Automated Budgeting Rules and Virtual Buckets for Personal Banking

[jvwelch]

Warning: This is a complicated feature request to describe in simple terms! 

The budget is one of the cornerstones of personal finance. BECU and other banks already offer tools to track spending, but this information is provided in hindsight.

What I would like to see is the following suite of user features:
1 - automation rules that users can configure on their personal checking and savings accounts to automatically deposit income

2 - the option to earmark accounts for specific purposes, or the option for virtual 'buckets' within accounts like CapitalOne360

3 - ability to assign unique debit cards to earmarked accounts or virtual buckets
4 - the option to limit overspending by blocking access to additional account funds outside of that bucket

Example A:
- I create a bucket in my BECU savings account for mortgage
- I create an automation rule that deposits (fixed amount or percentage) of income to my Mortgage bucket
- I make sure this automation rule is prioritized over my wife's Vacation bucket : )

Example B:

- I create another bucket in my checking account for groceries
- I create an automation rule that deposits $250 per month MAXIMUM to that bucket

- Automation rule transfer options like 1x $250 transfer every month, or 52x transfer of $58 per year, etc
- I go to local BECU to print debit card unique to that account or bucket
- once I run out of money, I can't spend any more from that bucket with that debit card

- time to eat ramen noodles!

Example C:
- I earmark a account for Allowance
- I create a virtual 'bucket' for each one of my kids
- each kid receives a debit card tied to their own bucket

- I create a rule so that if a kid spends all their money in their bucket, they do not pull funds from their siblings' buckets

These are very simple examples, and yes there are ways to *almost* do the same thing with existing automated transfer features.

But once you consider the full scope of personal finance products and priorities, basic automated transfer has its limits. 

My dream is to be able to automate income distribution for something as complex as this personal finance flowchart: https://i.imgur.com/CcEVQAV.jpg

[Maggie777]

Elaborate and noteworthy idea for certain! 

Even with a massive migraine and the last couple days to pack and move AND having to work seventeen hours between today and tomorrow with almost no sleep I can Still See The Value In This Plan!

I believe earmarking accounts for certain expenditures could definitely help people from spending in the wrong areas and making certain the crucial areas are paid correctly and in a timely manner. 

I'm keeping a copy of this idea so that I can compare if anything similar is ever suggested or actually is implemented!

Thanks for the great idea!  ~M~  ~

[joeytk421]

@KristinA why is this an inactive idea?  I recently sent a message to BECU for a very similar feature request.  My recent request was forwarded to the dev team.  This is a feature that really needs to be considered as a primary differentiator.  The message center rep from BECU pointed me to this MIX community and so I searched for similar pre-existing feature requests.  This above request is over a year old, time to revisit.  How can I get more involved in the design/development of this?

[JohnS]

Thanks for joining the community @joeytk421 and sharing your interest in this idea. The status was changed to inactive back in May since the idea had not received any community support through comments or kudos. You can learn more about the status descriptions here if you’re interested.

Thanks for lending your voice to this idea, it’s not currently on the Digital roadmap for enhancement, but let me reach out to see if anything has shifted or if they’re exploring anything new relating to this topic.