A financial planner explains why you should keep your checking and savings accounts at different banks

Bulking up your savings is difficult. Between paying down debt, staying on top of bills, and keeping up with daily expenses, it's hard to resist the temptation to dip into that emergency fund when something comes up - even if it's not technically an emergency.

Where you keep your money can help alleviate this temptation. Certified financial planner Sophia Bera suggests keeping your checking and savings accounts at completely different banks.

"It adds some friction between these accounts," she recently told Business Insider. "If you don't see your savings account every time you log in to your checking, then you're much less likely to spend it."

Bera also recommends opening separate accounts for each savings goal, so your travel fund stays separate from your emergency fund.

"Almost all my clients have an emergency savings and a travel savings account - that way, they don't rob from their emergency fund to go on a vacation," she explained. "They save for both of these goals every month and then there isn't guilt when they withdraw money from the travel savings to take their family vacation."

Putting a physical barrier between the money you can spend and the money you're aiming to save creates a mental block as well. Out of sight, out of mind.

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