Podcast #158: YNAB’s 10-Year Anniversary, the one in which Jesse reflects that, even after 10 whole years, it is still exciting every time someone transforms their finances for the better.

This episode aired February 8, 2015.

Hello YNABers. My name is Jesse Mecham and this is podcast number 158 for You Need A Budget, where we teach you four rules to help you stop living pay check to pay check, get out of debt and save more money.

This podcast is about five months late, maybe six. YNAB enjoyed its 10 year anniversary in September of 2014. Back then, I was a new dad, a fairly new husband — I’d been married, oh, a year and a half at the time. New dad, new baby, the baby being the whole impetus for the budget even being thought of as something we could possibly sell. And it was September of 2004 and I believe that’s when I registered youneedabudget.com and got started with this thing that we call YNAB for short.

So, this is me just kind of looking back and being unbelievably grateful to all of you for sharing YNAB with your friends and family, for talking about it. For those of you that came early, early on, like one great, kind, young woman whose email address I still remember and whom I had to refund, thank you for being the first purchaser of the software. That gave me all of the confidence that I needed — even though I had to refund you because it didn’t work on your computer — it gave me all the confidence I needed to keep moving forward. And thank you to all those along the way that stuck with me as I learned how to do a lot of this stuff. Thanks to those of you who are sticking with me now too, because I’m still learning.

But you can take a look at the website, sales copy, the product — there were lots of rough edges. And there were people that saw through the rough edges, saw the method and saw that it was useful, that that was effective. And as I’ve grown with YNAB I’ve recognized that the method is everything — those Four Rules are everything. The software just helps you implement the rules. The rules are the magic. And it’s taken me years and years to learn that because you like to think that you build cool software. But in the end, it’s this idea that people run with, courageously at times, really changing their finances for the better. And that’s why after 10 years I am so excited for another 10 years, because we’re able to change people’s lives, one at a time, and I’ve found out over the last several years that I also get to have a great team around me to help do just that — change people’s financial lives.

10 years in the books. 10 more to go. 10 more after that. It’s going to be a good ride.

Until next time, follow YNAB’s four rules and you will win financially. You have not budgeted like this.

Learn how to stop living paycheck to paycheck, get out of debt and save more money faster — subscribe to the You Need A Budget podcast today!