We have A LOT of bank accounts. One for each of us for our personal expenses, one for household bills, one for large purchases and one for emergency fund. Because of all these accounts it feels like we are always broke when I know we are not. Curious how others handle this.
Post by supertrooper1 on Feb 4, 2015 22:50:31 GMT -5
DH and I each have our own checking and savings accounts, and then I still have my first checking account that I ever opened. I only have a couple hundred dollars in there and treat it more like an emergency savings account. It was a lot more work to close it than to just leave my money in there.
Post by stellabunny on Feb 4, 2015 23:48:15 GMT -5
Let's see. DH and I have a joint checking and savings. Then he has his own checking and savings. I have five checking accounts if you count my HSA. And then four savings accounts I think. One of them doesn't even count - they just made me open it to open my HSA at a credit union. Another checking account I hardly use - it's just linked to my emergency savings account and they have phone deposits so when I get checks, I deposit it into that account and move it into another right away. Then I just opened another account because they gave me $50 to do it. It's getting a little out of control honestly. I'm going to shut one or two of them in a few months.
We have one checking account we use for groceries, gas, miscellaneous expenses; one checking account for all of our bills; and a savings account - all at USBank ("my" bank). We have a checking and savings account at Navy Federal (DH's bank). So five altogether.
Joint checking and savings, separate emergency fund with ING (now capital one 360), H has a separate car fund savings, and I'm talking to met life next week about mutual funds for us to save for the kids.
A lot. At ING, we have: joint checking for household bills, emergency fund, home improvement fund, travel fund, and a savings account where I park our mortgage payment to manage the cash flow. We also each have personal savings accounts with a couple hundred bucks in them. That's for when we each want to save up for something that's just for us. (Him: an Xbox one. Me: tbd. But I'm saving anyway just in case I think of something!)
We also each have checking accounts at different banks. Paychecks get deposited there and then allocated across the ING accounts. "Fun" money for each of us each month stays behind for us to spend as we will. (Clothes, lunch out, gym, kindle books, etc)
I also have separate emergency funds at two accounts that I don't tell H about. He'd want to spend it immediately on house projects. We have different ideas of how much is enough in an emergency fund.
We each have a checking account for spending, we have a bill account, we have two savings accounts (one is for planned purchases/travel, the other for smaller unplanned expenses like car repairs, wedding gifts etc.), and an account that has our E-fund (only for large emergencies, job loss etc.)
Post by dashofreality on Feb 5, 2015 8:09:13 GMT -5
Well I said one, but maybe that was wrong. We have a checking and savings account, which I guess is two but they seem to almost be a package deal. I have separate accounts for 401k/IRAs etc but I don't draw from them and don't factor it into my budgeting.
I actually had to think about it and change my vote. I said four. We have a joint checking and joint savings, and then we each have a personal checking, for fun money. (We each also technically have a personal savings, but neither of us uses that one.) I didn't count our investment accounts.
Joint checking/savings and each a separate checking (which is like our personal savings/play money) I voted 3 but oops, that's 4 lol. We deal almost exclusively in cash. No credit cards. We live like we are broke, but then I look at our savings and feel better
I answered more than 5 because we have 6. DH and I each have our own checking and saving account and then we have a joint checking account and a savings account for DS.
We have 2 checking and 1 savings (about to add another). I didn't count retirement or kid's accounts. I don't know how you guys keep track of multiple accounts.
I think we can get away with not having many accounts because we primarily use cash throughout the month. This makes record keeping much cleaner. We also have a fairly strict budget and have bi-weekly budget meetings to go over where the money is being spent.
We have 2 checking and 1 savings (about to add another). I didn't count retirement or kid's accounts. I don't know how you guys keep track of multiple accounts.
A lot. At ING, we have: joint checking for household bills, emergency fund, home improvement fund, travel fund, and a savings account where I park our mortgage payment to manage the cash flow. We also each have personal savings accounts with a couple hundred bucks in them. That's for when we each want to save up for something that's just for us. (Him: an Xbox one. Me: tbd. But I'm saving anyway just in case I think of something!)
We also each have checking accounts at different banks. Paychecks get deposited there and then allocated across the ING accounts. "Fun" money for each of us each month stays behind for us to spend as we will. (Clothes, lunch out, gym, kindle books, etc)
I also have separate emergency funds at two accounts that I don't tell H about. He'd want to spend it immediately on house projects. We have different ideas of how much is enough in an emergency fund.
DH and I also disagree on the emergency fund money, so I don't tell him how much I've saved in my savings account. He'd also want to spend it on house projects.
I always keep in the back of my mind what my aunt did. After she passed away, my uncle found many bank accounts in her name at different banks. She had a little bit of money stashed in each one for emergencies. I don't know if she thought he was bad with money, but that idea has always stuck with me.
DH and I have separate checking and savings account. We each have our own credit card as well. We have a joint savings account for vacations or if we want to get a big item. Right now I want a new bedroom set. We are opening another savings account for our LO and he already has two open for the my stepsons. We are talking about getting a joint account for just baby stuff (Daycare, diapers, and formula) and groceries but he is a little gun shy because he had joint accounts with his ex wife and she had no concept of money or savings. It caused them to over draft all the time. I like our system, but we make almost the same salary and we have assigned bills to pay.
I also have separate emergency funds at two accounts that I don't tell H about. He'd want to spend it immediately on house projects. We have different ideas of how much is enough in an emergency fund.
DH and I also disagree on the emergency fund money, so I don't tell him how much I've saved in my savings account. He'd also want to spend it on house projects.
I always keep in the back of my mind what my aunt did. After she passed away, my uncle found many bank accounts in her name at different banks. She had a little bit of money stashed in each one for emergencies. I don't know if she thought he was bad with money, but that idea has always stuck with me.
Haha. Yep that's totally me. The other two "hidden" accounts only have $4500 and $2000 in them, but I'd rather keep them separate.
My H is not BAD with money but we disagree on savings. He's been unemployed in past and we did ok on unemployment benefits and my salary until he found another job. He thinks that means we don't need much of an emergency fund. That was before kid and mortgage though. I think we'd be sunk really quickly now if he lost his job. (Wouldn't be great if I lost my job either but he makes 2/3 of our income and carries the health insurance.) He thinks we could adjust our monthly spending like we used to do.
These accounts are funds I had before we were married. So it's also not like I'm siphoning off our joint funds and hiding them.
I use one bank for all of my personal banking needs. I have 4 accounts with them: chequing, high interest savings, TSFA (tax free savings account) and RRSP (registered savings). My only credit card is with them and I also have an unsecured lined of credit available.
DH has multiple accounts spread across several banks. He has the same simple accounts as I do but he also holds the RESP (registered education savings plans) accounts for the kids. We use a separate bank for higher risk investments as their packages have been performing better plus they have a much bigger European presence. We use BOA for our US based banking needs.
Together we have just over a dozen separate accounts not including lines of credit and credit cards.
Our everyday banking is done at the same bank, but in our 20+ years together, we have never combined accounts. Works for us just fine.
We have a main checking account, a vacation account for any trips/travel, a savings account and an account into which I deposit any money that the girls' Dad pays in child support. I will use that money for cars/college (it's not much!).
I did not include here any brokerage/529/etc.
I also keep more cash than I should in the house in safe. I remain paranoid - my ex had a tendency to clean out the account and leave me with nothing, and though that is not my reality and hasn't been for a long time, digging out of those holes stuck with me.
Soooo many - at least 8! Most of them are at the same bank, but we have a few at other banks. One of them was really just to get a mortgage, since you had to be a 'member' but we don't actually use it. All the others are used regularly
We each have a checking and a savings, and we have 2 joint checking. The reason we have 2 is because we had to have a checking act with the bank where we have our mortgage, and the money gets automatically withdrawn for the payments each month. Our other checking is with a Credit Union. We prefer to work with a CU, and we have our car loan through them, so it makes it easier to make the payments.
We also each have a credit card, and we have 4 store credit cards. We use them to get the rewards and pay them off every month.
This of course doesn't include any of our brokerage or retirement accounts.
jlaok - we use a website called Mint to keep everything organized (they also have an app if you prefer to use your phone). You give them all of our login info for your online bank accounts, and it keeps track of everything. It also has a way to set a budget and goals for future expenses (college, wedding, vacation, etc) which can be tied to a specific account so you can track how much you have saved. DH and I have a joint account on there where we can view everything. We pretty much see eye to eye on how we want to spend our money, so this is a great way for us to stay on target.
We have 4, but they are all joint and all money gets pooled. It breaks down like this: Checking 1: Bills Checking 2: Spending money for the month Savings 1: Summer money (DH is a teacher, so we have to save for lack of paychecks) Savings 2: Regular monthly savings account
This system has worked out great for us. Since we broke out the two checking accounts, we've gotten so much better at sticking to our budget. When that debit card runs dry, we're done for the month. Helps keep random spending in check.
We have A LOT of bank accounts. One for each of us for our personal expenses, one for household bills, one for large purchases and one for emergency fund. Because of all these accounts it feels like we are always broke when I know we are not. Curious how others handle this.
I feel the exact same way. Lol But if I didn't have my money in separate bank accounts I would feel really disorganized. It's nice to have the account for household bills so I don't have to think about it after everything important is paid for.
We each have a checking and a savings, and we have 2 joint checking. The reason we have 2 is because we had to have a checking act with the bank where we have our mortgage, and the money gets automatically withdrawn for the payments each month. Our other checking is with a Credit Union. We prefer to work with a CU, and we have our car loan through them, so it makes it easier to make the payments.
We also each have a credit card, and we have 4 store credit cards. We use them to get the rewards and pay them off every month.
This of course doesn't include any of our brokerage or retirement accounts.
jlaok - we use a website called Mint to keep everything organized (they also have an app if you prefer to use your phone). You give them all of our login info for your online bank accounts, and it keeps track of everything. It also has a way to set a budget and goals for future expenses (college, wedding, vacation, etc) which can be tied to a specific account so you can track how much you have saved. DH and I have a joint account on there where we can view everything. We pretty much see eye to eye on how we want to spend our money, so this is a great way for us to stay on target.
I know about Mint but I prefer to use an excel spreadsheet. One reason being that DH is bad about spending and spends less if he has cash (mostly because he can't spend when he's out of cash). Secondly, Mint can't differentiate between all purchases. For example, we look at a $100 grocery trip to Target differently than a $100 clothing trip to Target. Lastly, I'm very Type-A and must control all things.
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