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Started years ago but paying a bit more attention to it the past couple years.

As I get raises and my mortgage goes down, I started increasing what I transfer weekly to my savings.

Even $50 weekly was nice after a few months.
Could always transfer back if needed, but a great fall-back.

Just like paying a small bill off, didn't notice the debit much, but when I compare the savings every few months it jumps out how
relatively quickly it adds up.

I pay more attention to my checking account for some mental reason, but this way I can pay off cc's completely every so often from my savings account without debiting my checking account.
Or pay off unexpected bills.

Transfer enough and you're looking at a vacation per year.

Just bumped mine another $25 per month.

That alone will add up well for Christmas or birthdays.

Used to do that long time ago... Now I just let money sit in my checking, and move in bigger chunks sporadically if there is leftover. I don't see the benefit and appeal to the "savings" account anymore, with their 0.01% interest rate, just a nuisance at the end of the year when I have to find and declare the $3 interest to uncle Sam.

Making automatic regular payments into various investments is a great way to save and invest. When I was younger I did what you're doing. I had 3 mutual funds that I was putting $25 into each of them each month. The transfers were automatic and I never really thought about them that much. As I got older I raised it to $50 each, then $100 each. Now, 30 years later I'm rather proud of myself.

I also take full advantage of my bank's bill payment app (on PC, not phone). The versatility of the app is quite nice. I can be alerted when a new bill comes in, set alert dates and times and get confirmations when a payment was made. All I need to do is check my checking account about once a week to ensure there's enough in there to cover the upcoming bills and we're good to go.

Most of my investment accounts are tied to my bank so making payments into them is basically painless.

Philip wrote:Used to do that long time ago... Now I just let money sit in my checking, and move in bigger chunks sporadically if there is leftover. I don't see the benefit and appeal to the "savings" account anymore, with their 0.01% interest rate, just a nuisance at the end of the year when I have to find and declare the $3 interest to uncle Sam.

For me it's not the difference in interest (which is pitiful in either case) at all.

It's the automatic transfer.
If it happens in the background I know it's there but don't pay much attention to it.
Since I pay more attention to my checking balance and don't even notice the transfers much, it builds up.

Then when I need some extra cash I check savings and...there you go.

Philip wrote:Used to do that long time ago... Now I just let money sit in my checking, and move in bigger chunks sporadically.

Me too.

Yeah, but "bigger chunks sporadically", ahem, can be done behind the scenes.

You see extra in the checking account, you shift it to savings, great. But it already shifted x amount all by itself if you automate it.

That's what I like.

Not making or losing anything, just moving it.

I got into this quite a bit. Depositing into my TSP (government retirement) is fine and all, but it's nice to have a small cushion account that gets a couple percent of my salary per check. It's not huge, but it's nice to have just in case.

Paft wrote:it's nice to have just in case.

Yep!

Heavy bill month, same time as mortgage due.

Shift from the cushion

Paft wrote:Depositing into my TSP (government retirement).

It sure worked for me. Good man!

Humboldt wrote:Yep!

Heavy bill month, same time as mortgage due.

Shift from the cushion

That's exactly it. Just having that ability to handle what life throws at you.

MadDoctor wrote:It sure worked for me. Good man!

Glad it worked for you! It's just a good pot to save in, though the recent changes are less great, but still. They kept the core and lifecycle funds, so I'm good with it!