I’m reducing my Capital One accounts in terms of how many I hold. This is an effort to simplify my finances even further. In the past I used multiple accounts for different reasons. They were easy to set up and allowed me to view progress on each goal with one glance.
Recently it has become a bit unwieldy to have all those accounts with one bank. There was also the issue of interest being spread over too many small accounts.
If you’d like to see what I did keep on reading!
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Old Number of Accounts
Capital One was formerly my ING bank which I truly loved. They were an online only bank and offered GREAT interest rates. They also made it very easy to open new savings accounts online so I went a little bit crazy.
I have been using the following accounts with Capital One:
- Checking
- Main Savings
- Never Go Back To Fresno
- Emergency Fund
- Goal
- Fun Stuff
- Car
- Tuition
This was certainly a lot of savings accounts! I kept them because it was easier for me to save for specific items if each set of money was separated.
What I use each account for
My Checking account is what I used to pay bills and it had a constantly revolving balance. I would get my paycheck deposited there and would then set up payments to my credit cards on a weekly basis.
My Main Savings contains my largest amount of general savings money.
My Never Go Back To Fresno account is my saving grace. It was basically an account idea I got from a television show. One of the characters had set up a fund to live off in case things ever got bad. She grew up in Fresno and vowed to never return there. So she saved up and never touched the money until she had half a million dollars in there. My fund is not even close to that amount but I do wish to have that safety net.
The Emergency Fund was simply an account to save up the 3 to 6 months of expenses that we should all strive to have. It sort of complimented the Fresno Fund but it was for a longer term.
The Goal account was renamed any time I was working on a specific goal. So when I was trying to save for a trip I would have the destination and amount as the name.
The Fun Stuff account was the smallest one. It had money in it that I could simply spend without even thinking about it. This is because I budgeted an amount to transfer monthly. If I wanted to go out with friends and there was money in the account then I could spend it.
The Car account contains money to pay for car repairs and recurring items like registration.
The Tuition account was used to pay off a tuition loan.
New Number of Accounts
Checking
- Main Savings
- Never Go Back To Fresno
- Emergency Fund
- Tuition
Now I have fewer accounts and this is better for me. I can pay for auto repairs and similar items out of the Emergency fund. I moved my 3 to 6 month expenses account to the Main Savings account as that makes more sense in my head.
The Tuition account is open for now but will be closing it soon. My focus now is to work on the Fresno fund and the Emergency fund at the same time.
I feel much better about managing my finances after reducing my Capital One accounts. I realize now that I have a good grip on what I can save and I do not need to have all those separate accounts.
How many accounts do you have?
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