Rules Changes: A Quick Trip Through YNAB History
The Jesse Mecham Show
YNAB
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
Did you know that YNAB's Four Rules weren't always four? And contrary to popular belief, they did not spring forth from Jesse's head fully formed! No, the Four Rules developed over years as Jesse refined and clarified the YNAB method behind the software (and originally, the spreadsheet). Ben and Ernie take a quick spin through the history of the Four Rules, going all the way back to the very first YNAB website in 2004.
Budget Nerds Episode #50: A Brief History of the YNAB Rules
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3AdIeFpt0ZfuM0kKEF8Yr0?si=d235636937564f38
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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0H1u8pqYrvz6zj6noHbkB3?si=fc181a82b8d540a6
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, wineappers. I am Ben and this is the wineapp podcast where we teach you four rules |
| 0:10.8 | to stop living paycheck to paycheck, get out of debt, and save more money. Once again, |
| 0:16.8 | I'm here with my pal Ernie. We got a special episode for you today. We're going to do a deep |
| 0:21.7 | dive into the four rules. So the wineapp method is the secret sauce around here. And I think |
| 0:27.6 | recently on the pod, Jesse walked through the four rules. So we're not going to do that. We're |
| 0:33.8 | going to go back in time. We're going to walk through all the various iterations of the four rules |
| 0:40.5 | because they're not set in stone guys. They have changed over the years since almost 20 years ago |
| 0:47.9 | when Justin started wineapp and it was just a literal Excel spreadsheet that you downloaded off |
| 0:53.0 | the internet. Yeah, he started writing rules back then and they were totally different. They're |
| 0:58.3 | actually the same rules, but they had different names. They were expressed a little differently. |
| 1:03.0 | It was really fun. And so about almost a year ago now, Ernie and I did a budget nurse |
| 1:09.3 | podcast where we got in the way back machine on and guys, you need to thank us for getting in the |
| 1:16.0 | way back machine because it takes forever for anything to load. If you don't know the way back |
| 1:20.7 | machine is, there's a website where you can look at what a website used to look like 20 years ago |
| 1:26.8 | or whatever. It's like a little snapshot. But anyways, everything takes forever to load because |
| 1:30.0 | there's like one server in 10 buck two or something that has this little image of a website. |
| 1:35.3 | And yeah, we went through and we figured out, okay, what were all the iterations of the four rules |
| 1:40.2 | and we brought them to you. But we're going to do a quick version of that today going back to 2004. |
| 1:45.6 | So first iteration, and this is probably going to surprise most of you who don't know the history, |
| 1:50.2 | there were no rules at all. It was just software or actually it was just a spreadsheet. |
| 1:57.9 | Yep, Jesse was just trying to sell. And if you go in the way back machine, there are some funny |
| 2:03.0 | iterations. I mean, Jesse will laugh about it too. Some of the stock images he showed and stuff. |
... |
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