We have two. One at my local bank (where my checking account is) that I transfer to and from as needed. I take loans from it when I run short, but pay them back. The other is at ING and is a long term emergency/saving fund. I have it all lumped into one account.

The only way I would consider setting up multiple accounts for different goals is if they were super-simple sub accounts at one bank. E.g. ING. Otherwise I would just use a spreadsheet to track the various amounts in one account.

I don't track different kinds of expenses. Some expenses I borrow money from the savings account and others I transfer it without intending to pay the money back. To myself. An example of the latter is house expenses and infrequent (due less than once per quarter) expenses like our annual life insurance premiums.

And here I was thinking I had too many savings accounts and I only have 3!

I started with Ally, wanted to try out ING Direct, and I have a 3rd account that is technically a checking account holding the minimum to avoid the fees (1,500) so I can get a bonus on my rewards card (which I cash out and throw in that account).

They are all with the same goal: save until I reach a safe amount, which I am having trouble deciding on, and then abolish my car loan.

I'm all for simplicity, so I just have one big rewards checking account. Emergency fund, vacation fund, car fund, etc are all just theoretical and "balances" are tracked in Excel.

Bichon, I don't yet have enough ammo/firearms stocked up to call it a full-blown savings account, but I'm working my way up! I'm going to say that once you have more than 1,000 rounds of ammo larger than 22lr, that is when you qualify

Any advice for a single girl with no dependents, no car payment, no debt and no house? I want to start saving for a house and emergency fund, plus another account for travel but I'm not quite sure if I should open up 2 - 3 accounts or if I should just keep it simple with one account. Interest rates are fairly low right now, but I don't think you can get much lower than the .01% I'm getting from my current Chase savings account that's linked with my checking. I was thinking of opening 2 ING accounts, one for emergency/house, the other for travel. Tips?

Don't marry a bum with no money who won't work!


I'd probably go with one savings account for each at ING. You could use the Chase savings as your travel fund.

We have one savings account at Wells Fargo, about $3000, this is for immediate emergencies since we can readily access it.

We have several savings accounts at ING. We have (1) emergency fund; (2) we have an escrow account for each of our properties, where we keep our insurance and tax escrow monies [we try not to let the banks escrow for us], so that is 5 escrow accounts; (3) travel/vacation; (4) fun; (5) house projects; (6) holiday/gifts; (7) 2012 IRA [we are keeping our IRA funds here until we fund them]. So, that would be a total of 11.

I have several at ING:

1) Emergency Fund
2) "Spending Money"
3) House Down Payment
4) Car Down Payment
5) Car Expenses (Savings towards yearly insurance, registration, sticker, repairs, etc)
6) Vacation Fund

+ 1,000,000

Girl, You are a hot commodity! Don't settle for anyone that will put your financial health in jeopardy.

What is the advantage of keeping N number of accounts as opposed to keeping record of expenses. I'm not knocking this method I just want to understand it.

I track my expenses and I have one savings account. If I know that my vacation expenses for the year are not over what I have budgeted (I'm at 50% and it's August)

If I know this, are there any other aspects that I'm not seeing that would benefit me having multiple savings account?

I think the reason most people have separate accounts is to reduce temptations. If you have 1 savings account with $20,000 in it for different goals like vacation, home repairs, and an emergency fund, some people might be tempted to use $2,200 for their vacation instead of the $2,000 they budgeted because it's one big pool.

I believe (even though I don't have many different savings accounts) it helps people clearly see how much they have to use for each goal.

Haha! Thanks for the advice. I opened up an ING account and I can't wait to watch it grow. I live with my boyfriend who will bring quite a bit of student loan debt into our lives, but we have a solid plan to pay it off in a timely manner (if we get married).

I agree don't settle when you can select. Hopefully he's getting a degree that will actually help him get a job? (i.e. not a degree in Philosophy/History/Theater/English Lit/Politcal Science/Music/etc.)

Haha! He is working on a master's in architecture. Not a very profitable career when you first start out, but has a lot of long term potential. I'm a nurse working on my master's/doctorate so I think we will be able to pay off those loans together quickly. At least we've talked about it and set up some expectations!

My favorite savings account is the "Extended Warrantee" account. Every time I buy an appliance/gadget and the sales clerk asks me if I want to get the extended warrantee, I ask how much it is, decline it, then transfer that much into the Extended Warrantee account later.

Even if the clerk/cashier doesn't try to sell me an extended warrantee, I put 10% of the price into that account anyway.

One of the biggest lump sums that ever went into that account was after someone rear-ended my car and their insurance company put me into a rental. Even though the other guy's insurance company was paying for it, Enterprise wanted me to buy an $11-per-day insurance policy. I declined because my own insurance covered damages to rental cars.

As it turned out, the insurance company was so overzealous about saving money on the repairs that they kept sending the wrong parts to the body shop, and so I was in the rental car--at their expense--for three weeks.

After I finally got my car back, I deposited the $231 I'd saved by not buying the extra insurance into the "Extended Warrantee" account.

That account has covered the cost of replacing or repairing broken electronics more than a few times.

Apart from that, I have the usual: Emergency Fund, Medical Expenses, Car Expenses, Bills, Rent (fantastic when you get paid weekly--4 deposits per withdrawal, earns interest, free money!) and a place to catch miscellaneous income like Amazon Affiliates, Google AdSense, etc.

I have only one savings account. It's all I need.