How much do you keep in your checking?

amother

OP ↓

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

↑ OP ↓

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

↑ OP ↓

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.