Is there such thing as too many bank accounts?

[mom-from-missouri]

Hubby and I are wondering if we have "too many" bank accounts.

1. His (and mine joint)checking and savings

2. mine (and his joint)checking and savings

3. daughter 3 savings for her social security (by ss law has to have her own account)

4. daughter 4 savings for her social security (by ss law has to have her own account)

5. daughter 5 savings for her social security (by ss law has to have her own account)
husband and I are on the 3 daughters accounts

6. Then, we have another joint checking account for the girls ss where I put the amount of their checks each month that I keep--its for items I buy them that require me to write a check. Since the ss says I have to have a paper trail if audited, I thought this was the best way. Only there money goes into this account and all monies in this account pay for their support.

7. Credit union did away with Christmas Club accounts, but we still have an account we treat as a Christmas club one and end of year tax fund.

8. Money market checking account

9. 2 more savings accounts that are linked to CD's that are leftover from when his first wife was still living

10. Savings account I had before we got married.

11. Savings account he had before we got married.

12.-14. 3 savings accounts the girls have at their deceased fathers former credit union. these accounts have a free life insurance policy tied to them. This is also where memorial money given to the girls when their dad died was deposited, for their education funds. I was told these funds needed to be kept seperate.

15.-18. savings account for each girl and mine from the credit union where I worked for 20+ years. These accounts have a free life insurance policy tied to them.

I am wanting to open another savings account to deposit money into from an annunity payment that I start getting this month, until I decide what to do with that money (IRA's are already funded for this year). It may turn into a vacation fund, new kitchen counter tops, or a tax fund for rental property or I may find some stock or investment for it--I just don't know yet...

The above accounts are split between 5 banks. I was raised that you don't put it all into the same bank. All have at least $500 or more in them.

Husband thinks maybe too many accounts?? Yet, they each have a purpose, and 9 of them are the girls accounts (which they each have dubbed education account, house accounts and savings accounts).

[ktmarvels]

I don't know if there is such thing as "too many", however I would have a very difficult time keeping track of so many accounts! DH and I have joint checking and savings at bank 1 (where we do most of our day-to-day stuff and technically have 2 savings accounts at an online bank for savings. In reality DH's saving account is "open" and "mine" has all our money.

In our one savings account I have a spreadsheet which divides that pot of money into sub accounts. I guess this can be done automatically with ING, but I've never gone through the trouble to do it. So my spreadsheet has "house fund," "vacation fund," "car fund", etc and dollar amounts adding up to the total.

If juggling that many accounts is getting difficult you could do something similar with your some of your misc accounts you have listed like Christmas account, CD's from the first wife, the new annuity, savings accounts from before you were married. But if you can handle it, I don't see any reason why you would need to change.

[kv968]

The above accounts are split between 5 banks. I was raised that you don't put it all into the same bank. All have at least $500 or more in them.

Husband thinks maybe too many accounts?? Yet, they each have a purpose, and 9 of them are the girls accounts (which they each have dubbed education account, house accounts and savings accounts).

18 ACCOUNTS! Yeah, I'd say that's a bit much. I understand your thinking behind each individual one since they all seem to serve a certain purpose. However I think it'd be easier to combine some of the accounts (e.g. each daughter's) into one and in a spreadsheet or something designate what amount of money in each is earmarked for education, house, etc...

It's like you have an "envelope system" of sorts but each "envelope" is a different account. It just seems to me like it would be too much of a hassle to juggle all those accounts.

And as far as putting all you money in one bank, that really shouldn't be a concern. As long as the bank is covered by the FDIC (which I'm sure they are), you're covered up to $250k per person so there's really no worry of losing your money should something go wrong.

[jpg7n16]

I am wanting to open another savings account to deposit money into from an annunity payment that I start getting this month, until I decide what to do with that money (IRA's are already funded for this year). It may turn into a vacation fund, new kitchen counter tops, or a tax fund for rental property or I may find some stock or investment for it--I just don't know yet...

IRAs funded - check. 401k maxed?

If not, use the funds to supplement income while maxing the 401k. 401k has tax deduction, annuity doesn't. Well before even that, you should figure out your goal for the money. 401k's and annuities have tax consequences for early withdrawal. So if you need the money in 5 years, and you won't be over 59 1/2, that means tax plus penalty (yes, on the annuity too).

I'd also search around for a low fee annuity. Some banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, etc have pretty high ongoing fees. Others don't.

https://www.fidelity.com/annuities/?bar=p

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/annuities

The above accounts are split between 5 banks. I was raised that you don't put it all into the same bank. All have at least $500 or more in them.

Husband thinks maybe too many accounts?? Yet, they each have a purpose, and 9 of them are the girls accounts (which they each have dubbed education account, house accounts and savings accounts).

And why were you raised to not have everything in one bank?? Thinking logically about it, would you rather check on your money in 1 place or two? I have everything in 1 account, let alone 1 bank. My EF, checking funds, everything. 1 account. My "savings" accounts is my brokerage account.


Well sure they each have a purpose, every account does. But are they duplicating purposes?

Account 7, do you really need a separate account to assign funds to Christmas and taxes? I don't think so. This could be combined.
Account 8, why do you have this one when you already have checking accounts? And if the rate is better here, why do you not combine accounts into it to receive the better rate?
Account 9, his previous wife doesn't matter anymore (no offense intended). You're the spouse, and unless these are CDs with higher rates (you say tied to CDs, but not actually CDs) then the funds can be combined.
Accounts 10 and 11, duplicate accounts 1 and 2.

If there are legal requirements requiring the separate account, then obv that's what you should do but in many cases, they are just duplicating each other.

Consolidation can save you from unnecessary logins, hassle of tracking things down, simplify tax forms, simplify the number of transactions you have to do, etc. For every 2nd and 3rd account you have to do withdrawals from, that's just doubling and tripling the time you're spending on it.

[snafu]

Our banks, credit union and financial institutions are asking that former customers & estates check their records because of the billions of dormant accounts they must process. An American government agency now holds $10 billion that has accrued from dormant accounts. It is estimated that 30 million Americans have lost track of old accounts.

I sure hope there are no fees or bank charges associated with any of your accounts and suggest rather than opening a account for annuity income just re-name an existing account for 'projects.' [there are several ways of tracking income/spending categories in an account either computer or paper as preferred. I wonder if you would you consider consolidating banks,
accounts, and credit unions? How would DH feel about consolidating his before marrying and current checking/saving a/cs? Can daughters expense paying a/c change to the CU that gives them life insurance benefits for example?

I know I couldn't manage and monitor 15 accounts @ $500. x 15 = $7,500. minimum yikes!

[mom-from-missouri]

No fees are associated with any, as they are all various credit unions from husbands work and my former work, and my former union. Our checking is even free.

The social security accounts I can not touch, as SS requires seperate accounts for the direct deposit.

I think we are going to look at these more closely this week. Even though these are joint accounts, his daughters are on "his", and my daughters are on "mine".

Most of the accounts have direct deposits and auto deductions, so I think part of my hesitation is having to change all of that.

[disneysteve]

1. His (and mine joint)checking and savings

2. mine (and his joint)checking and savings

7. Credit union did away with Christmas Club accounts, but we still have an account we treat as a Christmas club one and end of year tax fund.

8. Money market checking account

9. 2 more savings accounts that are linked to CD's that are leftover from when his first wife was still living

10. Savings account I had before we got married.

11. Savings account he had before we got married.

15.-18. savings account for each girl and mine from the credit union where I worked for 20+ years. These accounts have a free life insurance policy tied to them.

I am wanting to open another savings account to deposit money into from an annunity payment that I start getting this month, until I decide what to do with that money (IRA's are already funded for this year). It may turn into a vacation fund, new kitchen counter tops, or a tax fund for rental property or I may find some stock or investment for it--I just don't know yet...

I think I'm counting a total of 11 checking and savings accounts for you and your husband, not counting any of the kids' accounts. Is that too many? I'd certainly say it is. Why do you possibly need 2 joint savings accounts, 2 joint checking accounts, a money market account, 2 credit union accounts, 2 other savings accounts "linked" to the CDs (not sure what that means) and an individual savings account for each of you? And with all of that, you are considering open yet another savings account. Why?

I would seriously consider consolidating all of that. Have one joint checking account. Keep the one savings/money market/credit union account that has the best rate and lowest fees associated with it.

As for the kids' accounts, keep the ones that you are required by law to have. Drop the ones you are keeping open just to get free life insurance. Your kids don't need life insurance, free or otherwise. If you really feel strongly that you want them insured, go out and get a dirt cheap insurance policy on each of them to cover funeral expenses, like 10K tops. That should cost you no more than a few dollars per year per child.

[disneysteve]

Even though these are joint accounts, his daughters are on "his", and my daughters are on "mine".

It is generally a bad idea to have joint accounts with your children. All money in those accounts is considered jointly owned no matter who put it in there. If anything happens to one of you, the other one is considered to be inheriting 50% of that account value. There are also liability issues. If you get sued for some reason, the settlement could go after money in those joint accounts and your kids could lose that money because your name is on the accounts.

Keep your funds and their funds separate, or set them up as custodial accounts with you as the custodian. That way the assets belong to them, not you.

[ecoadapt]

I don't know too if there's such a thing as 'too many' account. But honestly though, when I read your post, I was like.. woahh,just too many accounts to track. It would be consuming. Or might be it's just me.

[BudgetSurgeon]

I don't think there is a # that is "too many", UNLESS:

1) You cannot keep track of them (obviously, not the case with you).....

2) There are fees being applied against any of them (perhaps for too low a balance). If that
is the case, I would yank the money out of there immediately;

3) If you cannot access the account online, you may want to consider closing the account, since
your visibility to it is limited. Of course, if you get a regular paper statement from such
a bank, then you may want to reconsider on this;

I have more than 20 accounts split between savings, 401K, and other assorted investments. I keep accurate track of them (as you do), and have access to all account online. It works fine for me.

[bjl584]

I used to have 4 and it was too much of a hassle to keep track of everything. I cut down to 2. I have a primary checking and savings at my bank, and I have a MM account at my brokerage firm.

Years ago, I had all those accounts because I was chasing interest rates. But, today there really is no point to doing that. It was worth it when I was getting between 5 and 6% on my money.

[woodie96]

Like others, as I was reading, I was like holy cow, what a pain to keep track of.
You seem to be doing a great job of it I must admit.
However, I agree with DisneySteve...
I would look to consolidate down to just three or four for you and your husband.
I realize that there may be some sentimental value to keeping some of the older accounts you had with your previous spouse. With that said, it would sure ease a lot of burden from you both to not have so many to track and monitor.
JMHO