"Buffer" Wizard

[jeremiahsvow]

Some thoughts and questions on the subject. I am as interested in the discussion as on the possibility of a feature.

I have been working on getting buffered for a couple of years. But it has not happened because of changes in income, location, and simply wrapping my mind around the fact that I am the master of my financial serfs (aka. dollars). They were running the roost for a long time.

I remember some of the LONG conversations about what it means to be buffered/living on last months income, yada yada yada, over at the YNAB forums. I don't want to rehash all that. The difference between an administrative buffer and the other one (whatever it was called).

The bottom line for me, when I got it (or at least what I thought I was supposed to get), was that I should have enough money on hand cover this month's bills AND next months. One big pot of money. This is how I thought about the buffer. I may be wrong in my description of this. Which is fine. How this needs to be described can be discussed.

So my two questions are this.

1. Would this even be possible?
2. Would it be worth it?

The idea I have in my brain is this. The wizard would ask

• Total/average for bills in a calendar month.
• Total/average of income in a calendar month.
• How much money do you have available to get ahead?
• How many months would you like to be able to budget? (at least two)

Then some math happens and you are given an amount to save each month and the number of months/years it will take to get buffered. The wizard can be repeated as different choices are made. The second time, the wizard can take the average from your budget for you and then you can make manual changes to all or just the last two on the list above.

I know this may not be used after the buffer is in place, but it may still be used for goal setting on other projects/goals/funds.

Ok. I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this one. LOL

[Joel]

It's a simple question really: Do you need any of the money from this paycheck before the 1st of next month?

If the person answers No, the paycheck get's marked as for next month. You have a buffer when all paychecks are consistently being marked as for next month.

[jeremiahsvow]

It's a simple question really: Do you need any of the money from this paycheck before the 1st of next month?

If the person answers No, the paycheck get's marked as for next month. You have a buffer when all paychecks are consistently being marked as for next month.

Simple enough. It makes me wonder why there such a row about how to define/understand what a buffer is.

This is how I think about it. I just didn't say it as well as you did @Joel.

[Billy_McSkintos]

I knocked up a simple calculator for you:


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rr1Lq7MFqqQE_ETBDfvTKk3Sf9B-fayKv11iOAHbjSk/edit?usp=sharing

[jeremiahsvow]

I knocked up a simple calculator for you:


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rr1Lq7MFqqQE_ETBDfvTKk3Sf9B-fayKv11iOAHbjSk/edit?usp=sharing

This is pretty cool. Thanks!

This could be such cool feature if it was added. Like a whole menu of wizards for people who want to ask their budget different kinds of financial questions, but don't know the math to get the right answer.