Savings account: Have a deep one!

Have a savings account? Check. How easy is it to pilfer from it? Uuuuhhhhh ….

A friend shared a goal of his for this year: Pay off all non-mortgage debt.

As good as I felt getting rid of the loan on our van — though our credit union wasn't nearly as excited as we were! — getting rid of all credit card debt must feel at least twenty-seven times better. Maybe even twenty-eight!

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Savings account: The deeper, the better

My friend is a big Dave Ramsey fan and gives his highly practical programs (particularly Financial Peace University) a large part of the credit for how far they've come.

We were chatting about banks and he talked about one that had his deep savings.

“‘Deep savings' — what's that?!” I asked.

He then went on to describe it as “savings that's hard to get to.” There are voluntary barriers to accessing the money in this deep savings account, similar to the way that IRA accounts penalize people when they withdraw their money early.

Can you dip into a deep savings account? Yes, of course — but it's not automatic, it's not immediate, and it's not easy. And that's the point.

What makes a savings account deep?

Here is a collection of qualities of a deep savings account:

It's not used as overdraft protection on a daily checking account. We have a savings account that's used as backup for our main checking account. In the event that we overdraw on our checking account, the credit union will cover the check from any money in our savings account (for a fee). A deep savings account doesn't serve as this kind of automatic backup. It makes it too easy to dip into it.
It's at a different bank. One that's not used regularly (but be sure to do what's needed to keep the account active and avoid fees). If my primary checking account were at Chase, my deep savings account might be at Citibank.
The card to access the money is left at home. Another barrier that makes it more difficult to dip into the account impulsively. It costs at the very least a drive home and a drive back to the store. It's easier to postpone the purchase.
The card to access the money might be in a block of ice. Frozen assets. Literally. With a built-in cooling-off period haha! Adds time to rethink the purchase.
The card (and even the account) might be held by one spouse or the other. Especially if one spouse is less impulsive with money than the other.
The card might be held by a trusted friend. Obviously this is a very trusted friend who is largely beyond reproach and can be counted on to fend off a lot of excuses for dipping into the savings account. But drastic times may call for equally drastic measures.