommodate all pay cycles, including folks with variable incomes.

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How to Adjust Your Plan on Any Pay Cycle

1. Create a Plan Template ↗️ which will allow you to plan for your monthly expenses and guide your decisions each time you assign dollars.
   
   
2. Enter your income – whenever it arrives.
   
   
3. Give those funds jobs by assigning them to categories.
   
   
4. Spend based on your plan.
   
   
5. Adjust when needed.

 A Repeating Cycle   

Except for those few who are paid once a month and always on the first of the month, no one's pay cycle lines up exactly with a monthly plan cycle. This is one of the reasons we believe strongly in the YNAB Method and why we encourage you to consider what you can set aside for next month's spending. When next month's expenses are covered, payday doesn't really matter. 

Fortunately, YNAB works well no matter how much you have set aside for next month's spending. The process of YNABing is the same on any pay cycle. You'll follow the same four steps above no matter how often you're paid – weekly, monthly, quarterly, it doesn't matter. Each time you are paid, ask what does this money need to do before I am paid again?

Here's how YNABing with a bi-weekly (or fortnightly) pay cycle works inside a monthly plan. You can use this cycle for any number of paychecks in a month.

 Paycheck #1   

Imagine it's early in your second month of YNABing and you just received the first of two checks for the month. This first check won't cover the whole month, and you begin to think you need a plan that matches your pay cycle. 

You don't! Instead, ask yourself: What does this money need to do before I am paid again?

How to Handle Paycheck #1   

1. Fund your immediate obligations first, with an emphasis on those things due early in the month.
   
   
2. Then move to True Expenses, and down the list.
   
   
3. Some expenses (like groceries) aren't a single bill—they're categories you'll spend from multiple times during the month. Don't worry about the whole month. Just assign what you need before your next paycheck.
   
   
4. Keep going until Ready to Assign is $0.00.
   
   
5. When Ready to Assign is $0.00, you can (and should!) stop assigning money.

Don't worry about those things you haven't assigned funds to yet. If it helps, imagine that you've gone to get a nice cup of coffee (feel free to insert your own beverage vice here) in the middle of your planning session. Just sip and enjoy for the next two weeks.

Paycheck #2   

Fast forward two weeks—you've paid your rent and many of your bills, and you can already feel your stress melting away. But the money you initially assigned for groceries is just about gone, and another paycheck has just arrived. You feel like you want a new plan just for this paycheck.

You don't! Ask yourself, once more, what this money needs to do before you are paid again. Then, pick up where you left off with the last check.

 How to Handle Paycheck #2   

1. Add more to categories (like groceries or gas) that need it. How much to add? Enough so that the Available amount in the category will get you through to your next paycheck.
   
   
2. Assign money to True Expenses and other priorities that you couldn't cover with your first check.
   
   
3. Some things that happen before you're paid again might be at the beginning of next month. Fast forward to the next month's categories and assign funds there to Immediate Obligations that happen early, before you are paid again.

And So On...   

You'll continue repeating this cycle for your third paycheck, your fourth, and beyond. You'll notice a key difference, though – each time you get a paycheck, you'll need less and less of that paycheck immediately for immediate obligations. Eventually, you'll ask yourself what your money needs to do before you are paid again, and the answer will be nothing! 🎉

Sound impossible? As you prioritize over and over and as you prepare for your True Expenses (no more surprises!), you'll notice that you are assigning paychecks farther and farther out. It will begin to feel seamless, and the need to line up paychecks with particular expenses will become a distant memory.

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