I stopped using all my savings accounts to simplify my financial life. In the past I mentioned simplifying my financial life. This included things like setting up different savings accounts for goals. This month I decided to stop using all my savings accounts.

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In the past I had as many as ten sub accounts with Capital One. This is because they allowed you to open multiple savings accounts for goals. I had some of the following accounts.

Accounts

  • Main: this was my main savings account for general items.
  • Fresno: this was a future account with a silly background.
  • Emergency Fund: this was for short term emergencies
  • Car: this account was to take care of registration and maintenance on the car
  • Trips/Vacation: this was an account to save for trips.
  • Fun: this account was for random shopping sprees.

I had a few more but I would close accounts at various points. This system worked well for me to visualize my savings and progress towards goals. This March I stopped using all my savings accounts. I decided to combine all the money into the main savings account and just keep a spreadsheet that broke down the different goals.

So why did I do this?

I made the decision to stop using all of my savings accounts because I wanted to simplify things even more. I used a system where my salary was deposited to my checking account and then a separate amount went to each savings account. Now that I am more comfortable with my goals it is better to just track the changes in a spreadsheet. Currently I have one transfer to the main savings and I have a spreadsheet that I tweak. I change one or two items and the rest auto-update to reflect the correct total.

This makes it easier to change focus on what goal I am saving for. If I don’t want to put money into the Vacation fund this month I don’t have to change the deposit…just change the amount in the spreadsheet.

I don’t need to see the change in each account every month, as long as each balance is increasing. Additionally, my interest was being spread among multiple accounts. I would rather just see the lump sum of interest in one account.

I stopped using all of my savings accounts, except one, and I am happier with the new system.