So for 2021 and beyond, I made it part of my goals to only use “pokemon” money for pokemon purchases. Basically use money from selling to help fund personal collection items, more inventory, grading fees, etc without touching my personal finances from my main job and other sources of income.
My plan was to sort of use Paypal as my side account for this Pokemon fund so I could easily see how much is in the balance and plan appropriately. It is just easier for myself to operate this way rather than mixing all of finances into one account and then having a sheet with “$$xx” for pokemon and “$$yy” for “non-pokemon”.
However, thanks to eBay now splitting from the paypal system, the money from sales now goes into my personal checking account which I then would have to transfer over to my Paypal balance every time there is a sale which takes days with transferring time and is annoying to automate and check on. I’m thinking about starting a 2nd checking account with Ally bank that I use specifically for this pokemon business, goal, whatever you want to call it. Then I link it with Paypal and ebay and have all the funds transfer into there which is separate from my primary Chase account.
My question is how do others manage their pokemon funds if they wish to separate them like I do? Does anybody use a similar system and it work well for their finance situation? Are there disadvantages to having multiple checking accounts at different banks? I currently use Ally as a savings account and Chase as checking.
I started a Pokemon account back in mid 2014 and seeded it with $5k for my Pokemon hobby. It ended up being a huge help come tax time when the hobby started to profit and in the eyes of the IRS became a business and that 1099 came. Having a designated credit card for it helps too.
I use Citi double cash as it provides 2% cash back on all purchases and I have my business checking account with the same local credit union I use for my personal banking.
I try to do the same thing as well by making my collection grow in a self sufficient manner. Instead of using an alternate account, I keep track of everything on a spreadsheet. The only downside is that there’s more temptation to spend money made outside of the hobby since I don’t have to fear overdraft fees.
Thanks for this. I was thinking of something similar as well, dedicating one of my credit cards to solely pokemon account purchases and then paying it off each month from the second checking account.
Is there a difference with “business checking account” and making just a regular “checking account” with say a second bank (Ally)? Does your business account come with any annual fees?
@firebirder31 none of my accounts have annual fees. I opened specifically a “business account” at my credit union but I don’t think it varies in any way from a regular account.