One question I routinely get asked by friends and readers of this site is, “Can you teach me how to save money without losing track of what it’s for? How do you account for your money when you are saving for an emergency or for a future need?”
The problem boils down to this issue: you have to keep track of what money is to be used for what purpose.
When you deposit money into your savings account, it gets mixed in with all the other money in the savings account. How do you keep the boys separated and make sure the money designated for the new dishwasher actually ends up going for the new dishwasher and not the car insurance or the baseball card fund?
Like many others, this frustrated me too. But then I remembered something my parents used to do that helped with this. So I took their system and enhanced it for the digital age. It completely fixed my issues and has been a lifesaver ever since.