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- Saving for separate goals helps you track your progress and manage your money.
- Some savings accounts let you name each goal and divvy up your savings between them.
- You can save for different objectives with
Ally High Yield Savings Account ,Betterment Cash Reserve Account ,Capital One 360 Performance Savings™ ,Navy Federal Credit Union Share Savings Account ,Sallie Mae SmartyPig Account , andWealthfront Cash Account . - See Insider’s list of the top high-yield savings accounts »
Saving for different expenses can make it easier to manage your money than keeping all your savings in the same place. There are several savings accounts that let you save for separate goals and name each of them, like “Emergency Savings” or “Car Fund.”
With most of the banks on this list, you only have to open one savings account. Then you can name individual goals within the account. (Ally calls these “savings buckets,” which is a useful metaphor.)
Take a look at these savings accounts and consider which one is the best fit.
6 banks that make it easy to save for different goals
1. Ally High Yield Savings Account
2. Betterment Cash Reserve Account
3. Capital One 360 Performance Savings™
4. Navy Federal Credit Union Share Savings Account
Note: This is the only account on our list that doesn’t let you set up separate goals in one account. You’ll have to create multiple savings accounts and name each one. But because Navy Federal doesn’t charge monthly service fees, there isn’t really a downside to doing it this way.
5. Sallie Mae SmartyPig Account
6. Wealthfront Cash Account
How many savings accounts should I have?
There’s no right or wrong answer. It depends on how many purchases you want to save for.
Keep in mind, the
Here are some savings goals you could work toward with these accounts:
- Emergency fund
- Travel
- Down payment on a house
- Buying a car
- A semester’s tuition
- Pet expenses
- Wedding
- Any purchase you think is worth saving for
Benefits of saving for separate goals
So, why not just keep all your savings in one account and withdraw money when you need it? You can do this, but there are some perks to having separate pots for each savings goal:
- Easily track your progress. With one savings account, you may see that you have $15,000 in savings. But with separate goals, you can see that you have $10,000 in an emergency fund, $3,000 saved for a car, and $1,000 set aside for that big trip next month. If you need $5,000 to buy a car and $1,500 for the trip, you now have a better understanding of how much more you need to save.
- Save more. Once you have a better idea of how close you are to reaching each savings goal, you may feel motivated to save more so you can reach a certain dollar amount. Transfer some money from checking, or set recurring automatic transfers to go toward goals.
- Reduce temptation. Keeping all your savings in the same place makes it easy to misspend money. For example, maybe you were planning to use your savings both to buy a car and go on a big trip next month. You go on vacation, but when you return, you realize you don’t have enough money left over to buy the car. Setting separate goals can help you remember not to touch the money you want to put toward the car.
All of these savings accounts are useful tools for saving for different goals. Take a look at their other features – interest rates, minimum opening deposits, options for depositing money – to decide which one is right for you.
About the author
Laura Grace Tarpley is an editor at Personal Finance Insider, covering bank reviews and guides. She is also a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF). Over her five years of covering personal finance, she has written extensively about ways to save.
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