How Multiple Bank Accounts Make Budgeting Easier | 522

0:00Do you dread logging into your bank account and looking at that one account and trying to figure out what's going on. Do you? Do you? I mean, I did. I remember being in that moment where it was an endless black hole of transactions and you had no idea what was going where for what and how and when. And then you didn't know how you could spend your money because nothing was clear or organized, right? Yeah, Vanessa, we did a research study that we're going to publish everything here soon, but we are not alone. There are, I think it was like two thirds of people that just don't even log in. They just totally avoid it because, you know, if you don't look at it, Vanessa, it's probably not happening.

0:35It's not a problem. It's not there because you see it. It's like the toddler version of the temper tantrum when you stick your fingers in your ear and you're like, la, la, la. Like that is exactly, this is the adult financial version of that. Yeah. Or the monkeys, right? See no evil, hear no evil. Like I'm just not, even if it's bad, if I don't see it or hear it, then it's fine. But I feel like the result of that is you just swipe a credit card, right? So the do no evil part is no, we're going to do, we're going to swipe. Yeah, but then we actually do do the evil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whoopsies. So yeah, so today we want to tell you the answer to that, like the answer to that dread, the answer, the very simple way to not have to avoid it and to not dread looking at your bank accounts.

1:17Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free, but you don't want to live on beans and rice? Or you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes? Hey, it's okay if you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. Hey, it's okay if you want to seem like you have your finances all together, or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what?

1:45You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know, plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation.

2:17We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. It's such a simple hack, such a simple fix that people don't think about. It's one of those things they don't know they need until they know they need it, right? And then once they implement having multiple bank accounts, you can't imagine. You can't imagine doing your finances without it.

2:51Yeah, absolutely. And so let's start with the problem. The problem is you have one big, bulky cluttery bank account that is like a black hole venison it's like it's like just a black hole of of sadness yeah and you know it's you're you don't want to look at it like we just talked about because it's really hard to figure out what's going on in there you have bills coming out you have checks still pending maybe i even just had an annual session with a person today who said i have a pending account that then that's where my checks are are coming out of so anything that's pending, I pull, right? And I have that money sitting there because it freaks her out knowing that things are just waiting to be drafted.

3:31It freaks me out too. I hate checks. Can we all agree to like get rid of them together? Can we like just all throw them in the bonfire together? No, I agree. I, I, that can be a problem. So I, I think, you know, the other thing that I think about when, when we start with people or when, what, what are people who are, haven't done this yet, what they're, what they're looking at is like endless scrolling to like go through four page scrolling to figure out what's actually been going on in your account because you have bills like you said Vanessa you have bills coming in you have income coming in or bills going out income coming in maybe somebody transferred you to money and then you went to the grocery store and then you got coffee and then the kids did this and then there's also the don't forget now we've got the cell phone bill and then oh I made that purchase on Amazon don't forget about that there's so much going on in that one account like no wonder you don't want I don't look at that that sounds crazy no absolutely not and so that's why today we're going to tell you the magic answer to all this of taming the chaos in that one account.

4:23We don't want to deal with that. We don't want, we just want more peace for you. And we want the freedom for you to be able to spend freely. And you can't do that when you don't know what's happening with your money. So the solution is to separate, to simplify. Like that is what we've come up with, Vanessa. We've been doing this for, you know, a little bit. We're not gonna date ourselves and say that we're not old. We're very young, but we've been doing this for a minute. And this is what we, you know, have found over and over and over. the easiest thing for you to do is separate it. It's kind of like in your house, you know, where you have your drawer for your underwear, you have your drawer for your pajamas, like whatever.

5:01It's all separated and you know exactly where it's all gonna go. Or when you need to go get one of those things, you know which drawer to go in. That's what we're talking about today. Separate your money to simplify it. And maybe this is the first time you've heard of having multiple bank accounts. So we talk about you're not 18 anymore, right? Remember when you guys were young and you went and you were so excited, you drove to the bank with your first paycheck and you went to open that bank account. And they say, well, you have to have it one checking and one savings, right? And so, and that's what you did.

5:28And then you grew up and you still had one checking account and one savings account. Well, what we're trying to tell you guys is that that no longer has to be the case. You can have more than one checking account, more than one savings account, and it's to your benefit because like Shayna said, you're separating to simplify your finances this way. Yeah. I think it's really important just to dive a little deeper, Vanessa, is you don't need to use the same system that you used when you're 18. You have way more going on with your money now than you did then. You have a lot of different responsibilities, a lot of different ways that you spend and save and pay other people all of your money, right?

6:03Does it feel like that? So you don't need to use the same system that you had when you were 18. So what we want you to do is have multiple bank accounts, and it's going to work like magic. Well, and remember when you were 18, you maybe paid for Netflix. Okay. Or maybe like in the back of the day, what do we pay for it? Maybe you paid your parents for auto insurance. You just didn't have a lot of bills. You didn't have a lot going on. Now that we're adults, we have so much more going on, so many more bills in that account. So it's really hard to keep track of, like we said, this one account of everything.

6:28So we are, we are going to separate everything. We're having multiple bank accounts under one main account, right? Multiple checking accounts to be able to make this happen. But when Shane and I were talking the other day, I equated it to beauty and the beast, right? So remember in the movie when the kitchen comes to life and everything just happens and then she wakes up and everything is back to normal right so think about being able to i'm okay wait wait wait we we can't sing it because we'd probably be copyrighted right but i am like dancing in your head be our guest the tea clips and everything just going and working in the background like that's what we want for you we want a whole and like they're not doing anything um bell and the beast are not actually having to do anything they're just enjoying themselves we want that we want a system in a background working for you in multiple accounts.

7:13So that way it's all coming to life. Yeah. The first thing that absolutely blows people's mind, Vanessa, like, okay, we're doing visuals, right? So go ahead and picture the emoji where the mind is like blowing apart right on the top of their head is having a separate account just for your bills. So you're going to have this checking account, your income is going to go in it, whatever, but only your bills are coming out of it. All of your bills are coming out of it. There's nothing else happening in this account. just bills. This is crazy to think about for people, but once you hear it, Vanessa, we hear all the time like, oh, why wasn't I already doing this?

7:44Why didn't I already know this? It seems like an obvious answer to some of my problems, but I never thought, I didn't even know. Like we said before, I thought I could only have one checking account, but no, this is just number one of the multiple checking accounts that you're going to have, friend. I just got off a call with somebody and she is new to using our system, new to setting everything up. And she was basically talking about, I've never heard of this before until I found your podcast. and this has changed my life. Having one account that does nothing else but pay bills. I mean, it's like this huge aha moment, this light bulb that goes off.

8:14It's like, why didn't I think of this? But it's a very simple tweak that could really help you keep your finances under control. And so then we also want you to have separate accounts for spending and savings. And right now we're just kind of trying to paint the vision. You can buy our budget system, come to our bootcamp, come to our masterclass to learn more. That's kind of what we want you to do. but just overall understand that you can have several checking accounts for spending we usually recommend no more you're not going to have any more than four or five so it's not too many but it's going to be a wonderful thing and one of those will be for your gas and groceries and so you know for me vanessa i always say this is like the game changer for me like knowing that my bills were over there being paid but i also had money all month long to buy food for people that want to eat all month long like it's not just one day they're good and no they have to keep eating so i have to keep having money set aside.

9:04Otherwise, what happens? It gets spent. You don't even know how much money you have. They're all very hungry and they're all very active, which means we have to feed them as moms. And I think as a mom, too, knowing that your gas and your groceries, money is separate and you don't have to go trying to figure out how much is in your Venmo balance or your PayPal balance or do you have change in the car? Do you have Amazon returns like GirlMap? How many Amazon returns can equate to buying cereal or whatever? But, you know, it's just you're trying your best every day to make this work. And so what we're trying to do is give you a system to assist you with that and to help you like, look, this account, it's all you have to do is just sit there and buy gas and groceries with it and know that it's gonna last you from paycheck to paycheck.

9:45Yeah, and I think that that's the other key here. And again, you're gonna need to come to our, watch our class or come to our bootcamp, depending on when you're listening to this. If you're listening to this before December 29th, 2025, come to our bootcamp, budgetpesties.com forward slash bootcamp. If it's after, you need to just come watch it the after version. It's going to be wonderful. Budgetbesties.com forward slash start. Okay. All of that to say, we teach you exactly what, and our budget system shows you how to make this happen. But the point, to your point, Vanessa, is I just have to make it to the next.

10:13I have this set aside amount over here. I have to live in this grocery budget until the next payday. And then I get it refunded. And that is such an amazing thing to have, like you said, as a mom. And also I don't have to make any other decisions. I just know I have$500 for two weeks to get through for all my groceries. Fine. Totally can do that. And the next two weeks I'll deal with that$500 then and everybody's good. And that's the mini micro decision I have to make instead of like we talked about when we first came on the thing. Did the rent get paid? Did we pay the pill trip? Is the cell phone bill done?

10:43Like all the things. No, it's just this micro decision set aside, like you said. So it's wonderful. Well, and I think that again, that peace of mind knowing it's going to last every single paycheck, like you know exactly what you have. And the other option here is to separate gas and groceries if you want. You know, The reason why we combine those together is because it's pretty steady. You know you spend about$60 a week. I'm just throwing a number out there on gas. So that can be consistent. So when you go grocery shopping, you already know either you've already deducted that, you're going to deduct that.

11:09And we don't want to put like we don't want to mix that with your personal money. We don't want to mix it with anything else. Those two alone can go together. But if you want, I think Shana does her separate. Mine is together. Yeah. So everybody just does it however, whatever makes sense for them for that one. Another checking account that you can have separate and multiple. Remember, we're talking about the magic of multiple bank accounts here is your personal spending. And by the way, this is non-negotiable. You're going to have his and hers for you and your spouse are each going to have their own personal spending account.

11:37It's like we said, non-negotiable. You can make purchases without feeling any guilt. And that's a really another game changer account as well, Vanessa. All right, Budget Besties, it's time for some Real Talk. You don't need another budget. You need a budget system. Our simplified budget system is what you've been looking for. It's going to allow you to be bougie on a budget. You'll be able to easily set up a system that runs automatically and shows you exactly where your money is going. And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. Yeah. It's straightforward, pretty, and packed with walkthrough videos that break down the exact methods we use with our clients to get out of debt, set up a bills account, separate spending, build savings buckets, and end the paycheck-to-paycheck feel.

12:21If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect way to jump in. And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the upgrade to your finances that you need right now. Yeah. So head on over to budgetbesties.com forward slash budget and grab yours. Now back to today's show. Yeah. You know, when we tell our clients, hey, you have to have a personal spending account. And they're like, oh, really? And I guess because, listen, here's the deal. We want stuff throughout the month. We deserve stuff. We work hard for our money. You should be able to spend it on what you want.

12:55You want to go to lunch with a girlfriend? Sure. You see that hat that you want? Sure. You guys, you see a watch you want? Go buy it. And we want to do that with some type of guardrails. We want to do that knowing that we can do that freely and confidently with our gas and grocery money over here, with our bills money over here, right? And it's not - Right. All protected. Yeah. There's no fighting happening. Right. And it's all protected. And we're going to talk about how this particular, exactly what we're talking about helps with overspending in another live, another podcast. But just know that it does actually help you solve the problem with overspending.

13:29And so there are several different accounts. So today we're just giving you like the overview idea of the magic of multiple accounts, but you can start to see just with these checking accounts with having it separate bills, having separate gas and groceries, having separate for your personal spending, how that can really start. It's like different file folders for each little, or, you know, actually it's like cash envelopes, Vanessa, what people used to use. Now we're just doing the digital version of that. But there are also savings accounts too. Yeah. So we're not just moving in a checking account.

13:57Yeah. So we just talked about the checking account version and how you're going to have different debit cards to be able to spend money freely. Okay. And then now let's talk about savings. Okay. Well, what if you are putting money into one savings account that you're dumping in there, you're, you set it up with HR and you're like, okay, I'm going to put$300 a month in the savings account. But for what purpose? I think, Shana, what we normally see is people are pulling it out within five or six days of the money being put in there because now they need it back in their budget because it didn't have a purpose.

14:26And they were just putting some arbitrary number, right? They were trying to save some arbitrary number and they didn't actually know how much they could save. Yeah. And so, you know, we'll have some tips later, but you're going to name these accounts and it's going to be much harder for you to steal from the, the, your trip that you're taking next summer or your trip that's for annual bills or whatever, you're not going to want to steal that because you know, like, I need that money later, right? Much more so than one generic account that you're just kind of maybe sort of saving money from for, and you don't really know why.

14:54And we have several different accounts that we recommend. It's going to be, I just had a client session and they never had a pet account, Vanessa. We added a pet account because they just got a puppy rescue. So we added pets and we added that. And in this case, you know, they're going to get the pet neutered. They're going to have to get the shots. They're going to have to get the annual visits, all that kind of stuff so we set up a savings account with the dog's name okay cooper by the way super cute name love it here for the cooper oh my uh in my session hers was luna okay so got luna and cooper today this morning they don't they get their own accounts just like just like you when you were 18 just kidding anyway so but there's different savings accounts travel pets christmas annual bills medical kids glam up again in our in our boot camp and in our in our class that we teach we teach you all of this, right?

15:40So that you can get the specifics, but basically again, just like the checking, you're going to have separate accounts for these things. So that it is separate and it's simple, simple for you. Well, and I believe these are the main ones that Shana listed out. So annual bills, non-negotiable guys of annual bill is just as important as a monthly bill. And we need actually making sure that we're saving money aside because when that $3 ,000 auto insurance bill hits, it ain't much fun trying to find three grand in one month versus if you take it and you spread it out. So we have one for annual bills, Christmas, important pets, important.

16:09We know things happen. Travel, it's going to happen. You might as well budget for it, right? Medical. These are things that you know that are going to come up. These are those unexpected expenses that pop up that we want you to be prepared for. So that way, because we know, Shana, they're 100 % expected throughout the year. Yeah. So, yeah. So again, these are just different accounts. We're just explaining to you why it's making your budget life so much simpler. Having multiple bank accounts is way better than having the one checking, one savings to do all of this work. It's going to keep it separate for you.

16:37It's going to keep it organized for you. So you don't have to make any micro decisions and how it works in real life. Like Vanessa's talking about, let's say Christmas, I would, this has been a big one lately is, you know, when you go to buy everything that you just put in your Amazon cart, because it was all listed and you made a great plan and you're really excited about all your gifts that you're getting everybody. Then you transfer that money to your personal spending from your Christmas savings account. Same thing when they go to get their pet's annual visit. They're at the vet office. They transfer that money from their savings account, their savings bucket is what we call it, to their spending in the moment, pay the bill and bada bing, bada bing.

17:13It's all done, bada boom, bada bing, bada boom. It's all done. And so that's how it works in real life. It's not complicated, but it's just keeping it separate for you so that it's simple. And that is the magic of multiple bank accounts. Well, and it allows you to kind of take a step back, be an adult for a minute. It takes like 20 seconds literally to transfer the money, to take a pause before you click, you know, buy now or whatever that button is online. Or even if you're in person to swipe your card, say, how much is that? Let me transfer the money. I know exactly where the money is coming from because I've been saving up for it.

17:44And you can transfer and it doesn't affect your monthly budget because it's been sitting there in a savings bucket waiting for you to spend it. So some best practices. is one of the things that you're talking about there, Vanessa, when you do do that transfer, you can actually put a transfer note in there and just say, you know, Cooper's annual visit or whatever you want to say, or Tahoe tire change, whatever, whatever it is so that you have just a record of it. So that next year, when you go to plan all your savings buckets, you have, you have something to refer to. And so you remember like, cause here's the deal.

18:15When you want to be like, where did all my money go? You can go in that, in that pet account or that travel account and you can see the transfers that you made and you know exactly what you paid for. And instead of this huge overarching one account, again, that you don't know what actually happened, it's very easy to go and find what actually happened with your money. I'll tell you what, when my husband and I sit down and we reevaluate our annual bills, I literally go into the annual bills account and I look at all of my notes, all of my external transfers, and it tells me this was for the auto insurance, this was for property taxes, This was for the Xbox renewal thing or whatever.

18:50And then I can see, okay, what percent do I need to increase my annual bills by this year? Because, you know, they go up every year, right? Every year. It just gives you a very clean, organized way to look at your money by just scrolling and reading your notes. Yeah. And okay, so some other best practices. You can name the account. You should, like we talked about naming it Cooper, right? You should name it something fun so that it's very easy for you to identify. And it kind of makes the process a little bit more fun. Or, Shana, you need to name it something scary, like your build account, so you don't touch it.

19:24My name is no. My name is no, yes. Yeah. And then in our bootcamp, we do teach you exactly how to do all of this. And so does the budget show you the numbers. But you're also going to set up automatic transfers. So all of these things that we're talking about, they'll actually get, eventually they'll be set up. And your bank can set up reoccurring automatic transfers. Yeah, absolutely. And then listen, you can even hide and reorder accounts on your bank app, which is really convenient because like emergency fund or those big annual bills that kind of builds up and you don't want to see the money in there, right?

19:53No see, no touch. So you want to kind of hide those. And then again, we just talked about using those transfer notes. It's really important to just document what's going on. So that way you have a record. And then next year when you go to do something else, you know exactly what you want to do based on your notes from the previous year. Yeah. So we hope that all of this has helped you to see the magic of multiple bank accounts. Vanessa, you know what they should do? They should come watch our Money Makeover Bootcamp. It's kind of the best thing ever. They can come watch it. It's all they have to do, Vanessa, is go to budgetbesties.com forward slash start.

20:25Yes, it is a video. It's on demand. You can watch it anytime and it's going to take you through everything that's really important for you to get your finances organized and ready to go for the new year. If you're tired of feeling like your finances are all over the place and you're ready for a simple set it and forget it way to budget, we have something special for you. Watch our automate your budget masterclass at budgetbesties.com forward slash autonomy. We'll show you step-by-step how to finally organize your money, how to set up your accounts and put your budget on autopilot. So your bills, saving and spending run like clockwork.

21:02Imagine less stress, more savings, and the freedom to spend money without having to track every dollar or babysit your bank account. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.