Right now we just have 1 but I was thinking about whether or not I should have separate ones - like
-summer camp (save now for next summer)
-emergency
-car (car is paid off but would be nice to have a down payment for the next one)
Thoughts on this?
coconut / 8079 posts
We have several. There is always money in our emergency fund and then depending on our plans for the year we might have some in vacation, home renovation, etc. It helps us to have it organized in separate accounts.
pomelo / 5129 posts
We have three because there was a deal when I moved to DH's bank that if I opened a savings account, we both got $25. Anything for free money!
We mostly use the joint savings account, but have used the personal ones when we were saving for something in particular.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
We just have 1 with emergency fund.
Major chunk of savings is in a portfolio being invested but has a certain balance that is always available as cash to us.
I use YNAB so I know what part of our savings is for what without having to open multiple accounts!
pomelo / 5866 posts
Yes! We have an education fund for LOs classes and camps. I may add school uniforms and field trips to that too. We also have a (next) car savings fund. OUr car is on its last legs but every month we wait, is another month we could save!! We paid our last car in cash (used 2 years old) and it felt great! But then I felt broke because I spent all out cash! Lol! I have emergency fund that I call a Reserve fund, because all my emergencies will be supposedly covered by insurance fund etc. I also have a travel fund, home improvement and auto registration fund. I use to have separate accounts but now I just have it in Long term savings lumped together and separate it on paper on my spreadsheet.
coconut / 8483 posts
One main one that we use for our major savings. One for vacations that we put extra money in sometimes. One for larger purchases that we put "extra money" in (tax returns, my husbands overtime). In the past that account has bought my engagement ring, a boat, house projects in our last house, and currently we are using it to save for a kitchen remodel. So I guess three typical slow to grow savings accounts that make very little interest but we have access to funds as needed.
ETA: I guess we just use our regular checking account as our emergency fund, since we need minimum $5,000 in there to avoid monthly fees.
And then a bunch of different investment accounts.
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
@snowjewelz: Same. We are saving for a ton of stuff simultaneously, but use YNAB to keep track of how much is in each account without opening a 100 different actual bank accounts.
pear / 1521 posts
I have 2 personal savings accounts, one is through a credit union and $15 automatically gets deposited into it every week. It's not super easy for me to access that money. I'm thinking in the future it might become the vaca spending money/xmas money fund if money ever gets tighter.
Then through the bank where we have our joint account I have another personal savings that has practically no money in it. It predates my husband and I don't really have a use for it anymore. We also have a joint savings there that is for house reno/I put money in it to save for when we have to get oil for the house, etc. More immediate funds.
Lastly we have an account through Ally for longer term savings at a higher interest rate. This is also the emergency fund. It's finally "fully" funded so I got to figure out something to do with extra money as we continue to save... I have no clue about investing!
nectarine / 2210 posts
Technically, yes but I don't use them for anything specific. When I first moved to Louisiana fro. California there were no banks that overlapped. So I had one bank account in CA and one in LA. There now are, but I've still kept both accounts, which each have a checking and savings, open.
pear / 1558 posts
Not necessarily by design, but yes we do. I had started a new savings account with proceeds from the sale of a condo many years ago in a high-yield savings account, but now it actually pays less than our credit union savings account. 
clementine / 756 posts
We have a general one for emergencies and large purchases and a separate one for vacations. We try not to keep a ton in these, because right now savings accounts don't make anything. Since there isn't much inflation right now, that isn't the end of the world, but we always keep that in mind so we don't lose money in savings to inflation.
We also have money in safe, accessible investments for a house down payment and a new car (my husband's is getting up there in miles). This is separate from our long term investments for retirement.
pomegranate / 3809 posts
We have 2, and 'emergency savings' in a higher yield account, which will likely turn into kids college or retirement fund, and one general savings for everything from car to vacations to home repairs. I don't like to compartmentalize any further cause I just know that if I wanted to go on vacation and that fund was low, I'd just borrow from somewhere else and then 'pay it back'. So I just don't bother and leave it in one bucket.
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
@Mamaof2: Have you looked into budgeting software like YNAB? It essentially allows you to do this without having to have multiple savings accounts. We save ahead for vacations, car repairs, home repairs, holidays, birthday gifts, etc.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
We do, but they're all at different banks because my husband likes to diversify. He doesn't like to have all his accounts with one bank, basically, so it has resulted in numerous accounts with diff banks, some of which we can't access via ATMs by design.
clementine / 854 posts
Yes we do. We each have our personal savings, and we have one joint savings account. The personal savings is just money we decide to save on our own, that's not needed for anything household related.
pomelo / 5220 posts
We have 2. One at Capital One (used to be... something else I can't remember) and we use that for our emergency fund. We have a small savings account with our regular bank that has just a few hundred dollars in it usually, we use that for rollover or overdraft mostly. We fund that one with random money we get, like daycare reimbursement or ebates or tax refunds.
pomelo / 5791 posts
We have several, but it's broken down into family members.
DH and I have our own separate ones.
The boys each have their own, where gifted money goes, as well as money for their school.
grapefruit / 4988 posts
We have many. DH and I both have individual savings and checking accounts, plus a joint one of each, plus I created a "safety net" fund in Betterment to see if we'd get a better return than what we're just getting from banks (so far, we have). We keep our "emergency fund" in our personal accounts, and the joint one is used more for things like saving for vacations, home improvements, etc.
coconut / 8430 posts
Yes we have a few. I would like to consolidate them at some point but I haven't gotten around to it yet and I'm in no rush since they are all fee-free.
pineapple / 12566 posts
We do, but in multiple countries since we have lived in multiple places and still have ties to those places. We also still have a few separate accounts from before we were together. It's kind of a mess, but we aren't paying fees for any of them, so it's fine for now.
clementine / 769 posts
Yes, We have 2. One was only for our house. We kept our down payment in it, but now we use it as a means to save up for long term things.
nectarine / 2115 posts
We have a high yield savings account that is strictly our emergency fund. We only access that money if we really, really need it.
We also have a regular savings account that is tied to our bank account. For now we use that to keep money that is gifted to our children. We use YNAB for our budget, though, so we do maintain savings for things like vacations and other upcoming major expenses, but the money itself is just sitting in our bank account.
pineapple / 12053 posts
@snowjewelz: @DillonLion: samesies! i consolidated after using YNAB.
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