How To Automate Your Savings Plan with my Own Payday

Sticking with a savings plan is much easier when your savings deposits are made automatically. In myOwnPayday, you can set up an automatic savings plan using a "biller" to whom you make monthly payments as a normal part of paying your bills. Automating your savings deposits is done using the program's "linked biller" feature.

After setting up a special account to hold your savings deposits, you then set up a new biller to whom you "pay" your monthly savings deposits. After linking this new biller to your savings special account, all payments made to the biller will be automatically deposited into the linked special account. It sounds complicated, but it isn't. Here's how to set up your automatic savings plan in myOwnPayday.

Set up a new special account to hold your savings.

1. Open the Add Special Account window. Click on the Setup menu and then the Special Account command.

   

2. Enter a suitable Account Name and then the Purpose/Goal of the account.
3. Set up a savings target or leave the account open-ended. If you are saving for a specific purpose, enter the Target Amount, select the Target Date option for Duration, and then enter the Target Date by which you want to accumulate the target amount. If, on the other hand, there is no specific purpose for the account other than accumulating savings, select a Duration of Open Ended.
4. Click the Add button.

Set up a new linked biller to whom you will "pay" your savings deposits.

1. Open the Add Biller window. Click on the Setup menu and then the Biller command.
2. If needed, select a Category.
3. If you want to delay the start of your savings plan, enter the Start Date for your first savings deposit. (A Start Date should only be entered if the savings deposits will be Auto Scheduled. See step 6 below.)
4. Enter an Internal Name for the biller. This name can be the same as the one used for the new savings special account.
5. Select when you will be making your savings deposit each month. If the payments will be Auto Scheduled, in the Day Normally Due dropdown box, select either the 1st or the 15th (whichever day best fits your cash flow). If your savings deposits will not be Auto Scheduled, leave the Day Normally Due as the 1st.
6. If you will be making the same savings deposit each month, enter that amount in the Usual Amount box and check Auto Schedule. If you will only be depositing the money you have left over each time you pay bills, leave the Usual Amount blank and do not check Auto Schedule. (Each time you are preparing to pay your bills, you can enter a "bill" to pay the linked biller any part, or all of money you will have left over after paying all other bills. By entering this "bill" you are transferring your excess money into your savings.)
7. Link the biller to the savings special account. In the Special Account dropdown box, select the new savings special account that you set up in the first steps above.
8. Click the Add button.

Verify that the linked biller is set up correctly by clicking on the Lists menu and then the Special Accounts command. The row displaying your new savings special account will show the new biller name in the Biller Links column.

The linked biller becomes a payment obligation that you must handle each month the same way you handle all of your other bills. The only difference is that all of the money you "pay" to the linked biller is automatically deposited into your savings special account. If you set up your linked biller with an Auto Scheduled amount, myOwnPayday will schedule your savings deposits for you along with the rest of your bills. With your automatic savings deposits incorporated by myOwnPayday into your financial Projection, you will be less likely to spend those savings "payments" before you have a chance to tuck them away.

If your checking account is not interest bearing, you will probably want to periodically move the money from your savings special account in myOwnPayday to a more suitable investment account so your savings will accumulate interest. When appropriate, transfer your savings by doing an Internal Transfer in myOwnPayday to move money from your savings special account to your check register. With the money recorded in your check register, you can then write a check to deposit the transferred amount into whatever investment account you have selected.