??

I used to be absolutely terrible with money. Today I’m no monument to financial discipline, but I’m not the unholy disaster I once was. That’s partly because years ago a kind and concerned boss shared with me the ‘envelope method’ of budgeting, wherein you create a separate envelope for each item on your budget. Each time you get paid, put the budgeted amount in the envelope. When it’s gone, that’s all until you get paid again. Very simple, very easy to do, given enough discipline and will power.

The envelope method works well when one of your goals is just generally saving money. Then a garden-variety savings account will do nicely. But as soon as you have—do indulge my silly, bourgeois problems, won’t you?—multiple savings goals, things become less manageable.

What if you’re simultaneously saving for the new iPhone, your upcoming wedding and, a $7,000 Audi-designed wooden bike? You may be keen to leave envelopes stuffed with that kind of cash about your house*, but I’m not. I’m also not keen to open a new savings account to prepare for the day I need to replace my Inspiration Archipod.

But what if I could create virtual envelopes within my existing savings account, label them (e.g., “New Furnace,” “Emergency Fund,” “Sweat Pants,” etc.) and direct cash into whichever slot I want to fill? I can hear the howls of protest from the envelope industry already, but surely there’s a bank out there, (Maybe one that talks about letting the savings begin?) that could get working on this. And then let me know how much we’re going to gouge people for.

*If you are, let’s be friends on foursquare!

Ideas Free to a Good Home is a clearinghouse of ideas we’re too lazy to develop ourselves.