A Friday Chat About Savings Accounts
Every day is a winding road.
MEGAN: Hi! Happy Friday. We made it through another week.
NICOLE: We still have half the day to go! Something could happen. Not that I want anything to happen, but I’m not calling it on “made it through” yet.
MEGAN: LOL, fair enough. As I’m heading out of town this weekend (yayyayayyay) I have my eye trained firmly on the prize. In the spirit of leaving town and also my first Friday estimate, I re-read your bit on bots all up in your bank account and started briefly reconsidering my relationship with Digit. Is Mint the only app that you use?
Would You Let a Bot Into Your Bank Account?
NICOLE: Financially, I have two apps. My Capital One 360 app tells me how much money I have, and Mint tells me how I’m spending it compared to my budget. But Mint never takes money out of my account. So you’ve been using Digit? Have you liked it?
MEGAN: I only started using Digit because a friend told me she saved $3,000 in a year without even thinking about it. It’s been like…maybe six months? And yeah, for the most part I do like it, only because I don’t have to open my Bank of America app every time I want to check my bank account, which is often and always. It’s nice that the money it sets aside is actually “painless,” but what gives me pause is how easy it is for me to withdraw it. Otherwise, I appreciate its lack of emoji and winky faces when I ask it to put $20 into my checking account for groceries.
NICOLE: Opening my bank’s app is so easy, all I have to do is use my fingerprint. No passwords. Does BofA make you hop through hoops to check your balances?
MEGAN: I can use my fingerprint for BofA but my nails are long because that’s how I like them and, uh, it makes lots of things I do on my phone difficult. That’s on me. But the BofA app works just fine. Maybe what I like about Digit is that I can check my account in a text message. I’m hardly paranoid about anyone peeking into my business, but shielding my info from subway riding looky-loos makes me feel the teensiest bit better.
NICOLE: So I know that when I wrote about Digit over a year ago, I was disappointed that it wasn’t offering interest on your savings. Because bank interest is generally terrible, but no interest is even worse, right? But I’m looking at Digit right now and they say they’re giving Savings Bonuses: every three months, you get 5 cents for every $100 saved. Have you gotten these bonuses?
- Get Interest-free Banking With Digit, a Terrible New Way to Save
- Save money, without thinking about it™ – Digit
MEGAN: Oh my god, what!! I have yet to experience this because I think I use Digit in a way that it’s not intended to be used. I get that it’s a savings account, but I’m treating it basically as a digital change jar as a stopgap for when I know I “need” $50 or whatever to tide me over until a check comes. I’ve convinced myself that that’s “saving,” but it’s not quite. This is an intriguing development! Perhaps I’ll stop shoving my grubby hands into my savings all the time and let it grow. I should open a real savings account, most likely, yeah?
NICOLE: First of all, having a digital change jar is a really smart idea. You’re doing the Envelope System in a virtual envelope! Or the Change Jar System in a virtual change jar. Either way, these are tried-and-true methods of saving money, and it’s not like you’re going to get interest in your envelopes or change jars anyway.
Second of all, yes I think you should open a real savings account. 😀
MEGAN: LOL you and my mother both. I had a real savings account at my bank, but because I treated it like a change jar before Digit was a thing, they quietly changed it to a second checking account for me. Very kind of them. I barely touch it but I feel like I should just open a savings account like a grown person. For some reason, having my money locked away somewhere that I can’t get at without being penalized scares me! Look at all the things I’m learning, two weeks in at this place.
NICOLE: Savings accounts won’t lock your money away. My savings account allows me unlimited transfers into savings and six transfers out of savings per month. Which means you can make at least one transfer every week, if you need to.
MEGAN: Admittedly, I’m not 100% on what the transfer policy was with my former savings account, but somethings tells me I was shuffling things around a little too much, hence the birth of checking account #2. Next Thursday, when I do one thing, it will most likely be this. I’m more financially secure now than I have been in the past, and so the impulse to move things around is lessening with every passing day.
NICOLE: Which is, like, my secret theory of personal finance: the more money you have, the more likely you are to make those “good decisions” the experts recommend. Or whatever. But having enough money is so important. And congratulations, btw. Increasing your financial security is a huge deal.
MEGAN: Thank you, though it still feels like a scramble every single day. Transitioning out of the full time mindset is way more difficult than I ever imagined. And if I’m being honest, thinking about whether or not I am as financially secure as I think I need to be occasionally makes me cry. But, as the wise sage Sheryl Crow once said, every day is a winding road. I’m working on it!
NICOLE: You get a little bit closer to feeling financially secure.
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