Comments on: Several Funds, One Account: How To Manage Them

By: Mike Michaelson

Mike Michaelson — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:05:50 +0000

Smarty Pig is similar to ING (as I understand it) and pays a good interest rate. I’ve been using Smarty Pig for almost a year now for my various savings goals. I also track all my financial accounts in Quicken (mortgage, credit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts, HSA, etc). Yes you can do it in Excel (or the OpenOffice equivalent), but Quicken is easier (and it was free, unlike Excel with my MacMini I bought in ’05).

By: Natan

Natan — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:02:13 +0000

Anyone who wants an ING referral for the $25 bonus can email me here:

tron2253@gmail.com

By: John

John — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:32:21 +0000

Have you considered expanding your excel tutorials showing how to reference multiple spreadsheets in a master one?

By: David Syzdek

David Syzdek — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:53:28 +0000

As a Quicken user, I was wondering about using an “Investment” account for tracking my savings. Then you could track various categories by setting up different securities for each category. Set the share price to $1 per share and you can see the number of shares and money towards your goals in the investment screen. Anyone try this method?

By: Jason V.

Jason V. — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:59:09 +0000

Yodlee has been around for serveral years (not a start-up). They sell their aggregation software to big banks (Bank of America, for instance).

Jason

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:31:44 +0000

@Justin:
ING lets you open different savings accounts under one customer account. We also scratched our heads when we heard people talking about “subaccounts”, but it’s really a different account.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:14:00 +0000

I don’t believe this is true for financial accounts, though it is often true of a joint safe deposit box.

Joint (with right of survivorship) financial accounts shouldn’t require anything more than a copy of the death certificate (available within a few days) in order to remove the deceased from the account.

>as in the event of your death most banks freeze joint account for a couple weeks

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:31:57 +0000

@ everyone talking about ING:
I recently opened an ING savings account and I would love to split it into to buckets for different savings funds, how is this done, I do not see it?

By: kris

kris — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:17:59 +0000

Since I am excel clueless, I went with this program here to manage various sub-accounts in my HSBC:
http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/reviews/fa/freedom_spreadsheet01.php

Its been an excelent investment.

By: Woody

Woody — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:01:00 +0000

One major concern I would have over this is the flip side of what you mention when it comes to security. Sure, having all your eggs in one basket means you only have to protect the one basket. But if something goes wrong and you lose that you’re SOL, since it’s all in one place.

Personally, I like having my finances split up a little. If one account gets compromised, I can back off and manage the financial recovery while having the other ones to get cash or pay bills with.

It’s also a VERY good idea for your spouse or partner to have a separate account, as in the event of your death most banks freeze joint account for a couple weeks. Having a separate side account with some emergency funds in it can be a huge blessing when you’re already dealing with the death of a loved one.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:29:35 +0000

Amanda, usually it takes 2-3 days to transfer money to online savings accounts.

I used to use HSBC as my main checking account and my paycheck was direct deposited into there and I could transfer money instantly to my HSBC Direct account 5.05%. Many other companies off this such as Citibank, Chase and ING to name a few.

There aren’t any HSBC branches where I live now so i use citibank. I just need to get a paycheck so that I can put it there…

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:18:58 +0000

ING doesn’t allow you to view many accounts at once like places such as Yodlee allow. Instead it splits it up much the way you split your account up with a spreadsheet. I have ONE savings account with ING but that account is “split” into 3 subaccounts that I’ve labeled with my savings goals. Very much the same as using a spreadsheet except minus the work of updating a spreadsheet.

I used to have 4 different online savings accounts each for a different purpose. Until I discovered this feature of ING and then I moved them all to ING.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:44:48 +0000

First, I really enjoy this site. It helps keep me motivated on my financial transformation from broke to wealthy (someday!). I find just being “mindful” of these issues on a daily basis keeps me on track.

My question is: Does anyone use Emigrant Direct? I have nothing but good things to say about them & their APY, but I experience quite a lag time between transferring funds from Checking (non-Emigrant) to Savings (Emigrant). Sometimes up to four days!
Any opinions? Does this happen with ING? Perhaps I’m expecting too much.
Keep up the fabulous work.

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:07:23 +0000

We similarly track our “savings buckets” in excel – but I don’t have a separate tab for each account. It is all on the same workshet with three separate sections. The top section is the aggregate (which is locked) – the center is the additions, and the bottom is subtractions. The aggregate is basically the additions minus the subtractions – and the total equals the savings account balance. We currently have 16 different categories we disburse money into. We like to specifically save toward shorter term purchasing goals (like a new mountain bike for my husband) as well as longer term goals (car) and our emergency fund. About once a month we sit down together and allocate all the savings into the different buckets – it is fun to see positive progress toward your goals. We also have “goal” column, and the amount left to reach the goal – so we can tangibly see progress as we are allocating. Once the money hits the goal, we know there is enough money to make that purchase without dipping into any other buckets.

By: David

David — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:43:19 +0000

Quicken allows you to set up “virtual accounts” like this, however I can’t recall what they call them at the moment.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:54:47 +0000

I really should consolidate my stuff; I have 4 different accounts with 3 different instutions! It may soon become 5 accounts with 4 institutions, if I get around to setting up an online account.

… but it works for me :p

By: Loonies And Sense

Loonies And Sense — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:44:20 +0000

I’m also wary of third-party account aggregators.

ING showing me all my ING holdings = Happy customer.

Startup company showing me all my holdings period = Nervous customer.

By: crazypumpkin

crazypumpkin — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:43:13 +0000

Glad to see that others have bought up INGs features already. I do this too, as I have a general fund (within it there is a doctor’s visit fund), car fund, and travel/grad school fund. One login, one password, does what your excel spread sheet does pretty much, but I don’t have to be “diligent”. Because lets face it, I’m not, at least not like that.

By: Trent

Trent — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:36:40 +0000

Places that allow you to view many accounts at once raise serious privacy concerns for me. You’re trusting your account information to another entity, and for me, the fewer entities that have my information, the better.

By: Quicken Nazi

Quicken Nazi — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:35:38 +0000

For anyone using Quicken, the Savings Goals functionality will allow for this also and allow you to save money from different accounts towards a goal.

For example, I have two savings goals, Baby Emergency Fund and Income Tax (self-employed husband). I contribute to the Baby Emergency Fund from my one savings account. The Income Tax goal is contributed from both that savings account and a CD in a different bank.