What's the best way to save for multiple savings goals at the same time?
I'd like to start multiple "fake" accounts so that I can instantly mark money as reserved for a future expense. So if my "house maintenance" account has enough money in it, I can start my next home repair project. Or if my "entertainment" account has enough, I can go out and buy that shiny new road bike.
In other words, I'd like to treat my savings account as multiple accounts. Then each account would receive a certain percentage each month.
It's sort of like a pro-active budget, but I need a way of saying I have $x set aside for goal y at any point in time. Most budgets (that I've seen) only tell you there are $x remaining this month/year for goal y.
I'd like to a number of categories, so I don't think opening a new savings account for each would be very practical.
Any ideas? What are you all doing for things like this? Do any banks offer something like this? Any software?
Try opening a savings account in ingdirect.com. You can have multiple 'sub' accounts and name them for the specific projects/expenses. You can also set up automatic deposit to each of your accounts. It has worked extremely well for me.