Organise your accounts | Financial wellbeing (2024)

In this article

Does all your money come into and go out of one account? Or do you have a few accounts you use for different things?

If you have a few accounts, think about how you use them. Do they have specific purposes? How is your money split between them?

Think of one expense you know you’ll need money for soon, or on a regular basis, e.g. rent or your power bill.

Work out how much money you’ll need and how long you have before you need to pay it. Divide the amount you need by the number of paydays until you need it. Then, each payday, consider putting that amount into your account.

If you have just one account, perhaps think about whether opening another one for a specific need or upcoming expense might work for you. Opening a new account can be easily done in your mobile banking app or internet banking.

If you have a few accounts with no clear purpose, try thinking about what they could be used for.

Have some fun with your accounts by giving them a nickname that remind you what that money is set aside for.

Most banks allow you to give accounts nicknames in your banking app or internet banking. For your ANZ accounts, you can add or change an account nickname in ANZ goMoney or ANZ Internet Banking in Settings.

The popular 50-30-20 budget—sets up the concept of splitting your income into three buckets:

• Needs (usually the biggest bucket)
• Wants
• Goals.

How much you put into each bucket will depend on how you break down your spending. Our budget calculator can help you work this out, and create a budget that may work for you.

Budget calculator

You might find a split of 80-15-5, 70-20-10 or something else works better for your budget. What’s important is:

• Finding a split that works for you
• Getting into the habit of moving your money into your buckets the moment your pay enters your account.

These are necessary costs for you to live, like a roof over your head, food, electricity, transport, credit card and loan repayments… basically, anything that must be paid.

Look at how much your needs cost each fortnight or month. You can then work out how much of your pay goes towards your needs. This percentage can be a good guide for the bucket split you choose.

This bucket looks different to everybody. It’s the money you set aside to help future you.

Common examples include:

• Saving an emergency cash cushion
• Saving for something specific, like a holiday, car, or special event
• If you’re in debt, extra repayments to pay it off faster
• Growing your long-term savings, e.g. KiwiSaver or saving for a new home.

Within each of your buckets, having different accounts for different types of expenses could be useful when it comes to managing your money. Your budget can tell you how much to put into each account every payday, and you can see at a glance how much you have.

This works for savings too. Having accounts for different types of savings, e.g. short-term and longer-term, means you can easily see how close you are to your savings goals.

While there’s no real limit to the number of bank accounts you can have, it pays to think about what kind of account would suit – everyday or savings. Everyday accounts tend to allow you to access your money more easily. With a savings account you earn interest on your money, but there may be criteria you need to meet first or restrictions on how you access your money.

When choosing accounts, keep in mind details like fees, minimum monthly deposits, and restrictions or fees for withdrawals.

It may be helpful to start with one everyday account for your needs, and one savings account for your wants or goals.

Once you’re comfortable managing several accounts, you might split your wants or goals into different categories. Here’s an example of how that could work:

• An everyday account for needs, like rent or home loan repayments, groceries and bills
• An everyday account with a debit card for daily spending and wants like going to the movies
• A savings account for your emergency fund
• A savings account for a specific goal, like concert tickets, a new TV or a holiday.

How you organise yours might be completely different. Remember, you’re in control, so do what suits you and your situation.

To make sure your bills and debt repayments come out on their due dates, you could try direct debits and automatic payments.

For bills that could be different each time, see if the business offers direct debit as a payment option. Direct debits allow for the amount due to be taken directly from your account.

For set amounts on set days, you could set up automatic payments.