How much do you keep in your checking account? (income, savings, withdraw)
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Why does anyone in their right mind have more than a few hundred $ in a checking account??? I have $500 max that'll go down to $20 before payday. The rest of savings is socked away in high yield savings accounts with way better interest rates than svaings or checking accounts..
Why does anyone in their right mind have more than a few hundred $ in a checking account??? I have $500 max that'll go down to $20 before payday. The rest of savings is socked away in high yield savings accounts with way better interest rates than svaings or checking accounts..
It’s all relative, I cannot imagine having so little money in checking. That’s an in and out account, “so much money” would be $100,000 or more in checking, $40K isn’t much in checking, it’s enough to keep a safe buffer. Not everyone works a day job, I don’t, there is no regular deposit into checking. It gets down to $15-20K, I transfer money over to put it back to $40K or so, and the cycle continues. Oh wow I am missing out on 2% of $40,000 shoot how am I going to live?! Very peacefully because I don’t have to worry about autopay wiping out my account or constantly transferring money into it every month. As with most people with money, I have to email or make a phone call to move money from another bank to my checking account - even within Wells Fargo on many of their accounts that’s still true. You need to email your private banker. I’m not doing that constantly, so checking needs to be kept healthy.
A better question is how on earth could you possibly have under $10,000 in checking and sleep at night?! That would be a five alarm fire to me! I would be freaking out if that’s all I had available. To each his own but $500, you gotta be out of your mind! That wouldn’t be enough to cover even the tiniest credit card payment without overdrafting.
i am the same way , being retired i never let my core dip below 30k or so and in the beginning of the year it can be over 100k .
i also have other liquid cash accounts which i use to stock trade for fun , or money where i just want some dry powder if markets fall ..
a money market is a good way to temper volatility in a portfolio .i am happy at 40-50% equities . right now i am at the lower range so i treat that cash like a stock option to buy stocks at lower prices if we dip only this option has no expiration date .
if it goes unused it becomes next years spending money to live on , and i refill the little options bucket with cash again . basically it works out that i have the current year in the checking account ready to go , and the following year being accumulated .
when the day comes i have to worry about what i am not getting on cash , that is the day i better review my investment plan because in the scheme of things it shouldn't make a bit of difference it would be so slight
Hahaha exactly, well put! That’s the day I’d have to seriously review what I’m doing with my long term strategy.
I will say I’m in the process of redoing my entire financial picture and I’m not yet sure what that looks like. I believe what it’ll mean is a steady cash flow of substantial income each month and if that’s the case, I’m comfortable dropping my checking account down to $20K because it would be replenished with the income dump every month and then maybe I just throw whatever is above $20K into something else at year’s end. But my income has been too volatile not to keep checking higher the last few years, because as you said it usually starts the year high and dwindles until I replenish from other accounts later.
Why does anyone in their right mind have more than a few hundred $ in a checking account??? I have $500 max that'll go down to $20 before payday. The rest of savings is socked away in high yield savings accounts with way better interest rates than svaings or checking accounts..
My rent is $1967, so there's one reason outside of my 3% apy that I have more than a few hundred.
I have been thinking though, since my checking account requires 15 debit transactions @ $150/mo total (so $10 x 15 transactions could work), I've been thinking about just switching to my Fidelity cash account and use my 2.51% Wealthfront account for my emergency fund. That math works out for the 3% (even moreso when it was 4%) account vs credit cards given the $150 ends up being things I buy anyway, but 15 debit transactions is a helluvalot of exposure per month. I've never been hacked and I'd like it to stay that way.
Most banks waive fees for various conditions too, and I don't ever use a debit card or have any incoming regular payments, so the best way to qualify is $20K+ in my overall accounts per month combined. That also helps make it worthwhile to me, I'm not paying fees for a bank lol.
the amount i typically have in my cash position would be roughly 5-6 months of my spending. i have to keep a good amount in cash since i have large estimated tax payments i have to make quarterly.
A lot more at the beginning of the month than the end.
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