Banking arrangements - how do you do yours?

[ptenn]

I thought it would be interesting to talk about how everyone organizes their day to day bank accounts. I'm sure everyone has their own system and their own optimization story behind it. Here's what we do:

It is just me and my wife, no kids (yet, one onthe way), and all of our accounts are joint - except for the registered ones that can't be joint.

1 chequing account used for day to day stuff. Our debit card is linked to this account, this is also where my salary gets paid.
1 chequing account just for bills. Only transactions in here are automatic bill withdrawals. My wife's pay gets deposited here and then we leave in the account what we need to cover our bills every month. She gets paid once a month so the timing makes this very convenient.
1 savings acount for emergency funds. Basically the cash we keep outside of our investment portfolios.
1 savings account to hold part of my paycheque for a week. We've created a system where I effectively get paid every week. When my paycheque hits the bank biweekly it gets split in 3 uneven parts: 2 parts are 1 week's worth of spending, the other part (the largest part) goes to savings. 1 week of spending goes to this account, the other stays in our main chequing account. The next week the money in this account gets moved back to our main chequing account. This is all automated with preauthorized transfers.
1 savings account for money out of our weekly budget that we didn't use. End of every week we drain the main account to 0 by putting the excess here. This account gradually accumulates money and we draw on it for expenses that are outside of our usual weekly spend (home repairs, appliance purchases, etc)

All of these are with the same bank. We also have a credit card but don't use it too much. We prefer the debit card because we are only human and still struggling to go full MMM and this puts a hard cap on our spending. I do regularly buy stuff with the credit card and pay it off within 30 seconds on getting the receipt to accumulate points.

What are some of your banking arrangements?

[Hotstreak]

I have two checking accounts and two savings accounts. 


One checking gets direct deposit for 1/2 my rent biweekly, and on the 1st of each month a check automatically goes to the apartment manager.  This is my only large recurring transaction and I like to keep it separate.


The other checking account is my primary operating account.  It received direct deposit, and is used to pay all ACH bills, credit cards, or the occasional check or cash withdrawal.


One savings account is my emergency cash, which is near the level I want it, so I just contribute a small amount per check. 


Second savings is with an online bank and is what I use to save up for large items like next years IRA contributions, major car repair or purchase, etc.  This gets a larger contribution each paycheck & earns a decent interest rate.


I also have credit cards with a few different banks, for the rewards.  These are where most of my non-rent spending happens.

[Spork]

We are really not that fancy. 
* checking
* savings/money market
* a couple of investment accounts that may contain one or more of the following: tIRAs, Roth IRAs, money market accounts to move money around/receive dividends, mutual funds, individual stocks

We don't physically divide our checking/savings into different accounts.  We do have it logically divided inside gnucash.  If we want to save for a particular thing, we make another fake subaccount and start putting money into it.

[marty998]

1 transaction account - use it for everything. Savings go to offset-accounts - linked to mortgages - interest is calculated on (mortgage - offset balance). Quite useful for property investors.

Have 5 mortgages and 2 offset accounts. Credit card and broker/shares account.

Super/retirement I keep separate from the Bank (only thing where I don't feel I get the best deal from the bank).

[protostache]

We (me, spouse, baby) recently went through a radical simplification of our accounts. Now we just have one joint checking and two joint savings accounts. One is our main account and the other is for some money that my wife brought into the marriage that she likes to keep separate. We also have a HELOC at the same bank. On top of that we share a credit card in my name for day to day use and one in her name for some autopay things.

Prior to the simplification we each had a checking (I actually had two) and we each had a savings, none of them joint.

[Nick_Miller]

Married with 2 kiddos. Everything is shared. No separate accounts.

We have a money market savings account for our emergency fund.

Checking account for day-to-day expenses.

We rarely use credit cards (I think people tend to "overspend" when using cards, and that this outweighs most/all "rewards" programs, BUT for things like health care premiums that are fixed expenses, we do use a credit card to earn some points)

My kiddos each have their own savings account.

[boarder42]

we are super complicated i would say as far as number of accounts.

we keep seperate checking accounts - 2 there
we have a gas credit card for joint gas
we have a grocery credit card joint - we put mutual purchases here

2 401ks
2 Roth IRAs with vanguard
1 taxable with vanguard
1 savings account
1 SEP IRA with vanguard
1 ESOP with my company
1 HSA
1 mortgage

savings account is my wife's no idea what she does with it or puts there.  our Efund is our taxable account at vanguard.  Medical emergencies obviously come out of HSA.  any large ticket non medical would likely come from an instant decrease to match in 401k contributions and a reduction to 0 from 2k in taxable contribution and put on a credit card and paid off at the end of the month. 

kids we dont have yet but will do the "bank of mustache" system as thats super awesome.

[BoonDogle]

I try to keep it simple:

One joint checking
One Vanguard taxable investment account
One Vanguard roth IRA
One 401k Plan
One credit card

When the checking balance starts to build up, I transfer some to the Vanguard taxable account.

[lthenderson]

One checking account
One savings account

Married with two kids.

[Fishindude]

Wife has a checking account.   Her and my weekly pay go into that account and she pays most of the routine bills.
I have a checking account.   All bonuses and income from other sources go into this account, it carries a large balance.   I pay the monthly credit card bill and major purchases out of this account.
We have no debit cards.
We have two Visa cards on same account which we pay off monthly.
Have some CD's that never get touched.
Have a $100K line of credit that sees very little use.
All of the above except credit cards at same bank.

No mortgage
A 401K with Hancock
Various other investments

[Zikoris]

Each of us has two chequing accounts (one bank has free e-transfers, the other free cheques, both of which we need, so we just use them both), one savings account, and investment accounts.

We do have joint credit cards, which we use to pay for everything, and reconcile/pay off twice a month. We're both strong proponents of separate finances, and go line by line on payouts day, so I don't pay for his video games and he doesn't pay for my ballet classes.

[spots]

Married with one baby.  We try to keep it as simple as possible. We could probably combine our two savings accounts, but I like having a separate account to accumulate savings to pay for things like home maintenance.

Joint checking account
Joint savings account for emergencies and for medium term expenses (home maintenance, insurance payments)
Joint savings account for long term savings
Only one credit card
Trading account
Wife 401K Vanguard account
My 401K Vanguard account (Vanguard) (plus my current employer's TIAA Cref account, which I'll roll over into my Vanguard account when I leave)
529 account for the little one

[TravelJunkyQC]

BF with whom I live (so partner according to the law), no children. Dual citizen with the US (tax reports done in both countries).

CAD:
2 checking accounts
1 joint checking
2 savings accounts
1 RRSP account
2 TFSA accounts

US:
1 checking account
1 savings account
1 IRA
1 taxable investment account

Way too much, but all properly taken care of and without fees. Each account has its use and reason for existing.

[Drifterrider]

I keep what I have and what I owe in separate banks.

Savings account in one bank, mortgage with a different one.

[dreams_and_discoveries]

I love the different approaches here, good to see how other MMM'ers manage their banking.

I try and keep it simple:

• two current (checking accounts) - one I use, another spare
• two peer to peer savings 
• one brokerage SIPP/ISA/Taxable   
• one old employer pension   
• three credit cards - one for travel, one for rewards, one spare   

[RobFIRE]

1 current account: salary goes in monthly, all bill payments including credit card on automatic monthly direct debit. I keep a buffer of just under a month's salary and transfer excess over buffer to savings account monthly, see below.
1 credit card: bill automatically paid in full monthly. I get a modest amount of cashback, secondly it moderates my cashflow as a lot of credit card use is work travel expenses that get repaid three or four weeks later. (I do have a backup credit card that I don't use very often, also automatically paid in full monthly)
1 savings account containing emergency fund (actually have another one I don't use with same bank, all online so easiest just to leave it there). Holds 3 to 5 months of core expenses.

All with same bank (well building society actually), so all under one online account. I do all banking online apart from cash withdrawals and occasional cheque deposits from dinosaur companies and government departments (government that phased out individuals from using cheques but still sends them itself, consistency anyone?).

Pension: done automatically through employer's monthly payroll. Due to tax savings on pension contributions, particularly through "salary sacrifice" arrangement in UK where you can have  tranches of money that with the tax relief (and National Insurance, and some of employer's NI savings too, for those who have any idea what NI is!), your investment is instantly doubled (though normal rate is something like £100 invested for every £67 of take home pay given up, so only a 50% boost), I put 33% of gross salary into pension. In terms of total pay+investments a month, it is equivalent to a ~25% instant pay rise, so once I worked that out I couldn't say no.

Day to day investments: once a month just after monthly salary paid I check current account, transfer about half of new salary and any spare money from previous month (varies, but my core expenses are about one third of take home salary, so often may have one sixth of salary spare from previous month) into peer-to-peer lending account. That gets automatically lent out a handful of days later. If I needed more money quickly I can cash out some of that within a few days.

Other investments: I have ISA (tax sheltered account) and investment account in one single online service. Generally don't touch those for months on end, check them more often just out of curiosity.

I do have another personal pension but it's on my to-do list to consolidate that into the online investment service.

[Saskatchewstachian]

DW and I simplified greatly after getting married, we went from from about 7 account to really only 2.

One joint chequing where all pay goes, all bills get paid from, mortgage comes out of and acts as a small buffer/Efund
.
One joint credit card for all purchases for groceries, gas and home improvement work. Of course paid off in full every month.

Once finding MMM it got a little more complicated as we both opened up invest-able TFSA's, we each have our own for tax purposes but have access to each others and these are filled out of our regular chequing account. Once we top out our TFSA's we will open taxable investment accounts as well. There is also a LOC for $50,000 that we can access as an emergency fund but has never seen a single dollar used out of it because of the 4.5% rate.

The one smart thing we did was set all of this up at the same bank so moving money from one account to another is instantaneous.

[Cromacster]

We're complicated, but it works for us.  We each save our own money individually, but have joint accounts that have agreed upon amounts that we deposit each month.  We also have savings goals for taxable, IRA, etc that we have to hit each month.  Whatever is left goes into personal savings or is spent.  We have a lot of credit cards but really only use 1 or 2 at a time, depending on targets we are trying to hit for rewards.  Each is paid in full every month.

2 individual checking
2 individual saving
1 joint checking
1 joint saving
1 HSA
2 Taxable
2 Roth
2 IRA
2 401k's
12 CC's (various joint and individual) maybe more.

[Legg-Stache]

Couple

1 combined Chequing account -> all activity out of here
Investments (TFSA, RSP, Pensions)
1 Line of Credit (never been used) -> flexible credit if needed for investment properties

Separate bank and chequing (for various reasons) for all rental property activity + mtg account

I like keeping all the rental property stuff in a separate account because it makes tax reporting much easier!

[sisto]

It was fun reading the various ways MMMers manage various accounts. We have a bit of a complicated process. My wife is an envelope type planner and has a system that works for her. I can manage complex transactions in my head, but she needs things in a certain order. I let her manage the bank accounts and I manage the investment accounts. This system works well for us. We've had joint accounts for over 20 years now. My wife was a SAHM for many years, but never went back to work after the kids moved out.

Banking/Credit Union (same bank)
1 checking all transactions happen here and my pay is direct deposited here.
1 money market for emergency fund (this balance is stays around $5K currently $5100 due to interest)
1 CD for replacing the emergency fund if we have a major event. (I would invest this, but wife wants an extra safety net $15K)
1 savings account for the excess funds from checking (each month money is transferred here after bills are paid $5K)
1 savings account for a condo we own and allow my mom to live in. (used for repairs/bills she can't afford $12K)

1 401K Fidelity
1 rollover 401K Fidelity
1 tIRA account (wife) Fidelity
1 account with AB (talked into A shares years ago double tax free bond fund)
1 account with MFS (talked into A shares years ago)
1 P2P account
1 after tax Vanguard account
1 ESPP account also includes RSUs

Various credits cards for monthly bills and then pay off each month

[sisto]

I forgot to add that I also have an HSA

[Reynold]

Married, SAHW, no kids.

1. Checking account for all normal activities.  We have discussed going with an online bank only, but it is just too handy to have a local bank account not to do this. 
2. Savings account at the same bank, tiny, required for the account we have.
3. Ally bank account for "emergency money", larger than I think necessary but DW is a bit of a worrier.  Also handy when we have needed to shuffle money between accounts, such as paycheck to checking to Ally to Fidelity, no fees and easy to connect to things.  DW manages all of the above, as well as credit cards, which we use as much as possible for their rewards, paying them off of course.  She was still apologizing this morning after yesterday accidentally using a card with only 3% reward instead of the 5% reward card, after getting half off on the meal we had. . . :)
4. Fidelity account with the usual money market fund, amount changes a lot depending what I buy and sell.  I manage this.
5. 401k account at work, very autopilot.
6. Business account for LLC for side gig, which of course has to be kept separate from "personal" accounts. 

[Lis]

Single, not sharing finances with anyone -

- PNC Virtual Wallet is my life. It comes with a standard checking account (spend account), a hybrid savings/checking account (reserve account), and a savings account. Money comes into regular account and all gets transferred out (more on that later), and I only keep $75 in there at any given time. I get paid twice a month, so each paycheck, half the amount for my mortgage, maintenance, and Verizon (monthly bills where the amount doesn't change) gets transferred to my reserve account where it has a built in envelope system. Usually, when I know I'm going to be making a large purchase and have saved up the money for it (money for a new couch, money I'd be spending at my friend's wedding, etc.) that gets stuck in the reserve account so I can pay off that portion of my credit card immediately. My budget money gets transferred to my savings account, which also has an envelope system. I've set up virtual envelopes for all my credit cards, an envelope for budget money (the amount I'll spend in the 15 days between paychecks), an envelope for slush fund/baby emergency fund ($500), and any other large purchases I'm in the middle of saving for (ahem... new computer right now).
- TD Bank checking account - I keep $100-$160 in here. TD is local (while PNC is unfortunately not). I need $100 in there minimum for a free account, and I'll transfer maybe $20 a month there to take out for cash.
- Goldman Sachs Savings - I have my emergency fund partially in cash, partially a CD ladder there. It used to be GE Capital, which had the highest interest rate at the time I opened the account. That won't get touched unless there's an emergency.

Edit to add - of course I have a 401k account at work, and any left over money gets thrown at Vanguard.

[startingsmall]

Married with 1 kid.... all of our accounts are joint accounts.

- One checking account with Wells Fargo (have been with them since I was a kid)
- One savings account with Wells Fargo, for ease of transferring funds between accounts. This account gets a set amount of money transferred in per month and is basically our travel and "little emergency" fund.
- Two savings accounts with CapitalOne360 (formerly ING direct). One is our emergency/big-savings fund and one is specifically set aside for taxes on freelance work.

We also have
- ROTH & Rollover 401k through Vanguard
- Employer retirement accounts for both of us
- HSA & FSA through my work

[alsoknownasDean]

2 transaction accounts - One with an online bank, the other with a regular bank
2 saving accounts - One with an online bank, the other with a regular bank
1 credit card (with the regular bank) - Mostly used for bills to be auto-paid.

1 trading account
1 superannuation account

My salary goes into both online bank accounts. A portion of it goes into the transaction account as my 'allowance', the rest goes into the savings account (where it earns a paltry 2.75%).

Transfers are made from savings to transaction for rent (this is automated), paying off the credit card (immediately once I get paid so I keep in a good habit of not carrying a balance), and additional amounts to the allowance if I screw up and overspend.

The main reason I still keep the transaction and savings accounts with the regular bank is that my trading account is linked to the regular bank. I'll need to get off my backside and change brokers in order to cancel these.

I also might change the allocation or get a different credit card down the track. Most rewards credit cards have an annual fee, and mine doesn't. I'd have to work out if any rewards are worth the fee.

[LadyStache in Baja]

We have one checking where I receive our joint farm income.  We use this account to pay for daily expenses and bills.  It goes to zero every month.

Another checking is where we deposit my husband's pay.  This is our savings account.  We use it for unexpected/irregular expenses that don't happen monthly.  This is also the money we use to reinvest in our vacation rental business.

I have a separate account that receives all of our rental income.  I use this to pay back a loan on the rental, transfer a set amount to Vanguard every month, if I run out of spending money in the month, and for reinvesting in the rental. 

Unfortunately our daily spending happens in Mexico, with a Mexican bank, and Mint doesn't accept it.  :(  Crying because I have such a hard time tracking my spending.  I use Ynab, but the new Ynab doesn't have reports, so I can't see in graph form what my spending looks like.