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My Money Blog:

You may be expecting a review of the new online service SmartyPig. Well, that review is in-progress, but while doing my research I was reminded of an alternate way to create your own online “piggy bank”. Remember how you’d actually have to save your quarters to buy what you wanted? Oh, the good old days…

Let’s say you want to set up multiple “baskets” or “piggy banks” of money for specific goals. Maybe you have

an ongoing pet medical fund to which you add to regularly instead of paying for insurance ($50 per month?)
an ongoing car maintenance/repair fund (I need one of these)
a summer vacation fund (goal: $1,000?)
a Christmas fund
…or that all-purpose emergency fund!

You want separate balances and accounting for each account to keep things neat, but you don’t want to open up 3 new accounts at 3 different banks. The good news is that this can all be done with ING Direct - they let you easily and instantly create multiple savings accounts that have their own balance and nickname. No credit checks, no applications, and it earns interest. Here’s how:

1) First, you’ll need an ING Direct account. If you have one already, you’re all set. If you opened one before and it got closed to due low balance or inactivity, you can have them re-open it by calling 1-888-ING-0727 (or you can login and do it). If you are a new customer, you can earn a $25 sign-up bonus here by…