Saving

Archived — pre-home purchase

This page describes the Macquarie / Blossom / uBank strategy from before I bought a house. Current setup: MyState offset (~$31k) + Vanguard. See Finance index.

This page will outline how I do my savings, as well as what services and accounts I use.

Macquarie Bank

Macquarie Bank is the main bank I use day-to-day, it currently (25/08/2024) has a 4.75% interest rate on all accounts, making it ideal for spending and saving.

As you can see in the above image I have 6 accounts.

Savings (Use)

The "Savings (Use)" account is where I put 50% (total weekly pay) or the entirety of my McDonald's weekly paycheck. It is limited to $5000 where the rest gets redirected to my "Savings (Don't Use)" account. This is the account I use to pay my credit card and any bills I get. The linked card stays empty as a preventative measure in case my card gets stolen.

Savings (Don't Use)

The "Savings (Don't Use)" account is where I put 50% (total weekly pay) or the entirety of my Woolworth's weekly paycheck. I arbitrarily limit it to $15,000 where the rest goes into my #Blossom investing account. On this account I am only allowed to transfer money out in emergency situations, such as if the "Savings (Use)" account gets to $0 and I am unable to pay my credit card or other bill. Every month $1000 is transfered to my alternative "don't use" account.

Emergency Fund

You may notice that my Emergency account in Macquarie has $0 despite saying 24k on it. This is because for the time being atleast a different bank is offering a higher interest rate, so for the month the entire emergency account will reside in that bank.

How to calculate fund

I calculated needing $24,000 in emergency by doing 6 months of income in 2022. I just used the prior weeks paychecks combined, and multiplied it by 24 (weeks in 6 months)

This alternative bank also has an extra "Save account" this is an extension of my "Don't use" account. It's split between the banks because of the higher interest rate, but lower convenience. Having some in macquarie enables me to quickly transfer when I desperately need it.

Alternative Bank

Every month I will check again on the "Finder" app which savings account has the highest interest rate for the lowest possible effort. By that I mean no silly requirements like using a transaction account 5 times.