The Joys of ING

Recently I entered the "working outside the home" world for the first time in 12 years. I have done a number of things to earn money from home during that time, but I finally felt that both my family and I were ready for me to work outside of home. I was lucky enough to find a flexible, part-time, reasonably well-paying position doing something I love and am good at. It doesn't get much better than that.

My first official payday is about a week off and I've decided that I want my paychecks to be direct deposited into a savings account that is accessible but not too accessible. We've done without this income so far and I don't want it to be eaten up by everyday expenses, which it inevitably will if it gets plunked into checking.

After researching high-yield savings accounts in which to place this new source of income, I opted for the ease of sticking with the ING account I opened last year. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that you could open "sub-accounts" with ING and that sounded like a good idea to me because I want this account to consist only of my earnings from my new job plus the little bit I earn from other sources, such as this blog and a small amount of contract work I do each month.

Surfing around the ING site, however, it wasn't readily apparent to me how to open a sub-account or how to direct deposit into an ING savings account. Luckily a quick Google search answered both questions easily. Here's what I discovered:

1. To open a sub-account you simply log into ING, and choose "open an account" from the sidebar on the left. Then you proceed through the steps. It will feel like you're opening a brand new account, but in truth you're just creating a sub-account under your original customer number. You can nickname your account anything you like so this is great for separating funds from different sources, like I'm doing, or for creating short-term savings goals accounts (i.e. a new car fund).

2. To create a direct deposit into one of your accounts, you log into, click into the account (or sub-account) you want your deposit to go into, and then click the link labeled "Direct Deposit." This will generate a form with the ING routing number and your account number. You can pull information from this form or print and complete the form to give to your payroll processor.

Last year I described how I opened ING accounts for myself and my children and took advantage of ING referrals to earn $70 for doing so. I still have referrals to give so if you're interested in receiving $25 for opening and ING account, email me and I'll send you a referral link in a return email.