How much do you keep in your checking?

amother

Tue, May 14 2024, 3:57 pm

Just curious what most people do
Do you have most of your money in savings and just what you need in checking or do you leave a cushion? If so, how much?

amother

Midnight

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:02 pm

We like to aggressively save so we can IYH buy a house one day so we keep our checking at $1500 and once we get over that we move money to savings. I also have my paycheck to automatically put 30% of it in savings so that never even touches our checking account. For reference since I think context is important when discussing financials we are a kollel family with one 18 month old DC. We are on snap/ WIC/ Medicaid (hopefully not for long though since I just finished school!) DH tutors in addition to Kollel and I worked part time while in school. We live very happily within our means.

amother

Feverfew

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:03 pm

We can transfer from savings to checking with click of a button

Most is in investments
Some in savings
Paycheck to paycheck in checking. Maybe 3k maximum. Often less.

amother

Canary

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:04 pm

We keep around $20K-$30K in checking, the rest goes in to investments.

amother

Kiwi

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:32 pm

amother Canary wrote:

We keep around $20K-$30K in checking, the rest goes in to investments.

Ooc why so much in checking? Even a simple savings account would yield some interest, which checking doesn’t

I keep 3-5k in checking. Only enough to cover my bills

amother

Feverfew

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:40 pm

amother Kiwi wrote:

Ooc why so much in checking? Even a simple savings account would yield some interest, which checking doesn’t

I keep 3-5k in checking. Only enough to cover my bills

I’m guessing she makes so much income that she doesn’t need that interest.

amother

DarkPurple

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:40 pm

amother Feverfew wrote:

I’m guessing she makes so much income that she doesn’t need that interest.

FWIW there are interest-bearing checking accounts also.

amother

Daffodil

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:42 pm

amother Kiwi wrote:

Ooc why so much in checking? Even a simple savings account would yield some interest, which checking doesn’t

I keep 3-5k in checking. Only enough to cover my bills

Who cares why she does that? It's her money, her choice.
I also keep 3-5 in checking for bills and petty cash.

amother

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:44 pm

Wow such a big range!
I wonder if we’re unusual in the way we do it.
There’s usually a couple of hundred in our checking account lol at any given moment
The rest goes to savings.
But we do have a big emergency fund that we can transfer out of if needed
For reference I’m not even married a year. I guess that’s how it’s been working.

amother

Peru

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:44 pm

We keep around 5k in checking at all times, 15k in savings and the rest in investments. We also keep 1k on hand in petty cash.

amother

Feverfew

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:45 pm

amother OP wrote:

If it works for you that’s all that counts.

amother

Tue, May 14 2024, 4:46 pm

For everyone saying they keep most of their savings in investments, is this before or after you saved for a house?

amother

Seablue

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:04 pm

Any money in our checking at any given time is just there because we haven’t yet paid the mortgage or another bill. So it may look like we have $4k today, but it’s actually $0 bc we live month to month and generally go over.
For reference- 4 kids with an income of about $180k. Not even close to enough

amother

Forestgreen

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:11 pm

amother Seablue wrote:

Ouch that's tough. I hope things get easier. How old are your kids

amother

Peru

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:16 pm

amother OP wrote:

For everyone saying they keep most of their savings in investments, is this before or after you saved for a house?

After. When we first bought, we only had 10% to put down and had PMI. We had saved a reno budget of 50k and that was spent right away. We financed the rest of the renovations. Stayed there for 5 years, sold for a big profit and leveled up. 5 years later, did it again. Now, 20 years later, we are bh mortgage free and have a few properties as part of our investments. A home is a huge investment and if done right, can very profitable.

amother

Sienna

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:18 pm

amother Seablue wrote:

This is us. We have $5k in our checking account at the moment. Because 4.8k is paying the credit card bill tomorrow, leaving us $200 till next payday. (before you comment on irresponsible spending for such a high cc bill, that includes over 3k in tuition/childcare)

amother

Magnolia

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:37 pm

It’s empty by the end of the month. We put in just what we need for the month. The rest is in investments. I always laugh- if people wld see our bank accounts they would thinks we are so poor lol. I have to ask my husband if there’s money in the account before I pay the sitter.

amother

Aubergine

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:40 pm

Just checked
500k in one
45k in another
And there are more accounts I don’t know of
I’m not in charge so don’t ask me why

amother

Whitewash

Tue, May 14 2024, 5:43 pm

Abt 40k give or take.
That's the amount we spend a month. All our paycheck goes into checking, I hv a budget spreadsheet & whatever we didn't spend each month gets transferred out to savings, so it's usually around there that stays.