# Account Structure?



## captainjamie (Apr 3, 2009)

I'm curious how people set up their account structures? For me, I put all my income into my TD chequing account initially. At the end of each month after I've paid all my bills I leave myself a buffer and put the rest into an ING direct account (TFSA until maxed, then their normal account). Finally I've got an RRSP account that pulls money automatically from my chequing account every time I get paid.

How do you structure your accounts?


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## DAvid (Apr 3, 2009)

Chequing account as transaction account. This has $1000 overdraft.

All bills paid from chequing account. Excess transferred to high interest account at same institution until needed; then, if large sum payment is to occur, automatically transferred back to chequing as needed.

Mortgage payment on payday, other regular bills paid electronically on the day before they are due. (I set the payment up as the bill arrives, and don't have to worry about being on time). I usually keep 2 weeks of bills in the chequing account.

DAvid


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## Patricia (Apr 3, 2009)

Chequing account is a transaction account. All bills paid from chequing account. All pension and income to chequing account. First of month pay myself first to high interest savings account. Additional income to high interest account as it is deposited. Remainder to pay bills. End of the month surplus to high interest account.( That's of course if there is any).


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## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

captainjamie said:


> I'm curious how people set up their account structures? For me, I put all my income into my TD chequing account initially. At the end of each month after I've paid all my bills I leave myself a buffer and put the rest into an ING direct account (TFSA until maxed, then their normal account). Finally I've got an RRSP account that pulls money automatically from my chequing account every time I get paid.
> 
> How do you structure your accounts?


All of my income goes into one account, bills are paid (including automatic savings, rrsp contributions), any excess go into PC savings accounts until I figure out a better use for it.


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## moneygardener (Apr 3, 2009)

We have ONE bank account (chequing). Any saved money gets transferred to cash inside a brokerage account. It might sit there for a few months tops before it is invested in dividend paying stocks.


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## seven3 (Apr 4, 2009)

We each have our own chequing and savings accounts with PCF. Paycheque goes into the chequing, bills paid, leftover goes to the high-rate savings.

Ideally, we'd consolidate into one chq and one savings, but we can't be bothered to go change everything now. There's also some small tax benefits, as our incomes are different, so all the bills are paid from the high income individual and more $ is saved by the lower income person.


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## Agape (Apr 3, 2009)

Chequing account pays all bills and accepts incoming paychecks. 

A static sum of money is continually held in the chequing account, and all incoming money above that static sum then gets placed into the high interest savings account at the same institution. If static sum, falls below the specified amount due to debit card usage, or withdrawal, it is topped up.

Two days before bill payments are due, the money for the bill is transferred from savings into the chequing. 

All bill payments are made online the day before they are due. Additionally I have tried to make as many bill payments, such as phone, by automatic credit card payments (basically delay payments for a month). All transfers are setup as the bills or paycheck comes in.

Once a large amount of money has accumulated in the high interest savings account, this is then transferred to another institutions rrsp savings account which boasts a even higher savings rate. The intention is to max out our rrsp for the homebuyers plan.


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## MTNG (Apr 3, 2009)

Chequing 1 - Paychecks in, bills out. On the 1st of the month, this account carries enough for a month's bills plus several hundred extra. At the end of the month, any extra money is transferred to the contingency account. If for some reason the account is low (eg. larger than expected bill), it is topped up from the contingency account.

Chequing 2 - Spending account. Money not reserved for bills is transferred to this account each payday for spending/distribution to contingency or other long term accounts.

Savings 1 - Contingency account. High Interest. This is the emergency fund.

Other Long Term Accounts - RSP's, TFSA, and individual trading accounts


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## CJB (Apr 4, 2009)

Great blogs and forum by the way. I've always wanted to comment or start my own blog but I think I can contribute more in a forum like this. As for the account structure, mine looks like this:

$ Paycheque $ 
\/
Chequing > Payments to credit cards, cash withdrawals etc.
\/ 
> ING (sub accounts-Car, Vacation, Retirement..)
> TD SDRRSP
> High Yield TFSA Savings (PC Financial)
> TD TFSA trading account
> TD Trading account

1. Paychque is DD into my chequing.
2. Auto-transfer to ING sub accounts once per month.
3. Manual transfer of funds into SDRRSP when funds in the ING "Retirement" sub account reach an amount where I can purchase a stock position.
4. Manual transfer to TFSA savings/trading accounts (maxed ATM)

A Few Points:

I am single, mid twenties. This gives me flexibility that others may not have. The reason I am trying to put some structure in place is so when real life begins, I'm not thrown (entirely) off track.

I keep enough funds in the Chequing to cover 1 month's worth of expenses, which also covers the amount needed to qualify for 'no account fees' from my bank. This is also a mini emergency fund with easy access, the rest of which is held in ING.

Any money moving in or out has to go through my chequing account. This makes it easy to track what funds have left my hands. I also hold 2 credit cards, one with points that I charge EVERYTHING to (anywhere they take the card, bills etc) and another used as a backup or for online purchases.

I use software called You Need A Budget (YNAB) to track everything so I know exactly what every dollar is doing at any point in time.


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## hipfan (Apr 7, 2009)

My first post on CMF!

Here's what the Wife and I do...
Consider:
- Husband earns significantly more than Wife
- Wife has indexed pension => little RSP room
- All the non-registered accounts are joint
- Husband pays all the bills
- This setup allows Wife to invest her entire take-home pay, and since her tax rate is much lower, we save overall. 
- The separate deposit accounts allow easy tracking that wife's investments came from her earnings (in case RevCan comes calling).
- The accounts are filled in the order listed


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## FrugalTrader (Oct 13, 2008)

Great post Hipfan! Did you use edraw to create that diagram?


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## hipfan (Apr 7, 2009)

FrugalTrader said:


> Great post Hipfan! Did you use edraw to create that diagram?


I used an older version of Microsoft Visio...


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## Ben (Apr 3, 2009)

1. All accounts at PC Financial. Most accounts are joint. We also each have a small chequing account that siphons off a small amount each month for no-questions-asked discretionary spending.
2. All cash inflows and outflows happen from one joint chequing account, kept at $1000 +/-.
3. $300/month siphons into a savings account for a car purchase we will inevitably have to make one day.
4. Another savings account holds the bulk of our cash - call it the sleep at night money. When it grows above a certain level (and that level varies depending on the state of the economy), the excess is skimmed off to better use in mortgage prepayment, RRSP investment, or TFSA's.
5. We each have "high"-interest TFSA's.
6. One LOC (unsecured), untouched except for the odd occasion when the chequing account needs some float for a day for an unusually large transaction I may have forgotten about. Transfers from savings take one day to clear, but LOC transfers are immediate. 
7. RRSP contributions for both deducted at source by employers.
8. We both have a PCF MC. I also have a Visa, which I keep mostly for the fact that it operates on Plus & Interac networks for overseas cash withdrawals. PCF cards are on the Cirrus network, so by having both we're covered. It's come in useful.


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## maniac (Apr 3, 2009)

I have 4 bank accounts and 3 credit cards as well as two LOCs :

1) Primary bank is PCF
2) All bills save Hydro paid with citi enrich platinum card which is 1% cashback reward card. Soon to be dumped once mortgage is up for renewal in favour of MBNA cash back card. The citi replaced my pcf mastercard as primary card. 
3) Account with TD is just for my RRSP and mortgage withdrawals. 
4) BMO account is just for the medallion stamp for trading share certificates with people.
5) citizens bank account is for traveling since they have free foreign atm transactions.


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

All income (after RPP's) goes to line of credit account, which is always kept slightly overpaid. The LOC pays all bills (no fees, unlimited transactions, 'big bank' benefits). 

What is left goes to HELOC, where I have part of my mortgage broken out to. 

Simple, cheap, and efficient.


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## Rickson9 (Apr 9, 2009)

My wife and I have separate accounts.

I have one credit card. I think my wife has a few. Either way, we carry no balances on them.

I have a chequing account for my pay cheques, a trading account (non-registered investments), another trading account (ie. registered/RRSP), ING high interest account (reserve/emergency funds), TFSA account, and pension account.


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## junkyardbottles (Apr 3, 2009)

Early 20s

- TD Chequing account - receives pay stub, pays bills. Every two weeks money is automatically transferred into ING Savings (portion of pay stub). If at the end of the month if I have left over money, I transfer that over to ING as well.
- ING Savings account - gives me a measly 1.85%


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## balexis (Apr 4, 2009)

I have the same as Junkyard (except i'm 27):

-TD checking account where pay is deposited and day to day business takes place
-Left overs are manually transfered to ING savings account (TFSA already maxed out)
-Duplex mortgage is also with ING.
-3 credit cards: MBNA 1% cash back, Visa gold (used when Mastercard is not available) and Amex for Costco purchases (some cashback % based on annual spendings).
My girlfriend and I have no joint accounts, I keep some kind of common expense budget each month and she transfers me her share of the bills.


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## Kalynn12 (Apr 20, 2009)

A little back ground:
Mid 20's and own a condo with my boyfriend. Finished school, working full time with no debt other then mortgage.

1. Checking account- all deposits and bill paying (convinced the bank to drop the monthly fee so I keep minimal money in here and transfer in as needed). RRSP contribution comes out on payday from this account.
2. Main high interest e savings account - transfer all paychecks into here right away to take advantage of higher interest rates and transfer back as needed. At the end of the month anything extra (over my $1,000 cushion) goes into my TFSA or RRSPs.
3. Second high interest e savings account - I have a casual part time job and all income from it goes into this account. This is my "self reward" account, at the moment I am saving for a new computer.
4. TFSA, RRSP, and Non-registered investment accounts.
5. 1 CC which I put everything on and I pay off every month to earn the points.

Transfer a preset amount to our joint account on the first of the month to cover our mortgage, condo fees, utilities, groceries and other couple or house expenses (anything above a certain cushion in this account goes to pay down the mortgage) . Everything else we consider "personal" and come from our individual accounts. For the time being (well until we get married) all of our savings, TFSA's and RRSP's have been kept separate.

I also use a budgeting software to track my personal budget and keep track of my accounts.


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## Brad911 (Apr 19, 2009)

moneygardener said:


> We have ONE bank account (chequing). Any saved money gets transferred to cash inside a brokerage account. It might sit there for a few months tops before it is invested in dividend paying stocks.


Ditto here. Every pay period I direct a certain amount into my TDW account and that is either used to pay down my LOC (leverage) or to fund new purchases. 

I use a chequing account for all other activities and may my RSP contributions electronically from that on a quarterly basis. I pay for the majority of my purchases with an AMEX Airmiles card and track all my spending.

I do have a high interest savings account with PC Financial that I hold a moderate amount in for short-term purchases (home downpayment & emergency fund) but as a RN my job security is very safe and equity high so an emergency fund is only $1,000 for misc repairs or costs.


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## GregR (Apr 10, 2009)

My pay and baby bonus go into PCFinancial account to pay bills and mortgage.
Any money left pays off LOC debt.....

RRSP is constantly topped off via employer matched contribution each pay:
11% straight off paycheque with 7% employer match and 5% into spousal extra

200% Child tax credit goes into childrens RESP each month.


https://www.networthiq.com/people/GregR


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