Savings for the Unexpected
Be prepared for any and all of it with these savings strategies:
Choose your goals and make a plan
For emergency funds, most financial experts recommend saving enough to cover at least three months of your normal living expenses. If you’re saving for a trip, a house, or another major event, decide how much you’ll need for a down payment or to cover the purchase (and when you need the money by). Then, use our savings calculator to figure out how much you’ll need to save each month to reach each of your goals.
Open different accounts for different goals
Even if you have a savings account already, it may make sense to open another one (or two), especially if one is intended to be your emergency fund. That way, you’ll avoid mixing your savings or losing track of your progress toward each individual goal. Give your accounts nicknames (see how here) to make it easy to keep track of which account is dedicated to which goal.
Set up automatic transfers
Once your accounts are set up and you’ve calculated how to reach each goal, set up automatic transfers from your checking account into each savings account. You won’t have to keep track of how much you need to contribute each month—and you can reach your goals without any extra effort.Watch our demo for how to set up automatic transfers here.
Don’t dip into your savings
As you work toward your savings goals, avoid pulling money from the accounts if at all possible. Saving consistently, without touching it, will make it possible to reach your goals when you expect to. And you’ll start to benefit from compound interest.One way to keep yourself from pulling from savings too early is to hide your account from view within online banking. If you’ve set up automatic transfers to reach your goal, you won’t need to access your savings account to transfer money—and you can keep your eyes off the total until you need it.
Watch this demo to see how to hide and unhide your accounts.
