Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I'm writing the quarterly doomsday letter for my DH in case something happens to me. I list all of our accounts, what the money's for, how to invest it, yada yada (he wouldn't even know how to pay the water bill). Now that I've figured out a plan for the HSA, I can finish the letter. It struck me this morning that we have a lot of different accounts now. Is this normal? Does everyone have this many? Is this just the result of getting older?
We have:

401K

403B

DH's IRA

my IRA

i bond accounts

brokerage account

HSA (and soon to be two HSAs)

checking account

2 savings accounts
This doesn't include the kids' accounts, paper bonds, and all of the various insurance accounts. I've moved all I can to Vanguard to simplify things, but it's still seems excessive to me.
edit: I don't want to come across as "hey look at all the accounts I have." It's just that we've ended up with less money in several accounts instead of all of it in one or two accounts. The tax code seems to drive this more than anything.

4 brokerage (2 IRA, 2 Family Taxable)

3 mortgage

3 checking (I include ING Direct)

3 savings (Multiple ING labels)

3 Insurance though some with same agency (2 term life, 1 auto, 7 homeowners)

4 credit card accounts
(I'm not even touching our business related accounts or the accounts we don't use anymore but that haven't been closed)
Yep...way too complicated.

My account holdings are too many. Keeping up with more than 10 accounts is obtrusive but I can justify each one for the immediate future. I agree that tax and "business" drive much of this.

I have a 457 plan and Roth IRA, but that is down from 4 retirement accounts and 2 Roth IRAs two years ago, so that's a plus.
2 brokerage accounts (though I will be closing one in a month or so)

3 insurance (home / car / umbrella)

15 credit cards (only use two, the others were for sign up bonuses - very lucrative)

3 online savings accounts (ING / HSBC / FNBO)

3 credit union savings accounts

1 checking account (only 1? Go figure)

I have savings bonds, but no online account (they're from the 80's and all paper)
I know multiple accounts can be a pain, but I look at it that if you have everything in one place, you basically have a single point of failure. If something happens to your one big account, you're farked. I had a major account frozen for a month in 2009, and the other accounts made life liveable until I could get the situation resolved - I'll never consider having just one account after that experience.

Just three, current account, ISA [tax free saving] and another intstant access savings account, where I temporarily keep money before its spent or saved. All with the same bank.

Well I thought I had an abnormal amount; guess not!

1 Roth

2 Merrill Lynch (one is a pledge account for our mortgage)

1 Vanguard

1 ING (but that has two: checking and savings)

1 401k with Valic
It is a pain, and if some have yearly fees (like my Merrill accounts) I'd recommend dumping them (I'm working on it). But I like that it makes checking my overall net worth difficult, as otherwise I would check that several times a day, which is not healthy or helpful, investingwise. (If course, you can use Mint or something but I'm too paranoid to hand over all my passwords.)
What would a better number be? I'd like to aim for

HSA with ? (haven't researched these yet)

ING checking for auto bill-paying

ING savings for cash flow and emergency fund

1 regular brokerage account with Vanguard

1 Roth with Vanguard

401k with Valic (will probably leave there for not-all-eggs-in-one-basket reason)

I guess I am sort of middle of the pack.
1 TSP (401K equivalent)

1 Roth IRA

2 Brokerage accounts

1 HSA
6 Checking accounts that I have opened for various reasons (2 are credit union accounts with reputations for top notch loan rates and wanted to get those accounts open before I was no longer eligible for membership, 2 are main checking accounts, 1 online checking account functions as a savings account b/c it is high yield chekcing, 1 used to have high rates but not so much anymore, but I keep it around with $0 b/c I like the ability to save for certain goals with it, maybe I'll use it again someday)
2 Savings Accounts

At least 4 credit cards, if I have more I am unaware of what they are. I guess I should check my credit report sometime.

Investment-wise, one gathers accounts as they age in the workplace. Used to be worse for everybody in the "old days", when IRA rollovers had to be kept in separate accounts.
What I have:

IRA

Roth IRA

Taxable (normal)

Taxable (leverage experiment)

I-Bonds (paper)

I-Bonds (Treasury Direct)

Savings account

Government retirement (in 2 accounts due to changes in law)
My wife has:

IRA 1

IRA 2

Roth IRA

Savings account
We have:

joint checking account

I thought I had a lot, but now I don't feel so bad.
1 checking account

1 savings account

1 401k

1 Roth

1 IRA

2 HSAs

1 credit card
Thank goodness for Mint.

My wife and I collectively have
1 credit union checking account

1 ING savings

2 Vanguard Roth IRAs

3 401k-style accounts

1 Scottrade account (to be closed)

2 rewards credit cards

= 10 accounts
I always want to keep this as simple as possible, but that's difficult for a lot of reasons.

2 Savings

1 Checking

2 Taxable Trading

1 Roth IRA

1 Treasury Direct

1 401(k)

3 Credit Cards ($0 balance)

= 11 TOTAL

Funny this came up today as I was working on closing our Merrill Lynch accounts (3) this morning. Simplicity, security and zero-fees are our most important concerns. As someone pointed out above, having all the eggs in one basket is a bad idea - but- having too many baskets can make one a basket-case.

Brilliant

Me:
401k

403b

457

Roth

Another retirement account (I honestly don't know what to call it-- a state optional retirement program account, it's what you get when you work for the state but are excluded from the state pension system)

2 Checking

1 Savings

1 Brokerage
Jointly:

HSA

2 Checking

2 Savings

2 Credit Cards
Wife:

401k

403b

Roth

Checking
Incidentally, we started using mint.com recently. It does a good job of tallying up the net-worth figure so we can see how we're doing month-to-month.

Yup, I have lots, too.
2 pension plans

1 account for retirement investments

2.5 checking accounts (the 0.5 one is shared with my boyfriend)

2 savings accounts (1 emergency fund, 1 other savings)

3 CDs

2 investments accounts

1 credit card

I've got tons... tons (ie: 13 credit cards! but all but 2 auto-pay
But, everything I own is in a spreadsheet that updates it self with stock quotes, has notes on the item (ie: in retirement acct). I look at this every day (way too much)...
Other than that, I go my primary bank (Schwab) and broker (IB) website maybe once or twice a week.
Once a month I go through every account (when I'm adding my previous months expenses up) to make sure everything is as should be and there are no mystery charges/fees, meltdowns, etc.
Really doesn't feel overly complex or oppressive.

I had ridiculous account sprawl, which I've been actively working to remedy. I currently have:
- One checking account, with a linked debit card.

- 401k, IRA's, muni bonds, brokerage with Vanguard.

- Bank CD ladder which I'm transitioning to brokered CD's at Vanguard, so this will be gone in a few years.

- One credit card.

Too many, but I have gotten rid of two this year, and am looking to consolidate even more. I count 12:
401k

IRA

Old 401k

Roth IRA

Online Brokerage

Online Brokerage 2

Credit Union Checking

Credit Union Savings

Online Checking

Online Savings

Pension

Credit Card

Oh,and I have a Treasury Direct account but have not funded it as of yet. So that makes a lucky 13.

IRA

Roth

401K

John Hancock Annuity

Wife IRA

Wife Roth

Wife 403B

Wife 457B

Wife State Pension

Common after tax balanced stock account

Common 2 savings accounts

Common 1 checking account

Real estate investment bank account

NO DEBT