If you are budgeting, then you are overspending.

I would be shocked/think you were lying if you told me that you do not overspend in at least one category every month.

And with YNAB that isn’t a huge deal, because you can Rule Three your way right out of it, by adjusting, reprioritizing and moving on.

It isn’t a huge deal, unless (and this unless is a huge deal), unless you aren’t addressing your overspending and correcting it.

You don’t want to have so much red that it makes you feel guilty or it is preventing you from living in reality. If you have too much overspending that you aren’t dealing with, it makes your budget unreliable. You can’t trust your other category balances, because the money you’ve overspent has to come from somewhere… and well, it’s a bad cycle.

So when you have overspending. Address it. Close the gap. Live in reality. Roll with the punches and preserve the power of your budget to do its good work.

If you can’t wait until next week for more whiteboard wisdom, you can view the entire library here. If you have a question or an idea you’d like us to address in a future Whiteboard Wednesday episode – we’d love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Until next time…