He hid money from himself by using 2 checking accounts When he signed on at his job at a consulting firm near Seattle after college, he did something many people don't consider. Okereke had his employer split his paychecks between two checking accounts, after a contribution to his employer's 401(k) program. "Twenty percent of what I make goes into a checking account that I can spend," he told Insider. "It helps me budget because it's a very little amount of my income that's going there. So if I want to buy clothing, I have to have a tight budget. If I want to buy jewelry, or if I need to do maintenance on my car, it all comes out of that checking account," he said.