I initiated a new recurring bank account transfer from my Wachovia checking account (my basic operating account) to my ING Direct savings account. As I can’t schedule a daily recurring transfer of $5, I added a weekly $35 transfer. Hopefully this will force me to tighten up my spending a little bit and provide me with a little more savings.
I also need to resume saving 10% of my “day job” paycheck and earmark that amount for emergency savings. In fact, I should start doing the same for all other income I earn. So far, my “extra income” is all deposited into another “subaccount” at ING Direct. I rarely touch it, saving as much as possible to reinvest into the projects that generate the income. Perhaps I should start “paying myself” from this income.
Updated February 6, 2012 and originally published May 30, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a little surprised that you maintain a “best banking rates” page, yet choose to use the bank with the worst rate. ING has the easiest-to-use website (HSBC and Virtual Bank are particularly painful), but their rates are consistently about a half point less than the others.
That half point of lost interest won’t make a huge difference for most people, but not choosing the higher rate seems like throwing away easy free money.
That’s a good observation. I have savings at ING Direct and Emigrant Direct, and when I opened each account, it was when that particular bank had the highest rate. It’s not a lot of cash, so the quarter point interest I might gain by jumping around whenever one bank leapfrogs anouther is not worth it to me.
If a different bank is a clear winner after another six months, I might consider changing, or at least depositing new funds there. I don’t want to keep too much money in these types of accounts because they barely keep up with inflation after taxes.