Opening a Bank Account For Your Betting Needs
What? You think we're crazy? You're crazy if you think it will be easy to keep your living expenses seperate from your gambling hobby!
Please continue reading -- if you gamble as a hobby or as a profession, this will affect you!
Keeping Expenses Seperate
Keep your personal and business life seperate from your gambling. How can you know what you're spending, where you're spending it, or how much goes into which budget if you're always withdrawing cash, or spending money straight from your bank account on sports bets?
In life, good management of money is one of the things that we should to try and strive for. Unfortunately, many of us fall into the "should, but won't" category and that can cause problems later down the road. Of course, we're not going to get into the details of how to better manage your money in this article, but we will help you to better manage your gambling money.
By opening a new bank account soley for your gambling money, you can easily keep track of how much you are spending each money and how much you are gaining, without having to scan through your bank statement past the grociery bills, past the electric bill, gas bill, etc.
By doing this, you can better...
Staying Within Your Limit
Stay within your limit. One of the first rules of gambling is to know your limit, set your limit, and stay inside that limit.
By opening a new bank account, you can deposit your monthly limit and play within it much more easily. Be sure that you don't have overdraft protection and that you do not take out more than you put in for gambling.
At the end of the month, if your account balance is higher than your monthly limit, you can withdraw the extra amount and pop it into your normal bank account, or into a savings account. Congratulations - you've made a profit and you stayed within your limit!
Have a notebook set aside for keeping track of your finances. At the end of the month, if you are in surpluss, mark down how much you made that month and move it into your normal account. This is important - you must keep track of how much you are making.
Taxes - There's No Running Away
If you open up a bank account soley for gambling, you can better track how much you are gaining or losing each month. The most important reason to do this is for tax purposes.
If you are gaining money, you have to declair how much you have made and properly file your taxes. There is no excuse for not doing this - no excuse good enough for you to tell the IRS if they show up at your door with an audit!
This is why it is important to mark down your surpluss each month. Claim your surpluss in the appropriate "extra" income field, and pay the appropriate taxes if they apply.
Reducing Fees and Collecting More
Each bank account is setup for the specific purpose of the account. In general, your regular bank account will have a certain fee for the amount of debits, transactions, etc. That you are allowed per month.
How much do you gamble? If it's a lot, get an account that will allow you to withdraw enough times per month without having to pay any extra fees.
If you only gamble once per month, setup a savings account. A savings account will allow you to collect interest on your balance and allow for you to make one withdrawl per month without any extra fees.