Yipes, We Have a Lot of Accounts!

We have a LOT of bank accounts. Just to give the reader a sense of how many, we’ll break them out by who has which account:

James (6)

Roth IRA
Brokerage
Variable Annuity
Checking – Personal
Checking – Business
DRIP Account
DRIP Account

Miel (6)

Washington Mutual – Personal
Washington Mutual – Business
Variable Annuity
ING Account – Personal Savings
PNC – 2 Business Accounts that are not being used

Jointly (8)

Brokerage
DRIP Account
DRIP Account
ING Account – Joint Savings (Wedding)
ING Account – Household Spending
ING Account – Household Savings
Washington Mutual (Savings route to ING)
Washington Mutual (Payment of Mortgage & Condo Fee)

Just so you know, we’ve had numerous discussions about how to simplify this system. We are considering closing the PNC accounts that are not being used and consolidating the DRIP accounts with the joint brokerage account. This would eliminate three accounts, which still leaves us with a heafty 17 accounts. Not great, but better.

Despite the plethora of accounts, we still find some advantages to saving money in different pots, which allows us to keep track of what we are saving for. We also both prefer to maintain seperate personal and business accounts. While we are very transparent about financial issues, we still both adhere to the model of having some autonomy in our spending.

– Hoping your life is much simpler.

James&Miel