How much would you keep in your checking account?

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Forum -> Household Management -> Finances

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amother

Chartreuse

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 1:43 pm

Ideally, how much would you keep in your checking account on a regular basis? We are re-doing our auto deposits to our savings/investment accounts and are trying to figure out how much we should leave in the checking account. I don't want to ever be in a place where I need to scramble to move money in order to pay the credit card bill or rent, but I also don't want to have too much money just sitting there instead of in savings.

amother

Puce

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 2:06 pm

There is no one answer to this. I think we keep about $10k

Last edited by amother on Wed, Jul 06 2016, 2:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

pesek zman

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 2:06 pm

Depends how much you have coming in and out, but I keep a max of $2500

busydev

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 2:26 pm

I try to have 2 months worth of expenses written out per a month there as backup. (Meaning on average we write out or auto pay $2000 from our checking so I try to keep 4000 there as backup and every month put in 2000 to cover the expenses. I made up numbers)

amother

Khaki

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 3:11 pm

I leave some margin (maybe $1,000) more than the total of the checks that I have written against that account that have not yet cleared.
I transfer money in - in anticipation of writing more checks each month.

amother

Cerise

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 3:18 pm

I pay for pretty much everything besides rent, utilities and childcare on the credit card. I just keep a few hundred dollars in checking over my outstanding checks. I do have it set up that if I ever go under it automatically gets charged to the credit card but bh that never happens....

nywife

Wed, Jul 06 2016, 5:35 pm

Our checking account has the "revolving" money-- I.e. the money we use for daily expenses, bills etc. We keep the amount that will cover our bills and then a little bit extra for emergencies.
In addition to checking, we keep a savings account and then a vacation fund account; we don't touch this money until we need it.

amother

Chartreuse

Thu, Jul 07 2016, 9:22 am

Thanks for the input. Obviously, the exact amount will vary depending on expenses, I was looking for a ratio - thanks busydev, or an overage amount like a few of you indicated.

Appreciate it Smile

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