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[NecrosaroIII]

I currently have one checking accounting and one savings account. No particular plan for either. How much of a dumb ass idea would it be to open up even more accounts.

Here is the scheme I was considering:

Checking Account 1: General Bills / Survival Expenses such as groceries
Savings Account 1: Emergency Funds
Savings Account 2: Buying a House savings
Savings Account 3: Travel Savings
Checking Account 2: Fun money for things like video games / movies / hobby related costs

Would this be a worthwhile scheme having my money allocated and divided this way? Or is it a waste of time / too much of a hassle. Under this scheme, plan to have my auto deposit take out a specific amount into my three savings accounts. The rest would be put into Checking Account 1. Whatever I don't spend on checking 1 would then go into checking 2 (while keeping a certain amount in Checking 1 for unforeseen costs like more gas than usual or something)

 

[Blade2.0]

A lot of people do it this way. The issue is you need to make sure you're putting into all of them each month, so either through auto pay or manually and that can get difficult. You also have to be very strict with yourself and not go"hey, I got 1k now in my house saving account but I'm low in my fun money. I'll just buy the PS6 with that. In the end it's up to you

 

[Punished Miku]

If you find that easier to organize, go for it. It's the same amount of money at the end of the day. A lot of people do that, or even use multiple banks.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

A lot of people do it this way. The issue is you need to make sure you're putting into all of them each month, so either through auto pay or manually and that can get difficult. You also have to be very strict with yourself and not go"hey, I got 1k now in my house saving account but I'm low in my gun money. I'll just buy the PS6 with that. In the end it's up to you

I'm pretty self discipined, so I'm not really concerned too much about dipping into my savings (I don't already). But my concern is it would be a bitch to manage. I used to use Mint, but they killed it. Ever since I've gone back to spreedsheets. It's fine for two accounts, but I could see it being a bitch with multiple.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

My situation is different as I got a lot of money and investments. But in terms of chequeing/savings.

I have one chequing for my everyday pay stubs, paying bills etc.... I keep it at no more than $5,000. I can make do with less in it and have $2-3k in it. But sometimes I buy stuff. Also, (I think) the account has a fee if it goes under $2 or $3k, so I keep it above that. I forget if it does.

I have one high interest savings account paying 3% I leave excess money I dont want to risk in the stock market, but may use for stocks one day so I need it loose. Or home renos I'm about to do soon like building a new deck. I keep around $10k in it tops. But you can find higher savings accounts. Some seem around 4-5%.

For those of you who have excess cash for long term savings, you should be able to find savings accounts for 4% or more. However, it's probably at a seconday bank and not a mainstream bank so it'l; involve some pain in the ass transferring back and forth if you really need it.

There's also investments that guarantee a rate. For example, you can buy income generating income funds that pay 4-5% too. What they do is take all the money pooled from investors and put it into high interest bank accounts that pay 5% if youre a high roller. They take a cut of 0.4% and everyone gets 4.6%. Or buy a term deposit or GIC that might get you a similar rate. But youre locked into annual terms like 1, 3, 5 years. And if you withdraw early, you get a penalty. So not worth doing those if you really need access to the funds at any random time.

You just got to look around.

 

[HoodWinked]

Depends on the bank but you may need to have a min balance or direct deposit to those accounts otherwise you can get charged a monthly fee. It's why I got rid of my saving account and also after realizing it was just giving free money to the bank. I never buy anything directly from my checking account, always through credit card since its safer and also earn bonus points.

I go with:
1 checking (direct deposit, paying credit card bills on autopay) (pay bills with credit card whenever possible)
brokerage account acts as savings account (most places give 5% yield on cash)

 

[HRK69]

I wish I had this problem

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Depends on the bank but you may need to have a min balance or direct deposit to those accounts otherwise you can get charged a monthly fee. It's why I got rid of my saving account and also after realizing it was just giving free money to the bank. I never buy anything directly from my checking account, always through credit card since its safer and also earn bonus points.

I go with:
1 checking (direct deposit, paying credit card bills on autopay) (pay bills with credit card whenever possible)
brokerage account acts as savings account (most places give 5% yield on cash)

Yeah, that's true about the minimum balances. I didn't take that into consideration.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I do mine differently. Everyone I do a transaction with my debit card, regardless of size or method, $10 gets put into a generic savings account and another $10 goes into my kids education savings. Luckily this also applies to my wife's card as well as she does most of the shopping in the house.

It makes for easy savings. We SHOULD do it your way where it automatically gets split in certain amounts but my bank kinda sucks. We're going to change over to a new place where all of our investments are in.

 

[AJUMP23]

You can budget everything out of one checking. But multiple savings with categories is the way to go. I have vacation funds emergency and other.

 

[diffusionx]

I did it that way for a long time when I was married, but still have multiple checking accounts. It's easy to open up new ones these days.