How many separate savings accounts should I have?
While there's no blanket answer for how many savings accounts you should have, Woroch recommends at least two on top of the investment accounts you're using to save for retirement: one for emergencies and one for goal-based savings for purchases like a home or car.
"There is no right or wrong number of savings accounts," says Kendall Meade, a certified financial planner at personal finance platform SoFi. "Some people prefer to separate their savings into multiple accounts for different purposes, while others find it simpler to have all of their money in one account."
Con: Keeping track of your accounts
One downfall of having multiple accounts is that it can be difficult to keep track of them all and to remember which account is for which savings goal. Having said that, there are a few tricks you can use to keep them hassle free and organized.
You can open more than one account across different banks
But if you've more to save, there's nothing stopping you from using more than one regular saver.
So, regardless of any other factors, you generally shouldn't keep more than $250,000 in any insured deposit account. After all, if you have money in the account that's over this limit, it's typically uninsured. Take advantage of what a high-yield savings account can offer you now.
There's no limit to the number of savings accounts you can have, but the key is to make sure you can manage them all. Learn why you may want to have as many savings accounts as you have savings goals, and what to consider when shopping for a savings account.
Fidelity Investments recommends saving 1x your salary by 30. At the end of 2021, the average annual salary was $49,920 for 25 to 34-year-olds and $58,604 for 35 to 44-year-olds. So the average 30-year-old should have $50,000 to $60,000 saved by Fidelity's standards.
As long as you are not trying to hide funds from the government or people whose funds you manage, it is perfectly reasonable to open different accounts for different purposes. You can open them at different banks, or keep them all at the same bank.
As of April 2024, no banks are offering 7% interest rates on savings accounts. Two credit unions have high-interest checking accounts: Landmark Credit Union Premium Checking with 7.50% APY and OnPath Credit Union High Yield Checking with 7.00% APY.
How about this instead - the 50/15/5 rule? It's our simple rule of thumb for saving and spending: aiming to allocate no more than 50% of take-home pay to essential expenses, 15% of pre-tax income to retirement savings, and 5% of take-home pay to short term savings.
Does having multiple savings accounts hurt your credit?
Multiple accounts can offer you additional FDIC coverage, and help you achieve specific savings goals. There should be little to no impact on your credit score for opening multiple accounts at different financial institutions.
Those will become part of your budget. The 50-30-20 rule recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings.
Is $20,000 a Good Amount of Savings? Having $20,000 in a savings account is a good starting point if you want to create a sizable emergency fund. When the occasional rainy day comes along, you'll be financially prepared for it. Of course, $20,000 may only go so far if you find yourself in an extreme situation.
By the time you reach your 40s, you'll want to have around three times your annual salary saved for retirement. By age 50, you'll want to have around six times your salary saved. If you're behind on saving in your 40s and 50s, aim to pay down your debt to free up funds each month.
As long as that bank is FDIC-insured and your deposit doesn't exceed $250,000, you should be safe to do so. It might be worth it to maintain an account at a separate bank, however, just in case a bank error or accidental account freeze results in a loss of access to your money for a time.
You can have more of your money covered by federal insurance. By spreading your accounts around to different federally insured banks and credit unions, you can get access to having more of your money insured by the NCUA or the FDIC. You can better manage your money and build your savings.
Consider Opening Multiple Accounts
Setting up multiple savings accounts, or sinking funds, can help you organize your money to help you achieve different financial goals. For example, you could use one savings account to build an emergency fund, another for a vacation and a third to purchase a car.
Ramsey's general recommendation in his Baby Steps has long been to start with having $1,000 saved in a starter emergency fund. If you earn under $20,000 a year, the post on Ramsey Solutions said you may adjust this amount to $500.
If you're looking for a ballpark figure, Taylor Kovar, certified financial planner and CEO of Kovar Wealth Management says, “By age 30, a good rule of thumb is to aim to have saved the equivalent of your annual salary. Let's say you're earning $50,000 a year. By 30, it would be beneficial to have $50,000 saved.
In terms of savings accounts specifically, you'll likely find different estimates from different sources. The average American has $65,100 in savings — excluding retirement assets — according to Northwestern Mutual's 2023 Planning & Progress Study. That's a 5% increase over the $62,000 reported in 2022.
Is 40k in savings a lot?
While $40,000 is a good start on the road to building a nest egg, you probably want to retire with a lot more money than that. But it may be more than possible if you commit to saving and investing in a brokerage account consistently for the remainder of your career.
Lots of people don't save money in their 20s, not because their spending habits are out of control, but because their entry-level salaries are relatively low. Plus, many are already struggling to repay student loans. By age 30, you should have saved about $52,000, assuming you're earning a relatively average salary.
There's an 80-20 rule for money Dave Ramsey teaches which says managing your finances is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent knowledge. This 80-20 rule also applies to constructing a healthy life. Personal wellness is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent knowledge.
Having multiple accounts — at the same bank or different banks — can be useful for managing different savings goals, and there's little harm in doing so, since it doesn't impact your credit.
No hard and fast rule dictates how many checking accounts you should have. The ideal number is the number it takes for you and your family to access your funds and track your spending easily. Too many accounts can complicate both of those tasks.
