A step-by-step guide to save for life moments with Ally Bank’s spending and savings buckets
Balancing financial priorities can feel overwhelming, especially if you have a major milestone coming up. Whether you are planning a wedding, saving for a dream vacation, buying a home, starting a family or pursuing any number of goals, successful money management can help you feel in control of your progress.
That's where buckets, features of both Ally Bank's Savings and Spending Accounts, come in. These tools offer a streamlined way to manage your money to prepare for what’s ahead — from the daily checking needs of your Spending Account to the future goals you’re pursuing in your Savings Account.
Read more: How to use Ally Bank’s Spending and Savings Accounts to optimize your finances
What are Ally Bank’s buckets?
Buckets are our way of helping you stay organized by giving you a place to divvy up funds toward specific expenses or savings goals — think of them as digital envelopes within your account. Available as part of both your Ally Bank Savings Account and Ally Bank Spending Account, buckets help you track and visualize your finances with ease.
Savings buckets
Whether you're saving for your next family vacation or for a down payment on your next home, you can create a dedicated savings buckets for each of your goals (up to 30!) in your Ally Bank Savings Account and allocate a percentage of any deposited funds to each of your different buckets. You can either manually move funds to your savings buckets with the transfer tool or set up automatic contributions.
Spending buckets
As part of your Ally Bank Spending Account, you can use spending buckets to designate money for rent, utilities, entertainment or any other regular expenses. Like savings buckets, you can choose how much money goes into each category, either manually or on a recurring basis. You can even add certain businesses to specific buckets, so those transactions pull from the right place every time.
Note: You don’t have to allocate every dollar toward a bucket — meaning, you can keep some funds “unbucketed,” if you prefer. In addition, if an expense overextends its designated bucket, we’ll pull from your unbucketed funds or your other buckets, so you don’t need to worry about getting the allocations exactly right.
Buckets are our way of helping you stay organized by giving you a place to divide up funds for specific expenses or savings goals.
4-step guide to using buckets to save for a financial goal
Let’s say you’re saving for your next vacation. While a savings or spending bucket is helpful on its own, using both types of buckets together can give you a powerful boost while you work toward your goal.
1. Set aside money for your regular expenses and transfer the rest to savings
First, make sure any regular expenses are accounted for with buckets in your Ally Bank Spending Account. For example, create buckets for your monthly rent, utilities, groceries and other planned expenses that go through your checking account.
Then, you can either manually transfer extra funds or set up recurring transfers to move any remaining money into your Ally Bank Savings Account. (Automatic transfers can help you save consistently, giving you time back to focus on planning your big trip.)
2. Create a savings bucket dedicated to your goal
Once the money is in your Ally Bank Savings Account, you can make a bucket specifically for your trip — be specific when you label it to help keep you motivated (“Mediterranean cruise” makes for a better visual than “Vacation”). The designated bucket lets you keep your vacation fund separate from your other savings goals, so you don’t use it for anything else.
Read more: 5 visualization tips to help you save more
3. Enable Surprise Savings and Round Ups to maximize your savings
Our smart tools leverage technology to help you make the most of the money in your Ally Bank accounts, so you reach your goals faster. With our Surprise Savings booster, we can analyze your spending patterns and find extra cash that could earn more in savings.
Our Round Ups booster rounds transactions from your Ally Bank Spending Account to the nearest dollar. Once you’ve accrued $5, your round up cash is transferred to your Ally Bank Savings Account. For example, say you spent $40.55 at the grocery store with your debit card. With Round Ups, you’ll be $0.45 closer to a round up transfer.
4. Transfer money back to your Ally Bank Spending Account
Once you’ve filled your vacation bucket and it’s time to travel, you can move the funds back to your Ally Bank Spending Account. You can even make a vacation bucket in your Spending Account and pull debit card expenses from that bucket during your trip. Bon voyage!
Make your dreams a reality with buckets
Coordinating your spending and saving doesn't have to be complicated. With Ally Bank's buckets and other smart savings tools, you can organize, analyze and optimize your finances. Together, savings and spending buckets simplify managing both your monthly expenses and your savings goals, helping you achieve the big life moments you dream of.
