A Wealth Manager's Real Financial Setup: Every Account My Family Uses

If you are trying to figure out how to organize your family finances, it can help to see a real setup instead of a theoretical one. I manage money for a living, and this is every account and app my own family uses, including the places where I have made things more complicated than they need to be.

This article covers the four buckets I use: day to day living, investments, tracking and planning, and business. This is my stack, and I would not call it the perfect one. Some accounts exist because of my career or decisions I made years ago, so copy the structure and leave my exact accounts aside.

Bucket 1: checking accounts and credit cards for day to day living

We have three checking accounts, which is more than we need. Our main family account is at Schwab, on the same platform as our investments, and it is the hub where income lands and bills get paid. The other two are a legacy Chase account of mine and a Bank of America account my wife had before we were married.

A family really needs one primary account that acts as the hub, and maybe a second at a different bank for backup. Our extra accounts are still open out of inertia, since closing accounts is annoying and auto payments are tied to them.

I am happier with our credit cards. I once had 18 of them from signing up for new cards to maximize points. Now we run almost everything through one American Express, which makes spending easy to track, and keep a Capital One card as a backup in case the main card gets frozen for fraud or does not work while traveling.

Bucket 2: how I structure our investment accounts

This is the most complex bucket, partly because of what I do for a living. I think of it in two layers:

• The traditional core. One custodian, Schwab, holds the bulk of our investing: a taxable brokerage account, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, custodial accounts for our kids, and a Solo 401(k) from my business. Those accounts all live under one login, which is the point.
• The alternative sleeve. We hold some crypto at Coinbase and a self directed IRA at Directed IRA, which lets you hold non traditional assets inside a retirement account. We also invest directly in private equity from my former fund and in individual deals such as private companies and real estate.

The alternative layer is the advanced, higher risk, less liquid corner of the portfolio. Most people do not need any of it, and it should only ever be a small slice, the last 5% to 10%, built on top of a solid foundation.

529 plans for the kids

Our two children each have a Georgia 529 plan for college. A 529 grows tax free when it is used for education, and in Georgia, starting in 2026, a married couple can deduct up to $10,000 per child, per year, on their state taxes.

Bucket 3: tracking net worth, planning, and spending

Having the accounts is not the same as understanding them. This bucket is the dashboard that sits on top of everything else, and for me it has three layers:

1. A balance sheet for where you are. I have kept a spreadsheet for more than 10 years with every account, asset, and liability, updated monthly alongside a summary of income, spending, and savings. It is the single highest leverage financial habit I have.
2. A plan for where you are going. I use professional planning software, Orion and eMoney, to answer the future questions, such as whether we can retire when we want and what happens if the market drops 30%. I have those tools because I am an advisor, but everyone should have some forward looking plan, even a simple one.
3. A spending tracker for what is happening now. We use Monarch, which connects to our accounts and shows where the money goes each month.

Bucket 4: keeping business and personal finances separate

My wife and I both work for ourselves, and our most important rule is to keep business money completely separate from personal money. We both hold business checking accounts at Mercury and run business expenses through a separate American Express corporate card. Mixing business and personal finances is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes I see owners make. It creates a tax and bookkeeping nightmare, and it can even put your legal protection at risk.

Organized does not mean perfect

Even as someone who does this for a living, my own stack is more complicated than it needs to be. The goal is a system you understand and use, and it does not have to be flawless. A good next step is to map out your own four buckets and see what you find.

Common questions

How many checking accounts does a family need?

A family really needs one primary account that acts as the hub, and maybe a second at a different bank for backup.

How many credit cards should you have?

We use two: one main card for almost all of our spending, and one backup in case the main card gets frozen or does not work.

Should I keep business and personal bank accounts separate?

Yes. Mixing the two creates a tax and bookkeeping nightmare and can put your legal protection at risk.

VDB Wealth is a registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

I manage money for a living. And I'm about to show you something most advisors would never put on camera: every single account and app my own family uses to run our financial life.

Not a clean, theoretical version. The real one. The legacy accounts I never closed, the spreadsheet I've kept for over ten years, and the places where, honestly, I've made this more complicated than it needs to be.

By the end of this video you'll have a simple framework to organize your own money into four buckets, and you'll see exactly how a wealth manager actually does it behind the scenes.

Intro, bio and why it matters

Quick introduction. I'm Andy VandenBerg, the founder of VDB Wealth, a boutique firm where I work with business owners and high earners on the whole financial picture: investments, taxes, estate planning, and cash flow.

Before I started the firm I spent years in institutional finance and family office investing, so I think about this stuff all day.

Here's why this matters. Most people have an organization problem. Money gets scattered across old accounts, random apps, and a vague sense of 'I think we're fine.'

When your financial life is organized, you make better decisions, you stop paying for mistakes you can't see, and you actually know where you stand.

So here's the plan. I'm going to walk you through my family's stack in four buckets. One, day to day living. Two, investments. Three, tracking and planning. And four, business. Let's get into it.

The big caveat

One important caveat before we start. This is my stack, not the perfect stack.

I have some accounts because of my career, some because of decisions I made years ago, and some I'd honestly set up differently if I started today. Your life, your goals, and your complexity are different.

So don't copy my exact accounts. Copy the structure.

Bucket one: day to day living

Bucket one: day to day living. This is the money that's constantly moving. The checking accounts that pay the bills and the credit cards we spend on.

Let me start with checking, and this is my first confession of the video. We have three checking accounts. Three. Our main family account is at Schwab which we like because it's on the same platform as our investments. That's where our income lands and our bills get paid. It's the hub. But I also still have a legacy Chase account from years ago, and my wife has a Bank of America account from before we were married that we just never closed.

Do we need three checking accounts? No. We don't. A family really needs one primary account that acts as the hub, and maybe a second at a different bank for backup. The honest reason those legacy accounts are still open is inertia. Closing accounts is annoying, there are auto payments tied to them, and it never quite makes it to the top of the list. So if you're sitting on old accounts you've been meaning to consolidate, I'm right there with you.

Now credit cards. This one I'm happier with. We run almost everything through one main card, an American Express, and we keep a Capital One card as a backup. That's it. Two cards. I used to be a credit card machine. Always signing up for new cards to maximize points, but all of a sudden I woke up with 18 credit cards and decided it was time for a change.

Here's the logic behind having two cards, and it's simple. One main card means all our spending flows through a single place, which makes it easy to track and easy to earn rewards. The backup card matters more than people think especially when you use American Express. If your main card gets frozen for fraud, or you're traveling and it just doesn't work, you do not want to be standing there with no way to pay. The backup is your insurance policy.

Bucket two: investments

Bucket two: investments. This is where the money goes to grow, and it's the most complex bucket, partly because it has to be and partly because of what I do for a living.

Let me group it so it's not overwhelming. Think of investments in two layers: the traditional stuff, and the alternative stuff.

On the traditional side, the anchor is Schwab. I've worked hard to move all of our investment accounts into one spot. This one custodian holds the bulk of our investing: our regular taxable brokerage account, our traditional IRAs, our Roth IRAs, custodial accounts for our kids, and a Solo 401k from my business. That sounds like a lot of accounts, but they all live under one login, which is exactly the point. One institution, many account types, one place to look.

Then there's the alternative side, and this is where my career shows up in my personal life. We hold some crypto at Coinbase. We have a self directed IRA at an institution called Directed IRA, which lets you hold non traditional assets inside a retirement account. And we invest directly in private equity from my former fund and individual deals, things like private companies and real estate, that I make directly and track in, you guessed it, a spreadsheet.

I want to be clear and responsible here. The alternative stuff, the crypto, the self directed IRA, the private deals, that is the advanced, higher risk, less liquid corner of the portfolio. Most people do not need any of it, and it should only ever be a small slice built on top of a solid foundation. I'm showing you the full picture honestly, but please don't look at the private deals and think that's the starting point. It's the last 5 to 10 percent, not the first.

Last piece of this bucket: the kids 529 plans. We have two children, and each has a Georgia 529 plan for college. A 529 grows tax free when it's used for education, and in Georgia, starting in 2026, a married couple can deduct up to 10,000 dollars per child, per year, on their state taxes.

So that's the investing bucket. It looks like a lot of accounts, but it's really just two layers. A traditional core at one institution, and a small alternative sleeve on top.

Bucket three: tracking and planning

Bucket three: tracking and planning. Here's a truth that took me a while to fully appreciate. Having the accounts is not the same as understanding them. This bucket is the dashboard that sits on top of everything else, and for me it has three layers.

The first layer is the scoreboard. I keep a personal financial tracker and balance sheet that I've maintained for over 13 years. Every account, every asset, every liability, in one place, updated on a monthly basis. This is the single highest leverage financial habit I have. It's not fancy, it's a spreadsheet, but covers my net worth by account line item and then a monthly cash flow summary highlighting income, spending, and savings. For me this works, but I'm also a nerd and love doing this on a monthly basis.

The second layer is the forward look, the actual financial plan. I use professional planning software, Orion and eMoney, to run a live plan. This answers the future questions. Can we retire when we want? What happens if the market drops 30 percent? Are we on track for the kids' college? The balance sheet tells you where you are today. The plan tells you where you're heading. Now, I'll be honest, that's professional grade software I have because I'm an advisor. Whether you use these tools or not, the point is that everyone should have some forward looking plan, even a simple one.

The third layer is the day to day, and that's Monarch, which we use for spending and cash flow. It connects to our accounts and shows where the money actually goes each month. The balance sheet is the long term scoreboard. Monarch is the short term reality check.

So three layers: a balance sheet for where you are, a plan for where you're going, and a spending tracker for what's happening right now.

Bucket four: business

Bucket four, and this one's quick: business. My wife and I both work for ourselves. Our most important rule here is to keep business money completely separate from personal money. Different accounts, clean lines, no mixing.

We both hold business checking accounts at Mercury, which is built for businesses, and we run business expenses through a separate American Express corporate card. That's the whole bucket.

The reason it's simple is on purpose. Mixing business and personal finances is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes I see owners make. It creates a tax and bookkeeping nightmare, and it can even put your legal protection at risk. So if you take one thing from this bucket: keep it separate, keep it clean.

Recap and honest reflection

So let's zoom out. Four buckets. Day to day living, the money that moves. Investments, the money that grows. Tracking and planning, the dashboard over the top. And business, kept clean and separate.

And here's my honest takeaway, the same one I started with. Even as someone who does this for a living, my own stack is more complicated than it needs to be. Those legacy checking accounts, a few overlapping tools, things I'd consolidate if I started fresh today.

Organized does not mean perfect. The goal isn't a flawless system. It's a system you understand and actually use.

Call to action and close

If this was helpful, the most useful thing you can do is map out your own four buckets this week and see what you find.

If you've got questions about your own setup, leave a comment, I read them, or there's a link in the description to book a call with me directly.

And if you want more honest looks at how this stuff actually works, go ahead and subscribe. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.