My husband and I made $800 from opening 4 different accounts and it took us about 2 hours. We are entrepreneurs also and we have never made that much money per hour on our own. That was awesome. My 18 year old daughter opened her first checking account and made $150. Took her 30 minutes. Good life lesson. Biggest lesson I feel we have taught our daughters is live below your means. Not gonna lie, stuff can make you happy but too much stuff will overwhelm you. Experiences make you the happiest.
The only thing I consider missing here: retirement savings!! People do not save anywhere near enough towards their retirement. Like the emergency account, the retirement account is where your money goes to stay - that money is not to be touched until retirement unless you're in some kind of EXTREMELY dire situation.
The debt snowball is intoxicating! We payed off $33000, payed cash for 2 cars and 2 home births, all in 3 years! We only made about $24000 at the time, so we lived with my parents. It was rent free and shared expenses, however, I also took care of my grandparents who also lived there while my parents worked full time. It was 8 people=4 generations under one roof! Now that we are debt free, and because of that period of crazy focus on getting out if debt, we have been able to stay in a good financial position, despite having a low income. That peace is worth it!
It is not possible to do that where we are on 24000. We are very frugal and are just scraping by as a family of 4 going on 5, but then again we are on our own aside from cheap rent from my in laws.
We have only one checking and one savings account, but we keep track of our different savings categories virtually through a budgeting program called "You Need A Budget" or YNAB. I love it!! We have categories saving for Christmas, preschool tuition, car registration, children's 529 accounts, vacations, etc. I'm not at all saying your way is bad, but this is another option for people that don't want to physically have different savings accounts.
Lindsay Florence same. I love Jordan and Bubba but 7 accounts is not for me. My husband and I meet 1 to 2 times weekly for 10 to 15 min and go over our previous transactions and what our next week budget should be. We use mint.com
I agree. I have a ck'ing & 1 savings. I just use a spreadsheet for my savings & I have different categories for different things I save for & that works great for me. If I had that many accts, I wouldn't be able to keep up with what acct # went to what category. I agree with them about different savings for different things though.
We have several bank accounts as well, not exactly like you have but it works for us: 1: Bills (all the bills are paid from this) 2: Food & Household (we each have a card to this account) 3: Car (savings etc for the car, gas is payed from the “bills” account because we have a credit card for the gas) 4: Animals (Money we use to buy cat food and cat litter) 5-6: Kids (Clothes and toys for the kids) 7-8: Kids savings (savings for the future) 9-10: Husband & Wife 11: Joint saving I’m on maternity leave right now, but when I’m going back to work we’re going to start saving to buy a house 😊
I ASPIRE to be like you Jordan, when I’m older...currently a high school senior but hey I’m learning how to manage my money for college and the future!! Thank you!!
Learn as much as you can, apply it, and stick with it! My high school and hometown had almost zero financial education available and youtube was a baby, so it was difficult figuring everything out and staying on a budget. Best of luck after graduating!!
Keep at it, girl! Don't be like so many people that take out unnecessary loans in college. Save and work as much as you can (without sacrificing your grades), and apply for as many grants and scholarships as you can! I graduated a little over 4 years ago, and I paid off my loans (with a little help from my parents when they sold our old house) within 2 years. Don't let people tell you you have to be in debt to live well, it's not worth it! ❤❤❤ good luck in college!
For my husband and I have two checking accounts (one each) and then 16 savings accounts. I know it sounds crazy, but it works for us to save for individual things this way. Also one of those savings accounts is specifically for credit card purchases. So, if we have purchased groceries and put it on the credit card when we arrive home, we automatically sit down and pull that money from our "cash money" account (grocery, household, eating out and misc.) and put it directly into the credit card savings account. We do this for every credit card purchase at the end of the month that credit card bill is already paid for from the money we have placed in that savings account from the respective other categories we have budgeted for.
I used my CC for everything including my fixed expenses like phone, Netflix, Hulu, Pikepass, gym whatever I can...I already set asides money for on 1st of the month.
You inspire me to challenge myself in the area of finances. It's just my husband and I and our monthly budget for food is $200. I shop for 2 weeks at a time. I've gotten pretty good about coming under budget. Today shopped for 2 weeks worth of groceries and came $20 under. 🎉🎉 I know it's the little here and there that will help us work towards being debt free. Next week I'm doing a freeze week. I'm actually excited about challenging myself this way. Keep up the good work ❤️❤️
I think I can save $$$ money on stopping myself buying: 1. junk food, 2. delivery and 3. Opshop nic-nacs. I would like to open a "travel" savings account. Hey! A goal. I always think I can't afford travel. Just gotta start.
I would do 4 accounts (I have 3 already). Emergency, Misc - toiletries, cleaning products furniture, groceries, household items. Misc "ME" - acct - hair, nails, restaurants, Uber, dollar tree crafts. Vacation Acct. ( I need this one) I like your idea.
For the last 3 or so weeks I have been losing sleep and desperately trying to find a way out of an extremely desperate financial situation for my family. Thank you for making a program that’s for real life! Just in these snippets of your program make it so easy to understand my own finances. We will absolutely be following your boot camp. Thank you again, profoundly. I finally feel like I can breathe.
This is so exciting!! I love being frugal and still able to do the things we love to do. We save our money by getting a lot of secondhand stuff in craigslist of Facebook market.. couch, bed frame, dining table.. any kind of things you can think of.. but one thing that really blessed us is tithing. Have a blessed day you guys! Keep doing the videos because it really bless everybody
Jordan there is one thing you guys missed. And that's LIFE INSURANCE. I know that could fall under the emergency fund but hear me out. Im a recent widow and disabled. When my husband died in March, I was blessed with a couple of sister in laws who paid for his cremation. If not I would have had to spend the precious 2k in life insurance we had, which would have left me NOTHING to live on. My husband was on a disability income before his death, he had cancer, I got NOTHING. They cut off my disability when he got his. So his death presented a host of new challenges for me. Luckily we had a small 2k emergency fund. All this is what I lived on until the Veterans admin came in and saved me for a few months while my disability was being processed (and that can take a few months or a year). Please cover the importance of life insurance...because if you think life is expensive...wait till you are faced with death expenses. Probate alone is a nightmare in which you have to have a lawyer to sort out...then there is the interment, which can be as expensive as 7k if you want to go the casket route...and burial which is astronomical...even the niche I got my husband was 1276 bucks! Now I could have had the VA bury him but the nearest VA cemetery was a 2 hour drive and at my age, thats just too much driving! Please discuss this in a video...cause its something EVERYONE needs to think about...and heaven help a child who dies...death no matter whose, must be considered and planned for.
I know you wrote this a few months ago. I, too, am very sorry for your loss and hope you're doing better now. I think the reason why life insurance isn't always mentioned is that if you have a big enough emergency fund, you may not need it. Every financial guru I've heard pretty much says you need a big term life insurance policy when you have children, but often suggest you can fund your final expenses other ways once your kids are grown up. In the Pages' case, you're probably right and I'll bet they have at least one term policy out there - as they have a large family. And by that I mean one term life insurance policy for each parent. In my family, each of the older folks has pre-paid all of their funeral expenses which is always a good idea, as it locks in prices. My husband and I are getting ourselves geared up to do just that. I just lost both of my parents a month apart, and I was very grateful that my expenses were minimal fairly minimal, although there are expenses my mom didn't think of (but luckily, her retirement has a modest death benefit which will pay for the balance of mom's expenses.) In any event, I agree that Jordan should address this, because putting six kids through college isn't insignificant!
I do the challenge every month...I hate wasting food, so I eat what I have until I can't put anything together or make a simple meal...then I make a list and stick to it. I spend between $75-100 for food every two weeks. I have a garden planned for next year and hope to learn to can and freeze veggies and fruits for the following winter, with any extra going to the local food shelf. Thank you, Jordan and Bubba, for all your tips!:)
I loved watching this. Thank you for sharing! When we started killing our debt we paid off around $20,000 in 12 months using the debt snowball. When that was paid, we began snow-balling that $ into savings. That next year we saved over $20,000... in 11 months. That was our emergency fund. Then the snowball moved again... I opened a bunch of savings accounts through an online bank (higher interest, less available, as you said). I had our regular credit union checking for our regular weekly/monthly expenses, and overdraft savings of like, $100. Then I set up AUTOMATIC weekly free transfers (we got paid weekly) to our online accounts. They were 1) auto (for insurance, maintanence, tickets, DMV, saving for a newer vehicle) 2) medical (for dental, vision, copays, etc). Now we have an HSA w/ a debit card and we top it off during Refund season. 3) retirement 4) house (to buy one day, maintanence) 5) online sales (a place to transfer $ from paypal; I also used this $ to make online purchases, so it was kind of fun money for me) 6) emergency fund (full, but we continued auto-adding $ to it each paycheck, as we knew our family was still growing) There were a couple more, but they're escaping my memory right now. We also had a 529 for saving for future education expenses, which our credit card "earnings" were sent to each month. Sadly our system fell apart when we felt like the banks were unsteady and cashed out. I'd love to get back to it though. Instead now we "save" for some of these in physical envelopes, some in other accounts, and some not so much anymore. I will say, it was SUCH a bringer of peace to be able to drop the $$$ for auto repairs or medical expenses and just know we had the $ to cover it and all would be O.K.
Emergency Funds should be IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE!! You shouldn't have to wait 3 days for EMERGENCY funds.
6 лет назад
Treasure Your Time no ... emergency as in job loss or sickness. If that happens you can wait 3 days. You dont use emergency for a new fridge or to repair the car
Couple things. Re HSA. If u have flex spending ( FSA) at work then u should def be using it. HSA u mention may be mistaken by ppl bec there r diff types. MSA r monies for medical spending esp for self employed ppl. in general u need to plan any medical procedures that are not emergencies and u can really save. also parking fees for work can be partially pre tax dollars. And daycare up to federal limits can be pre tax. Tons of ppl don’t use them and I have never understood why. I won’t even start in on college debt bec far too many ppl borrow EXCESSIVELY when it isn’t necessary. I have had multiple acts most of my life and the single most important things is SELF DISCIPLINE and stop expecting instant gratification.
My husband and I have done this for years. When we first got married we were always fighting over money like if we had $20 left, who gets to spend it? We have our house account (electricity, water, mortgage), car account (car payments, upkeep), husband/wife account (our personal fun money), house savings (new couch/washing machine), Christmas savings, and emergency savings (this is currently our get out of debt account). I also use a yearly calendar in Excel and plug the bills into the payday they are coming out for the whole year. I know the house payment is the 1st, water is by the 12th, phones are by the 20th, etc. and just put that in for the year. Some weeks are short, so I know to hold back money from another week to cover expenses. Other weeks have a lot left over and we can do out of the ordinary things. Because of this, we have been able to plan and budget our first family vacation in 7 years.
This tip is my favorite. I used to keep separate envelopes in a safe, but I have a "borrowing" spouse that forgets when it comes to repaying the money. This has helped so much!
Paid a credit card off this past month but wanting to step it up. Always had the thought of "his and hers" accounts but never actuated. After watching this video I made a "shelftember" breakfast we went to the bank and opened up our accounts! Super thanks 🙏🏻 guys xxx
Great idea. Many accounts are helpful for visualizing and organizing. Also I love profiting off the credit card companies. I pay the whole balance every time and I have made tons off them over the years. Never pay them interest. That's the key.
I am dipping my toe in the multiple bank account waters. I opened an account online, super quick, easy, they mailed my debt card and they have a nice app. I am using the account for my "fun" money for the month. Instead of trying to track spending on clothes, eating out, entertainment, wellness, and home goods I just pooled all those categories into one sum and transfer that to my "fun" money account. I find I am spending less, feeling less guilt and spending less time managing my budget! Win win, win loving it!
Wow! $175 per week of groceries is our groceries for the whole month. We are 5 in the house and we live in Philippines. Cost of living in the US is way too much...
It depends on a lot too. For example some stores are cheap, or organic food can be super expensive. I live in a state with lower living cost, but places like LA or NYC are far more expensive. My mom once spent about $200, give or take with five+ a dog
the cost of living in the Philippines is so different from the US. especially if you shop in the market instead of the grocery stores!!! It is not really comparable!!! there is also a huge difference in the way people live here in the US in comparison to the Philippines!
I have read that saving money is less beneficial than paying off your morgage. Say I have 20 years left on my morgage - keeping 12 + 3 salaries on a savings account just doesn't make sense. I don't know how much support you guys would get from the state/insurance company if your husband loses his job, but in my country, I imagine it would make more sense to pay down the morgage + save 3 months salaries and hope the wellfare state does not collapse the week I lose my job. But I like the idea of multiple accounts, and I love your channel!
My husband and I have 4 accounts. (1) is the account where both of our incomes arrive and is also a savings account. (2) is a transactional account we use for groceries, (3) and (4) are our personal spending accounts (his and mine). Every month we transfer from (1) to (2) our budget and (1) to (3/4) our personal spending money. The rest gets saved in (1) for taxes and big expenses.
I find it much easier to use a budgeting tool called You Need A Budget. It helps you to allocate your money within your bank account so that you don't have to literally open that many bank accounts. We have several savings accounts and one checking account, but we budget every dollar that comes in using this software. It really helps us to save up for expenses that we know are coming but aren't a weekly or monthly expense. We have a separate savings account for emergency savings, and then a few more like future vehicles, vacations, property taxes, etc.
Check out mint.com & everydollar.com. Both are free, but they both have their pros & cons. Mint will connect to your accounts for free, but you "pay" for it through ads sprinkled throughout it's tabs. Also, you have to round each category to the nearest whole dollar because you can't budget to the penny. Everydollar lets you budget to the penny, but you have to manually enter everything in or pay for the account connection feature. I use both by tracking all of our accounts in Mint then entering the transactions into Everydollar for a to-the-penny budget as well as keeping track of our sinking funds. This last feature allows me to avoid having multiple accounts the OP is bragging about. There's no need to have so many accounts if you track your spending throughout the month and keep a running tally of your sinking fund balances. By keeping these balances in the checking account, we also avoid potential overdraft fees if something comes up before we can move money from the emergency fund or before the next paycheck comes in. So, there's an added bonus to keeping most of your eggs in one basket!
im so glad you mentioned YNAB! i was thinking the same thing too when they were talking about different accounts for different things such as groceries and bills. i feel like it would be so much easier to use YNAB instead
Totally agree with Jordan and Bubba about having seperate accounts. We use 2 credit unions. One has our Emergency fund. We asked not to have debit card for it so we can’t easily access, but if we need it, we just go to CU to withdraw. The other CU is where we have 1 checking and a bunch of different savings accounts (car repairs, christmas, bday&gifts, vacation, house repairs, etc.) Since we have auto transfers from the checking to savings, my CU makes the savings accounts free. We use 1 credit card (Costco) and if we spend $ that we’ve saved up for, we transfer from that account to the checking when we pay our entire credit card bill off. All done on-line so easy peasy! We always get a rebate check from our Costco credit card. Love it!
We have 10 accounts at our credit union. Each of our kids have a checking and savings, a travel fund, a savings and checking account, a moving fund and a retirement account.
I just wanted to comment on the divide & conquer thing. We have always found that to be way too complicated. Since day 1 I have handled ALL of the financial aspects of our life. I have been a stay at home mom for the last 14 years but even before that I have always handled that part. Even when I worked he made the majority of our money & then since we've had our first child & I started staying home he's made nearly all of it. But since he worked outside the home more than I did even before I stayed at home, I took care of most of the home management including finances. It has been so easy for both of us that way. In the almost 17 years we've been married we have literally had ZERO arguments about money ever. I keep him as updated as he wants to be on it but it's nothing he ever has to worry about juggling & I don't have to worry about getting confused on what he has or hasn't done or spent that way either. Also I just recently found your videos & I love them. Most of what you talk about is pretty similar to what we already do so it's good to hear it sort as affirmation, but you have also really given me some great new ideas to implement as well! 😁
I would also add that we make the decisions together. He doesn't just stay in the dark about all our money. I just do the daily managing of it. But if, for example, we were going to invest in something new or make a big purchase we would go over our budget & make that choice together. I just do all of the daily managing & bill paying. Hope that make a sense!
I have two cats and know the annual cost of caring for them. Each month is not the same for food, litter, meds and toys and the vet. The vet can me very expensive. So each month I budget a certain amount for them. If I am under, it goes into their savings account. If I am over, I take the difference from their acct.
I feel that! I have two diabetic cats that require a special canned food. I get it through Chewy.com for $50 every 2 weeks. It just comes out of my acct and autoships, which really helps alot. I write it out as a bill in my budget.
I've been watching a ton of FCF grocery related videos and saved at least $50-70 on groceries by buying a ton of fresh food like what you all feed your family (fruit, veggies, bread, meat, dairy), and only a few frozen goods (all super cheap at aldis). I feel better and have reduced monthly spending by $100s, I always wondered where all my money went and now I feel like I cracked the code lol.
We have an HSA it totally has been a lifesaver. We have a huge deductible to meet before our insurance kicks in. We have 3 checking accounts and our HSA but we use Trello to organize what money is going where.
I have done for this for a few years and it really has helped us especially with private education payments and saving for home improvements. We have 12 accounts currently including our 2 children accounts (one in college now). These include 4 Savings accounts including Taxes, Emerg., Regular, and Education, a Main bill checking account, 2 debit accounts, an HSA account and our children's savings and checking accounts. We have all our accounts through TD bank which is East Coast everywhere. The only issue is some educational institutions sometimes won't allow direct payments from Savings accounts, but we rarely have to switch money around except for that instance. We have no debit cards that are attached to checking accounts - we have separate accounts for debit transactions and we separate that into physical transactions and online activity. We initially began doing this because we had a number of fraud issues with online activity since we both run businesses and order online frequently. Having the separate accounts made it very easy to close a debit card and deal with that issue and not have it affect bill payments etc. I would never go back to having one checking account and one savings account - this system has made an enormous impact on how well our household runs!! It also has caused us to be much more "on the same page" for savings and spending decisions because it is so easy to see what we have and how we have allocated it. We can quickly look at our big picture of available cash from all categories just by checking out our online banking site. I have not used Jordan's Budget Bootcamp, but a few years ago I saw her blog about this and this alone has changed my life!!
legit my FAVORITE video! the 7 bank accounts is such a simple but mind blowing solution to saving and not tapping into 'other funds' if they were in a shared account. Thank YOU!!!!
My husband and I have around 8 (?) accounts and it keeps things separate and simple. We bank with the same bank and use their app so I can see everything and transfer money from our main checking into various other accounts, like gift and savings. I want to get more accounts now that our budget is growing!
Yes!!!!! My husband thinks I'm crazy for saying we need more accounts lol now I'll just discreetly play this on the TV over and over for that subconscious effect on him ;) jk
I think this is a crazy idea! If you budget and use restraint you only need a savings and a checking. I get cash back on my credit cards and that is my Christmas money! I also am a private client at my bank which waves the fees on our credit cards. Never charge what you cannot pay for.
I have three bank accounts and one credit card (but credit cards are not that common here in the Netherlands). Here you do always have to pay a fee for bank accounts. And if they don’t, you pay for it otherwise. There is no such thing as for free.
We have a main/bill checking, a "debit card checking" for gasoline and other misc, a vacation savings, and of course an emergency fund. And we also have a CIT Bank savings because their rates are amazing! So important to incorporate your bank accounts into your budget! 🙌
This is very true. I have six bank accounts with a credit union and two pre-paid cards. One account for my mortgage , second account for auto insurance and etc. I find it easy to manage my money and have the money in the bank for major bills.
I shop around for the best interest rates for savings accounts too. Usually online banks have way better rates than your big box brick and mortar banks. Those banks are good for your ATM for cash though. I also put extra money in CD’s and rotate them (6 month, 12 month, etc). Savings bonds used to be great, but CD’s have better rates now. Link all your accounts online to move money easily and tah-dah! I always had $1000 that I pretended didn’t exist because that is the deductible on my car, and you never know. I’ve done that part since I had my first job at 16. I work in retail so I really don’t have good income but it is still possible to save, and earn interest to make that dollar last longer! My mom always said count pennies not dollars and it does add up.
Set up ynab, then have all these 'accounts/categories' there. You only need 1 or 2 real accounts then. I love ynab and it's completely changed our finances, even though I'm 'good with money' :-)
I like this couple, but yes, I agree with YNAB. I am loving the simplicity of the system, and have been bingeing those Whiteboard Wednesday short videos. They have a ton of free resources on their site.
Laura Thomas Boren yes the videos are great as are the initial tutorials for when people come on board. Such a good idea to help people gain confidence.
I had four checking and three saving for years; this year I got married and these account became very overwhelming with them and decided to only leave one checking, one savings, and my son saving account. I always found myself putting out fires in each account but transferring funds.
I love how you guys say what you put into the relationship without saying what it "should" be. Societal views say that the mom cooks, cleans, stays home and that the husband makes the money and works with cars but you guys say thats what you like to do instead of saying "of course its what we do". Not sure if that makes sense but I really appreciate it
I do something like this but on 1 savings account, it alows me to divide my money into up to 10 different savings goals. Very easy, all the money in 1 place, no extra fees, but still very clear where the money is specificly saved for.
EveryDollar app “files” your budget/accounts or is a library for your budget “files”. You assign every dollar you earn, you assign in to SOMETHING: emergency savings (6-12 mos of what you can survive on), gas, His and her pocket (no questions can be asked!), furniture, vacation, retreats, offering/giving. I see the benefit of GAINING money with promos and interest and HSA being pretaxed. Definitely agree on debt- check out debt snowball: paid off $14k of debt in 9 months! Financial Peace university also talked about irregular income.
I’m trying to work my way up to 7 bank accounts. It’s so hard at first! We only have 3, but it is SO nice to have a separate bank account for everything
I actually do this within my one checking account. I do have separate savings account for us and our kids. But I basically separate everything on paper. I always know where every penny goes!! Just trying to pay off our van and house and a hospital bill next!! 😄
We have long held more bank accounts than many, and it really helps keeps us organized and accomplish our goals. Aside from the regular savings (money for mortgage payment and heating costs go there) and checking accounts at our local bank, we have an EF at a credit union for faster access, plus a slew of online savings accounts that include- other half of EF, medical/vet, next car savings (larger, unexpected repairs come from here as well), Xmas, vacation, home repair, and kids' future cars. There are a few other minor ones we chuck money in randomly, but those listed above get regular, monthly deposits. Makes life a lot easier for us, and we rarely need to touch our EF as we've already planned and set aside for those pesky emergencies that are bound to rear their ugly heads from time to time.
I actually learned the snowball affect a long time ago and used that to get us out of credit card debt. As we have gotten older things have gotten better. Granted we have no kids to bleed us dry. We have been car payment free for years until I was in an horrible accident back in February 2018 and needed a new car. We were able to put some money down and bought a used vehicle with low mileage. That and our mortgage are the only big payments we have. We used to have a Christmas Club account and that went by by years ago but they allowed me to set up another account. So I have been doing that for years LOL. Yes I am little bit older than you kids LOL. I have 7 accounts but not all the same as yours. Same reason though. 1. General Checking - Day to day items, groceries, gas, Target (just had to put that in there) 2. Snowmobile Account - We are avid snowmobilers here in Western, NY. Our taxes from previous year goes into this account for our hobby. PS. We live near Palmyra and my husbands company did the wiring for the Mormon Historic Building ;) 3. Insurance - I ended up getting the high deductible plan and thought my prescriptions were going to be more than my FSA but it wasn't and I haven't change this...so it is like a little savings account ;) 4. House Checking - That would be utilities for both our home and camp up north were we snowmobile. House payment, etc. 5. Christmas Club - So I can spoil my nephew's 6. & 7. Move Savings - Ended with 2 accounts somehow. They need to be combined so technically I only have 6 accounts and need to set up an emergency account. I lost my job because of the accident and I am still recovering but hope to go job hunting soon. So will definitely work on the emergency account. Luckily we have been able to manage, but if anything ever happened to my hubby we would be in deep do do.
Yes, Credit Union are great.. They are friendly and your money is protected.. When the banks needed bailouts several years back, Credit Union were not having those issues.. Thank you for posting.
Finances have never been this difficult for us but I have undertaken all management of money and my husband makes all the money. I guess we've never made enough to have such crazy accounts but our goal in life is to live on less so we can have more time with our kids and each other not to pay anything off (because we don't have anything to pay off) and not to buy bigger and better houses or vacations or anything at all, we value time not stuff.
I had actually thought of this idea myself about a week ago looking at all of the things we need to save for (car, house, baby, emergency fund, etc). So I'm glad to find this video that says I'm not crazy and it's actually a super good idea!! haha
At this point I have two savings accounts: one for emergencies and one for a sinking fund that I use for car repairs, Christmas spending, etc. And I have two checking accounts: one only for tax-deductible donations, since I itemize, and one for everything else.
I agree with having several accounts but not 7. What helped us was having 3 accts. One checking acct. that we pay all our bills from and live our life for the week (groceries, gas, gifts, fun money, hair cuts etc.) The second checking acct is where we keep short term savings for big ticket items we know are coming up (vacation, buy furniture, tires for car, christmas; basically any big purchase you can predict is coming) The last acct. is a savings acct. that we leave alone and let grow and ONLY use for big unexpected items, home repair, car breaks down, medical expense) basically anything that you can't predict when it will happen but when it does you need to take care of immediately.
We don’t use this system of accounts because we invest in stocks and we save a ton in our 401 with percent matching with my husband’s work. So it’s the same concept we just have stocks, which one we have has tripled in the last year. We wouldn’t get that kind of return with just interest on a bank account. But this is wonderful advice for those who don’t know much about stocks or mutual funds. This is a great way to get free money and save for those who don’t Know how to use investments in mutual funds and things like that.
It doesn't matter WHERE the money sits; it matters what JOB it has. To use the analogy of a filing cabinet, you just need ONE drawer--or two--(checking and savings) to hold the money. You just use lots of FILES in the filing cabinet to organize the money into jobs. You just need a spending plan that has you planning for Christmas, birthdays, car expenses, vacations, other priorities all through the year. But by keeping it all together is akin to living a minimalist life. It's easy, it's low stress--you don't have to worry about where the money went, where it's going to come from, or the timing of bills. It makes family financial management simple and stress free.
Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge and experience! I put myself to $50 a week for groceries & other at the moment because I'm doing some shelf cooking while I try to pay down bills and other things. I love your approach of looking at things 7 days at a time. It helps!
This makes sense. I have 5 bank accounts. Only one is being used right now. But it was very helpful to help separate medical expenses, child care, emergencies, etc.
I've been following for a while and very invested in your philosophy. However, this video broke my heart in so many ways, i fell well never accomplish anything we wish for so badly. We cannot put away 30% of my husbands salary, impossible. That just made me feel we have, are and will be doing everything wrong and there's no way of fixing it. Not traveling, not eating out, no salons, sports... frugal already, and our expenses sum up to 85% of his salary. I'm going to focus on achieving the grocery + budget perfectly, but sayonara to our dream home, I guess.
Alejandra, you might be interested in the Dave Ramsey plan. He has you focus on just one step at a time. I think that might help you to not feel like you need to get it all figured out at once. It is also good common sense and easy to understand advice which I appreciate.
Different approaches will work best for different families. We have just 3 accounts after reducing the number we had and love the greater simplicity of it. All that matters is that our 2 spending accounts have money in them and we know we haven’t overspent and are fine. One is for daily expenses and one is for splurge. The other account keeps our emergency fund. Since we keep our savings in etf shares I haven’t called that an account since it isn’t but others could instead have a high interest savings account for that which is what we previously did to save up for our home which we now fully own. I’m 32, a mom and we are 100% debt free including our home and now have $200k saved up towards early retirement. Husband earns a good but not crazy high wage and I work only 3 days a week. So what we did works for us. I think what is ultimately more important are big decisions like choosing an affordable home, not spending beyond your means, paying cash for cars and etc not what specific method or money organising you use to keep you on track because lots of methods will work. We like simple especially because a lot of the money tracking apps don’t work with banks in Australia where we are based so previously did everything manually which was extremely time consuming and frustrating. Now all I care about is the balance of my 2 spending accounts which i can see instantly on my phone
What are some things you suggest when you're not even bringing in enough money for all of these? I'm a single mom of two living on my own, it seems ludicrous to be able to do any of this!
Alyssa Robbertze sometimes the only solution is to find a way to get your income up. Are there things you can do on the side? Would it be worth it to go back to school? Could your children’s father help with expenses? Could you pick up extra shifts at the job you’re in now? These are the serious questions you have to start asking yourself if you want to make financial progress and don’t have enough income. My hats off to you. My dad died when I was six and my mom was left to raise six children on her own. It’s NOT easy, but you can do it!❤️
Even if the amounts are very small or less than the recommendation (like you can't afford to save 10% yet) still open the "core" accounts of emergency savings, regular savings, checking and HSA if you qualify. You can use savings for Christmas and big household stuff like washing machine repair. In your case, Dave Ramsey's Zero based budget would probably work best. It's what I use--well, not Dave's. There are lots of zero based budget resources online.
Alyssa Robbertze try an automatic savings attached to your debit card. My mother could never find the money to save so we went to the bank and signed her up for automatic savings of $1.00 per transaction. Every time she uses her debit card, it moves $1.00 to a savings account. You rarely notice that one dollar off the total purchase of things. By the end of the year she was at $600. Not a lot, but alot more that what she thought she could do.
I kinda love this idea. My kids each have an account they can use, an account to save for something "big" and a long-term (mission or college) account. I need to do better about my own accounts. Thanks for your encouragement.
Great ideas guys! especially about establishing separate savings accounts for future projects, etc. We are recovering from a financial disaster much like your previous experience, (new business, one lost income, bad economy, foreclosure). Incredible that you can feed all those little kiddos with 100-per-person-per month.
Ugh... I make 17.65 an hour in nursing... With 370.00 a PAYCHECK just for family health ins, Plus taxes, I have don't make enough money. 7 accounts only work if you can live under the 70% rule.
I'm so glad I found you -just this week. Where have you been all my life?! Really, this is such an issue right now in my marriage and something has got to give. We are going to sit down together and watch the budget bootcamp. Thank you, ya'll are so cute!!!
I am recently hooked on your videos and still binging them. Do you have a version of this strategy for single people? It's just me and my fur-babies at the moment! :) I'd love to hear your thoughts or suggestions for those without spouses or children.
I live in northern Alberta, Canada and groceries are crazy priced pretty much all over Canada. In my household there is my husband, me and two dogs and with groceries, household cleaning, laundry’s, toilet paper shampoo all that stuff is personally $600-700 a month!! I have been looking into how to cut and save but it’s so hard when living in my location is so so so highhhh...
Hey Jordan! Been watching your channel for about 4 months now. I'm 18 years old and am I part time college student. I live at home still to help out with my mom and her health problems. My dad works a sales job, and is gone most days of the week. Both my parents tried the Dave Ramsey plan 10 years or so ago, and have had good credit for about 3 years. But with a recent move and two mortgages for around 6 months, we were able to pay off both cars and a dishwasher. Woohoo! But we recently found out that our credit is in a bad place again, due to medical bills, and some late fees on everyday bills. It's really hard for my mom to keep up with the date bills are due. We have been trying to not eat out as much and cook at home, but between my mom not being able to eat consistently, and my dads gluten free allergy, I'm at a loss of what to do differently. I don't have a lot of time to spend cooking, and get frustrated when it goes to waste. We have a big freezer in our garage and have been storing food for around 20+ years. But it's hard to keep up with the food in the freezer before it gets freezer burned. I have been trying to pick up slack on what needs done but am wondering if you have any suggestions for me? Btw have loved hearing from you and your family, and have gleaned some ideas for my future as well.
One good suggestion I can make is, credit is not important. As long as you can pay cash by saving for a raining day, credit should not apply. Too, with a freezer, try to always keep food rotated so that it want get freezer burnt. Believe me, I've had that same problem & food isn't cheap so, I have to stay on top of it.
Well my dads job requires a lot of driving, which means somewhat new cars about every year and half. We also have to refinance our home so I understand cash vs credit... i myself use that plan. But with an inconsistent income, we can not balance enough to just pay cash on everything. And we need good credit to refinance. It's a good thought but just not doable here. I understand rotating food but again, my mom can't always eat what we have. And it's too expensive for all of us to eat gluten free. So my dad can't eat a lot of the food. And I can't eat all of the leftovers we have. Thx for the thought though!
I have one regular account debit/savings and that's plenty.I know exactly what's in which and aside from writing everything I also use a budgeting app. I used to have 4 accounts all costing me money every month which made no sense to me, at least in Canada they're not free, unless you keep like $1500 in savings at all times..I am not a fan of credit unions, I have a very good standing with that one bank I use and even if they offered me a bunch of additional free accounts that would really be unnecessary. Maybe it's great for many people but I'm doing just fine with what I have.
I have one savings account, and I track all of the money in excel so I don't have to track more accounts. Easy to transfer money from one "sinking fund" to another. But, on the flip side, we have a bunch of other accounts from before we started budgeting....
I think theres apps nowadays that will help you organize your savings with just one account. I dont live in the US so somethings might be different but In my case I have one checking account (my salary goes there every month) and one savings account (I transfer at the begining of the month 30% of my monthly income). The rest stays in my checking account, since its what i want to spend during the month. My bank app lets me organice that money into categories so I know at all times how much ive sent in supermarkets or in clothes, and therefore I can see if Im spending more than I want to or if I still have budget for that category. I pay all with my debit cart from that account,. And if im able to not spend all the money in the ckecing account at the end of the month i also transfer that to savings. Easy peasy. I think having more accounts will make it more difficult.
What was pretty sweet is after I watched this video, I shared it with my husband (who takes care of alot of the money stuff), and he was like, "we have all 7 already!" haha so its comforting to know that we are on the right track! Thank you!
I realize this video is a year old but may I suggest using a whiteboard when you make youtube videos? It will help those of us that are very visual and help us follow along since there are SO many good things you're sharing. Love your videos!
Great video, I found this explanation of the 7 bank accounts useful even though I have read your blog about it. I feel like your categories of budgeting work better for my family than others I have read about before, I don't feel like we are missing something or depriving ourselves to meet our goals.
