A Paean to YNAB

Once, a long time ago, I lost a $20 bill when I dropped everything to catch a failing-at-flying toddler before she crash-landed. I searched high and low, tore the house apart–that was my gas money, my very last money, and I needed it. But I didn’t find it.

I drove ohhh so carefully to work, timing stoplights as best I could, stressing the whole way there and the whole way back, for five days. Each trip I wondered how much fumes could possibly be left in my tank, and when I’d be stuck on the s...