Have you ever wondered if you had enough money in your bank account before making a purchase? Or have you ever overdrafted your account because you thought you had enough money to cover a purchase?
It’s challenging to keep track of bills, rent, food and other purchases when its coming out of a single account. It can get confusing!
A method we use to make sure we have control of our money and prevent overdrafts is having multiple bank accounts for specific purposes.
Below are the bank accounts we use to keep our money organized:
1. Deposit Account
This is the account all income from our jobs comes in. We don’t take any expenses from this account. We know eaxclty how much money we have for the month for when we create our monthly budget.
2. Bill Pay Account
After creating our monthly budget, we transfer the amount necessary to cover our expenses for the month, such as our rent payment, utilities, subscriptions, groceries, etc. Each expense is taken from our Bill Pay account. Since we follow a written budget we know exactly how much our expenses add up to.
3. Emergency Fund Account
Saving at minimum 3-6 months of expenses is the start to a strong financial foundation. This money will serve as a cushion for your family in the event of a job loss, unexpected car repair, or a medical emergency. We recomemned putting your emergency fund in a high yield savings account (HYSA). An HYSA offers a higher interest rate compared to a traditional savings account. That means you will earn more money by just having your money sit in the account. And remember, only access this money in case of a true emergency.
4. Spend Account
This is the account where we can spend freely. Each partner has there own individual spend account to make any purchase they want, this can be for things like going out with friends, gadgets, clothes, gifts, and anything else they want to spend money on. Every month, while creating our budget, we agree on a specific amount or percentage to allocate to our spend accounts. This account is beneficial because it is separated from the money reserved to pay your bills and it gives each partner freedom to spend how they want to.
5. Sinking Fund Account
A sinking fund is money saved for a specific purpose in the short term, like a vacation, car maintenance, home maintenance, holiday shopping, and more. Having a sinking fund helps you to save with intention without having to worry about putting the expense on a credit card or if you use the credit card for the purchase, you already have the money saved up to pay off the balance.
Note, some banks allow you to open several savings accounts with no additional fees. Check with your bank or credit union to see if there are any fees associated with opening additional bank accounts.
These are just a few examples of ways you can organize your money, this helps to reduce overdrafts and eliminate not having enough money for your bills. Figure out what works best for you and your family.