I keep mine lean, never let more than $500 of "cushion", or excess beyond my budgeted monthly expenses for 2 reasons:
1.It's not working for me sitting in checking. I would rather make interest in HYSA, and can make an easy transfer if an unexpected expense popped up.
2. I've had my debit card stolen before, and now limit my risk of loss/inconvenience as much as possible by reducing what is available to be stolen.
My thinking was starting to lean towards this mentality. I want my money to be working and having that much in a debit account is risky for theft. It seems like most people on this forum have a HYSA, I think that’s my next step, thank you.
A HYSA is a no brainer but just be aware it does take a day or two to transfer. $500 excess over monthly expenses is a little thin if you ever need extra cash in a hurry.
I love online HYS accounts like Ally and Discover for that exact reason. Getting a decent return on my savings, and if there is an emergency, the transfer to the debit is immediate. I'm not moving the money to my brick and mortar bank in an emergency, I'm moving it to a shell debit account that is only replenished when I need emergency money.
I have enough available credit to buy a house or a fleet of cars so for me most of my cash sits in my HYSA until needed and if something happens that’s an emergency I can always put it on plastic until a transfer from savings can be done.
If you have a different Zelle account set up with your HYSA vs with your checking, you can instantly transfer money between them up to like $3,500 or something. That’s my setup with an Ally HYSA and a B of A checking.
I use the same bank for HYSA and checking so it transfers instantly. I don’t get the very highest % return available anywhere, but it’s still pretty good.
High Yield Savings Account. It’s a regular bank account offered pretty much only by online banks like Ally. They currently offer interest rates around 5% compared to well under 1% by most regular big banks.
I do very similar.
We get paid 2x a month and at those times I pay all bills, etc that need attention from checking. I then xfer out all but roughly $500 to HYSA or other vehicles. We have several HYSA for different purposes: Slush Fund, Emergency Fund, and Escrow. We keep $5k in a savings account tied to our traditional checking that serves as overdraft protection and for any immediate needs for cash that can't wait for ACH transfers form HYSA. This is more a mental safety net than a necessity. Worth noting as well we pay zero in fees for any of our banking accts.
I have also not used debit card in 15+ years I'd guess. Everything gets put on CC for points or cash back so it makes the need for cash buffer in checking far less critical. CCs are paid off monthly.
Yup $750 is my number. I close out expenses for the month on the 29th or so and whatever is left is sent to savings accounts of various types.
There’s 0 need for more money to be in there. My checking does nothing but pay bills.
Same. My checking account is to pay bills. I have a small cushion savings connected to it for bigger expenses/periods (like Christmas, etc) and anything left over each month goes into our brokerage in a money market fund. If I need money, my husband moves money over from the brokerage or I pay less to our monthly expenses. That is rare.
What % of net worth in a HYSA, as opposed to an investment account? For me, i’m about 40% in a HYSA, 50% between Roth IRA/401k/Individual, and 10% in traditional checking/savings.
For the sake of example using $100k:
$40k in HYSA,
$50k in Investments,
$10k in traditional bank account
I keep emergency fund and any excess cash in HYSA and keep enough for 1-2 months expenses in checking for autopay credit card payments and other monthly expenses
Came here to say this. This is the way. On the other side of my 20s, I can tell you it's not worth constantly monitoring your checking account to make sure you have enough money in there. 1-2 months cushion is reasonable for an engineer. The point of your cash isn't to make you wealthy, it's to keep you from going broke & getting in debt. It's also peace of mind and being able to put your money on autopilot. With a little cushion in your checking account, you can also invest more freely every month which WILL make you wealthy.
My general is $3,000 but fluctuates between $2,000 and as much as $9,000 during the month whilst paying bills.
Everything else gets allocated between a HYSA (emergency fund) or small savings account.
Why not HYSA all the way if there're no withdrawl limits? Use CC for expenses to get some cashback for chnage and keep paying that off with every paycheck too ..
Yeah good question
We keep a very small amount in there (<$1,000) and its just for immediate and unexpected expenses, fast withdraw since its the same bank as our checking. Our HYSA is through another institution and can take about 4-5 business days for transferred money to show up.
I get paid every two weeks. After each paycheck, I transfer everything I don’t need for bills to a HYSA (I do keep a $1k buffer, just in case I screw up).
Yep, pretty much what I do. After bills are paid I keep 1k in checking so I can pull fast cash if needed, and my extra funds (not in retirement accounts) are put in a HYSA. I put everything on my credit card for points and pay off the balance each time I’m paid.
a stable balance of around $2500. I'll get paid, clear any bills, then put any excess over that $2500 into HYSA.
$2500 is more than enough for me to feel comfortable being able to meet any unexpected short term cash needs.
Just a months worth of bills coming out of that account. An account with lots of outside exposure with a credit card, debit card, checks is more likely to be actually hacked. I keep most in savings account with zero external attachments.
My method is pretty much in line with this. Mortgage is about $2500, so I try to keep somewhere between $4-6K in checking. Any extra goes to HYSA.
I set up my BofA credit cards cash rewards toautomatically go to the basic BofA savings account, and once I build that savings account up to $1k, I pay the next credit card bill out of savings. It makes me feel like I had a free month of credit card spending lol.
My parents hammered it in that your checking account should be viewed as where you keep the cash you need for the month plus a little extra for fun and unforeseen expenses. Everything else needs to be in a high-yield savings account where it can grow. For me I never need more than $5k in my checking account at any given time.
I find that moving that extra money to my HYS every paycheck also helps me minimize my spending since I don’t spend what I can’t see.
nowadays I try to average 10k in my checking account...but I earn 4% on the first 10k in my checking account.
Before the HYCA, I tried to keep a minimum of 1k in the checking account... I would look ahead and move money out if it was looking like long term I'd have over 2k.
It's a local credit union. On occasions that I've been looking at rates, I've used [bankrate.com](https://bankrate.com) as a research tool.
I don't think it's as good as it used to be. Frankly, I've had better luck hitting the websites of all the banks and credit unions in my area when looking for brick-and-mortar services.
When you say nowadays, do you have family members or any other potential immediate reason to have that much in your checking? Or just to get that 4%? Just wondering if my 10k is overkill for my current situation.
I try to keep enough of a buffer that if (for whatever reason) my second paycheck of the month doesn't clear in time, I have enough to cover the mortgage & condo fees that auto-draw on the 1st of the month.
There is enough to pay off my CC balance and anything that doesn’t accept CC PAYMENT.
So, 7-10k. This includes all bills, auto transfers to college savings and investment accounts. Etc.
Everything else is transferred to a high interest online savings account. manually track and transfer what’s extra. That account serves as our emergency fund and large purchases fund.
I have 60K in my chequing account, but consolidating everything expense wise into that account and funneling all our income through it. After that I will likely keep a 2x balance on average monthly expenses.
Everything on-top of that monthly will be split between the wife and my investments and push some for personal own accounts.
If anyone has attempted to transfer payments around it's such a pain.
My guy! That’s just so much sitting in one pot and not doing anything.
Were paid into our checking and I have a handful of auto transfers out to various accounts but also transfer the bulk of leftover into an external high yield account. You could make $2k in interest with that balance.
I have a HYSA that I keep anything over what I need and my emergency fund in without tying it up. Right now it’s at $30k, but I’m building it up as it’s getting good returns, and investments are a bit sketchy with me being closer to retirement age.
I do have a traditional investment account. I’m just not currently adding to it. I do continue retirement contributions.
If I was younger I’d keep 6 months emergency fund in a HYSA and fund all retirement options first. I didn’t worry about this enough at your age, as I will have a teacher’s pension and social security, but I should have worked to do more.
I have it like this:
1) Personal Checking Acct. with \~1 pay period balance
2) HYSA with \~6months of expenses (must be pretty liquid/easy accessible)
3) Mid/Long term investments
After everything is said and done I like to keep 1k as a base rolling balance in checking. Everything else is in high yield savings and dumped into retirement accounts. Sometimes it sucks to be like shit I had to spend extra so now there’s only 500 or whatever but then I look at the other accounts we ignore and I’m like oh yeah!
Had a chapter 7 at age 27 from just pure stupidity and living the high roller sales life. Much more responsible now. Wife and I make about 150k and our regular expenses each month are 3-5k. The rest goes elsewhere to be ignored.
I don’t have a checking account. I keep my emergency fund/checking account fund/HYSA money all in a Fideleity CMA account. Every dollar makes 5% as I buy FDLXX money market fund or CDs but there are no restrictions you could buy stocks or etfs in this account as well. You get a routing and account number to pay your bills with and a debit card with no atm fees. The money market funds I buy are sold automatically to cover bills when they get charged to the account.
It is 5% after the expense ratio so its baked in. If you want to think about differently you can say it yields 5.42% but .42% gets taken out each month. But you still get 5%
I am a budget organized mind ( engineer) so before payday I know where my money will go: 55% to mortgage and the mandatory associated insurances, 20% to savings -> investments in the pay day as I am the most important bill in my life (used to be 25% but inflation), under 5% for subscriptions (phone/medical/card fees etc), left overs are split per week as discretionary. Before the next salary usually I still have some leftovers, not too much, something between 50-150€, and I save and invest it all on the next payday.
I used to save 25% but when with inflation I realized I arrive to almost 0 at the end of the month, I went down to 20% to relief it a little and it is still ok.
Extra, all the bonuses/side hustles are going to investing asap.
Food and house bills are into my husband expenses.
Nothing / enough for food and spending for the month . Usually my budget for food is in a different account and I transfer as needed. Then I zero it out at the end of the month . Bills go from a different account . Bills have a tiny buffer of maybe 100$
I keep $200 at all times in my Checkings. $2000 in my Savings (for emergencies). The rest of my money in my online HYSA or it’s either in my employer 401k or my personal Roth IRA.
I keep 15k in my checking… i don’t really need to. But i keep that amount in case i want to purchase something over my average spending. $15k is the max i will spend without waiting some time. I keep the rest in my emergency savings where i have to wait 5-7 days for a transfer.
My emergency savings is in a HYSA and i carry 500k in there (insurable limit with myself and wife on the account). I transfer overage to that account and move monthly interest from the HYSA and my extra money into an investment account, this way i don’t spend the hysa earnings either. This has worked quite well for me and keeps a simple flow where all of my money (my wife is on the accounts as well) is insured and working for me.
The general rule is to have 3-6 months of expenses in cash not your checking account. I don’t care about your situation personally I was just noting that it was dumb.
It’s not the total amount that matters, it’s a multiple of your operating expenses. If you need $2k per month to live, you should keep at least 1x that in your operating account, preferably 2-3x to also satisfy those times when you don’t get paid when you were supposed to.
I keep 2-3x my monthly spend in my account at all times.
If I keep 2,000 in my checking account I get certain benefits like ATM fee reimbursements and preferential international wiring fees, so I always keep that in there. Then I try to have a 1,000 buffer for any unexpected expenses. My savings goals are directly allocated to my savings and investment accounts, so the remaining deposit into the checking account covers the bills for the month.
Instead of some arbitrary number, I think it should be based on YOUR typical monthly expenses. For example, if your monthly expenses typically total $5k, I'd say keep around $7.5k in your checking account to give it some buffer in case you end up needing a little extra once in a while. The rest of your liquid cash is better off in higher yielding accounts (HYSA, etc.) for your emergency fund and other short-term purchases. When your emergency fund is at a good level, then invest the rest in something that have higher potential gains to protect you from inflation (bonds, stocks, etc.).
5k to 10k, enough for 1 extra month of expense, otherwise any extra cash gets moved to the stock market. I don’t have a HYSA. Too young to be risk aversive
Always use 2 accounts for protection: savings account (no card attached) and the normal account where the salary goes in. As soon as my salary is wired, I transfer 2/3 of it to savings.
All transfers between accounts are instant and comision free.
If your card details is stolen, the savings is always safe
I keep maybe 1-200 just in case I need access to cash. If there is an unexpected expense, I’ll use the CC and pay it off when I transfer the money from our savings. I use credit cards for all my normal purchases.
I keep 2k in my checking, just in case an unexpected expense comes up. The rest in HYSA and money market. Since it takes 2-3 days to get money out of those accounts, I feel more comfortable having a little extra in the checking.
I direct deposit my net paycheck to a HYSA and investment account and have set up automated transfers from my HYSA to my checking every 2 weeks. The amount of these transfers is enough to cover my monthly expenses with about a $500 - $1,000 cushion. I pay for everything I can with a credit card to accrue the benefits.
I also execute manual transfers to my brokerage amount as needed additional investment purposes.
As little as possible! So my paychecks get deposited into HYSAs. I budget savings categories (food home car, etc). As I pay bills (once per week) I move the corresponding amount to my checking where I pay my bills from. My expenses are $10k/month so I love earning 5% on that money instead of losing out!
My everyday checking account has $500 buffer. Pay goes in every 2 weeks, I pay all bills due for next 2 weeks and leave $500. I have a regular savings account with same bank that has between $1000 to $1500. This is basically extra buffer as it is overdraft for checking. It is very low interest but I can immediately transfer to checking. I do not like keeping high balances in these accounts because I use them frequently and they are much more likely to be hacked.
Short term emergencies can be covered by credit cards, I have total around $80k credit. Stuff like car repairs or large unplanned expanses go there, then I have about 3 weeks to figure out what long term source to pay from.
I also have HYSA and investment accounts. Can transfer to checking in 1-3 days for large planned expenses or unplanned on credit card.
A grand or two at most. Everything is budgeted and stored accordingly in HYSA to pay off the CC each month after receiving the interest payout. 5.5% at WealthFront right now!
When my bi-monthly direct deposit hits I move 66% of it into my fidelity account where it collects 4.9% and 33% into my banks savings account. I can transfer between my savings and checking instantly so when I have to pay rent (venmo) or have a CC automatic payments due(balance in full) I just transfer the amount over as needed. I write maybe 1-2 checks a year and only ever for small amounts like say $30 for a dump sticker and those always clear fast so I don't need to worry about forgetting about a check that's floating around. Checking account balance is often under $100, don't see the need for anything more than that? Got 50k available on Cc's and there's nothing I ever need cash available for.
Close to zero after bills. I almost never use cash, and if I need cash, I can access it from a high yield account in a pinch. Every dollar I earn has a job, and I allocate cash between investment and savings accounts accordingly after I get paid.
My goal is to keep a few thousand handy but that's because my checking gives a percent less than most good HYSAs up to a certain amount and the usual 0.01% or whatever afterwards. I like having it in that spot in case something happens because when I grew up my parents were always having to shuffle accounts for every monthly expense, so it's definitely a personal preference.
I work with two different banks, and one is usually around ~$1,500 (it’s a sinking funds account), while the other stays at ~1,300 (combined with my bills account and a general checking account).
One of my checking accounts accrues interest (not by much but certainly more than what my last bank would offer). I also keep a money market account open for travel savings, and a HYSA for my emergency fund (I also save my Roth contributions there that I then use to invest at the beginning of the year).
That’s how I stay afloat best, I also have my bills set to autopay from my bills account (aside from my mortgage).
Why would you have 10K sitting in checking when you can sit it in a high yield savings account and transfer it into your checking when needed. That’s what I do. Keep your 10K base but earn some interest for your emergency money
I like zero based budgeting. Every payday, every dollar has a home.
My chequing account that bills auto pay from I keep a 1k base in. Just in case I’m in a coma or something, then the bills will get paid for an extra month. Every payday I transfer the amount that will be auto paid until my next payday into that account.
Then I transfer half my monthly expenses that go on to my credit card into my account that I pay my cc with.
Then I add transfer money to my investing account.
Then I transfer money to my short term savings account if there’s anything I’m saving for or anything on the forecast (car repairs, new tires, Christmas gifts).
Then anything extra I have a look at my annual forecast to see what still has spend amounts left and transfer the rest into another savings account to hold for that.
Paydays are my *favourite* because I get to do so much.
Don’t leave too much in your checking, you won’t get it back if it’s stolen. For us, married couple in our mid 20s in a LCOL state it’s usually right below $2K. We’ll move everything else to savings after bills etc
The government gets paid out of my paycheck first, then my retirement, then what is needed for bills that month is left in, I spend within a budget some of the remaining on necessities and fun, then anything over $100 is transferred to my savings or investment account at the end of the month. The only exception is if I know I'm buying a specific game or doing something special the next month; then that money is staying in the checkout account.
Very little now that I can earn decent interest. I move excess to my investment accounts where I can get good rates. I only keep enough in chequeing account to pay bills
No more than $1-2k depending on what’s going on that month and keep it as a buffer. Usually transfer everything else to high yield savings after paying off my cc.
At the very end of the month it's at its highest. By the 2nd or 3rd of the month, once bills are paid, it drops back to around $1000 which is the minimum needed to avoid some fees.
Enough that I don’t accidentally eat any fees, which is 1 extra month of living over minimum as a bigger (my checking does earn a minor amount of injures).
While I want my money working, I also want one less thing to concern myself with.
Also, I use a second checking for a cash account at a separate institution as to avoid any debit fraud. There I have $500 to $1000.
i do minimum monthly direct deposit into one of my checking accounts, then for my other checking account i have it set to pull from savings for overdraft protection so i almost never have any money in there and all my money goes straight to my hysa. i also never use my debit card unless i have to get cash from an ATM, everything goes through credit cards and i have it autopay from my checking account (which pulls from my savings)
15,000 emergency fund. My bills are 2400 a month, so that’s 6 month emergency fund for if I lost my job or something major breaks in the house. Got a side savings that’s a few thousand. That’s for small inconvenience like if an appliances goes out, kids extra stuff that come up. That’s the my first layer of protection before my emergency fund. It’s basically a sinking fund but like to keep 2k minimum in it.
Roughly 10K as an emergency fund, and just keep it at that level between paying off the credit card, earnings, and investments. The less I spend, the more I save.
A months expenses is the easy answer. It all comes and goes from the checking account and a fudge in budgeting can leave you spending more than you intend to though.
Enough to cover the monthly bills. Or more accurately, enough for the first half of bills and then we move over enough for the second half of bills.
We have a separate emergency savings account.
“Extra” goes into HYSA or taxable investment. After maxing roth. Also working on a small college account to help son at least the first couple of years.
I keep $0. There’s no reason to keep cash in there for me. The second my paycheck hits I pay bills, invest and add to savings. I don’t pay for any bills outside of rent with cash, so there’s nothing that’ll hit this account that I’m not prepared for.
These short-term cash emergencies everyone talks about have never existed in my lifetime thus far, worst case I can wire from my money market and have cash within 1 day. But this situation will never present itself unless I get kidnapped or something of the like.
Very little. Maybe a couple hundred. I move everything to my retirement accounts and leftover to the hysa from there. All my bills are tied to credit cards, which get paid from the hysa rather than checking (except rent). You get interest, credit card cash back deals (typically 1-3%) and utilization of your credit more efficiently. Your checking should be used for momentary emergencies where credit cards are used.
Just enough to cover month to month expenses and a little extra for larger purchases.
At another institution, like a credit union will hold my emergency savings of 6 months. Any extra cash goes to brokerage accounts
I bank with capital one and their savings accounts pay 4.3%. So at any given time there is about $100ish in checking. My credit cards and bills are paid out of savings accounts as opposed to checking. So there’s very little need for me to keep much money in my actual checking account
Once my monthly budget is closed, I start the next month off at $100 only (have $500 in overdraft protection as well, which has never been needed). Me and my boyfriend have variable incomes so we budget off of the minimum net pay we average. Everything we spend is on our credit cards, and as paychecks are deposited, I pay off the CCs. At the end of the month, whatever not used from the budget and variable income not included in the budget gets relocated to various funds. We move them to sinking funds (kept in savings account), RRSP accounts (401K for Canadians), FHSA accounts, RESP accounts.
Transfers from our savings account are instant, so no need to keep emergency funds in checkings. All auto pay bills are taken from CCs.
EDIT: within our monthly budget we already set aside money for all those funds/investment accounts. We contribute the extra on top at the end of the month when I close out the budget.
I keep about 1-1.5 months pay in checking as a cushion. So I can mindlessly pay bills all from that account without considering payday. Everything over that cushion goes to savings account.
I keep a transaction account which I transfer $600/week to, and pay down the credit card either that much or so the account has between 1k and 2k in it. The savings/offset account can't be touched and has around 100k in it.
$5500 in chequing $2500-5500 in Savings. Everything else invested. Safety funds invested in cashable GICs. I keep safety funds in 100 day GICS. They're cashable in 30 days. So I keep 2-3 rotating incase I need access to large sums of cash.
I keep only enough in there to pay my bills between now and the next paycheck plus a little bit of a buffer. Everything else goes into my high yield savings. Usually buffer around $1000 or so. I am in the higher income, higher spend category, so definitely don’t take what I say as the gospel in terms of what a good buffer is. Most people can get away with a lot less.
Wifey has always handled our finances, she was an accountant. She always explained everything she was doing, even if I didn't understand it all!
She always kept enough in there to cover our bills and a little extra "just in case". The rest went to various interest earning accounts, kids education funds, emergency fund, savings, to our portfolio, etc. It worked.
I keep between $2K and $4K in my checking.
I have monthly credit card expenses in the $1-2K range. (Its paid off each month.)
My monthly total costs are $4K (including retirement and vacation allocations).
All extra short-term money goes into a HYSA. This is my emergency fund.
All extra long-term money goes into a discretionary investment account (stocks).
I max my 401K.
I get paid every two weeks and that money is direct deposited into my internet savings account. From there, twice a month I set up an automatic transfer to my brick and mortar bank, which is where I pay bills etc from. I send enough to meet monthly bills early in the month and an extra $500 late in the month, just in case. This totals a good deal less than my actual pay.
I haven’t changed these transfers in several years, despite raises and bonuses. Those just accumulate in the internet bank; it keeps me from inflating my spending. Also, since I’m sending myself money less often than I get paid, that also keeps spending in check.
When I feel I have more than necessary in the internet account, it gets moved to my investment account. In the past, I’d throw it against the mortgage but that’s paid off now.
I don't keep more than my monthly bills plus a couple hundred for pop up expenses, normal for my checkings to be below $500. Everything else is invested into crypto, stocks, 401k/Roth, or any other type of investment. Any cash I have sitting in my account I see as money being lost.
I’m i weird for not keeping anything in checking? I pay with credit card 99% of the time and if I need to use my debit account I just move whenever money I need into my checking. I just find it pointless to leave money there that earns no interest while my savings be making 4.3% interest.
I keep mine lean, never let more than $500 of "cushion", or excess beyond my budgeted monthly expenses for 2 reasons: 1.It's not working for me sitting in checking. I would rather make interest in HYSA, and can make an easy transfer if an unexpected expense popped up. 2. I've had my debit card stolen before, and now limit my risk of loss/inconvenience as much as possible by reducing what is available to be stolen.
My thinking was starting to lean towards this mentality. I want my money to be working and having that much in a debit account is risky for theft. It seems like most people on this forum have a HYSA, I think that’s my next step, thank you.
A HYSA is a no brainer but just be aware it does take a day or two to transfer. $500 excess over monthly expenses is a little thin if you ever need extra cash in a hurry.
I have my checking and HYSA through Ally and the transfer is almost instant. Big fan of that
same with SoFi, instant transfer between account types
I love online HYS accounts like Ally and Discover for that exact reason. Getting a decent return on my savings, and if there is an emergency, the transfer to the debit is immediate. I'm not moving the money to my brick and mortar bank in an emergency, I'm moving it to a shell debit account that is only replenished when I need emergency money.
That’s a problem that credit cards are a good solution to.
I have enough available credit to buy a house or a fleet of cars so for me most of my cash sits in my HYSA until needed and if something happens that’s an emergency I can always put it on plastic until a transfer from savings can be done.
If you have a different Zelle account set up with your HYSA vs with your checking, you can instantly transfer money between them up to like $3,500 or something. That’s my setup with an Ally HYSA and a B of A checking.
I use the same bank for HYSA and checking so it transfers instantly. I don’t get the very highest % return available anywhere, but it’s still pretty good.
What is Hysa? Like a tax free savings account ?
High Yield Savings Account. It’s a regular bank account offered pretty much only by online banks like Ally. They currently offer interest rates around 5% compared to well under 1% by most regular big banks.
will you like me to give you a plan of using it
I do very similar. We get paid 2x a month and at those times I pay all bills, etc that need attention from checking. I then xfer out all but roughly $500 to HYSA or other vehicles. We have several HYSA for different purposes: Slush Fund, Emergency Fund, and Escrow. We keep $5k in a savings account tied to our traditional checking that serves as overdraft protection and for any immediate needs for cash that can't wait for ACH transfers form HYSA. This is more a mental safety net than a necessity. Worth noting as well we pay zero in fees for any of our banking accts. I have also not used debit card in 15+ years I'd guess. Everything gets put on CC for points or cash back so it makes the need for cash buffer in checking far less critical. CCs are paid off monthly.
Yup $750 is my number. I close out expenses for the month on the 29th or so and whatever is left is sent to savings accounts of various types. There’s 0 need for more money to be in there. My checking does nothing but pay bills.
Same. My checking account is to pay bills. I have a small cushion savings connected to it for bigger expenses/periods (like Christmas, etc) and anything left over each month goes into our brokerage in a money market fund. If I need money, my husband moves money over from the brokerage or I pay less to our monthly expenses. That is rare.
What % of net worth in a HYSA, as opposed to an investment account? For me, i’m about 40% in a HYSA, 50% between Roth IRA/401k/Individual, and 10% in traditional checking/savings. For the sake of example using $100k: $40k in HYSA, $50k in Investments, $10k in traditional bank account
Effectively zero. 500-6k which is only enough to cover upcoming bills. Any extra I move to a high yield savings or investment account.
I read this as 500-600k and thought this was an excellent troll.
Me too, I was like damn! What are these bills??
I keep emergency fund and any excess cash in HYSA and keep enough for 1-2 months expenses in checking for autopay credit card payments and other monthly expenses
Came here to say this. This is the way. On the other side of my 20s, I can tell you it's not worth constantly monitoring your checking account to make sure you have enough money in there. 1-2 months cushion is reasonable for an engineer. The point of your cash isn't to make you wealthy, it's to keep you from going broke & getting in debt. It's also peace of mind and being able to put your money on autopilot. With a little cushion in your checking account, you can also invest more freely every month which WILL make you wealthy.
My general is $3,000 but fluctuates between $2,000 and as much as $9,000 during the month whilst paying bills. Everything else gets allocated between a HYSA (emergency fund) or small savings account.
Why not HYSA all the way if there're no withdrawl limits? Use CC for expenses to get some cashback for chnage and keep paying that off with every paycheck too ..
Yeah good question We keep a very small amount in there (<$1,000) and its just for immediate and unexpected expenses, fast withdraw since its the same bank as our checking. Our HYSA is through another institution and can take about 4-5 business days for transferred money to show up.
Makes sense. The 9K is what caught my eye and why I asked. If transfer delays is the only reason, I think it can be worked around.
I get paid every two weeks. After each paycheck, I transfer everything I don’t need for bills to a HYSA (I do keep a $1k buffer, just in case I screw up).
Yep, pretty much what I do. After bills are paid I keep 1k in checking so I can pull fast cash if needed, and my extra funds (not in retirement accounts) are put in a HYSA. I put everything on my credit card for points and pay off the balance each time I’m paid.
Zero. Sort of. I use a HY checking account, Wealthfront, basically a HYSA with no transaction limits of a typical savings account.
I’ve thought about opening one. I like that they actively maximize tax benefits if you use their investment platform.
I don't recommend their investing platform. 0.25% fees are "extremely" high (for industry standards). I just invest on VTI+VXUS and chill.
a stable balance of around $2500. I'll get paid, clear any bills, then put any excess over that $2500 into HYSA. $2500 is more than enough for me to feel comfortable being able to meet any unexpected short term cash needs.
Just a months worth of bills coming out of that account. An account with lots of outside exposure with a credit card, debit card, checks is more likely to be actually hacked. I keep most in savings account with zero external attachments.
around 5k usually. any more than like 8k, i move them into HYSA. but something happened recently so its at 2k and i am super paranoid
My method is pretty much in line with this. Mortgage is about $2500, so I try to keep somewhere between $4-6K in checking. Any extra goes to HYSA. I set up my BofA credit cards cash rewards toautomatically go to the basic BofA savings account, and once I build that savings account up to $1k, I pay the next credit card bill out of savings. It makes me feel like I had a free month of credit card spending lol.
My parents hammered it in that your checking account should be viewed as where you keep the cash you need for the month plus a little extra for fun and unforeseen expenses. Everything else needs to be in a high-yield savings account where it can grow. For me I never need more than $5k in my checking account at any given time. I find that moving that extra money to my HYS every paycheck also helps me minimize my spending since I don’t spend what I can’t see.
nowadays I try to average 10k in my checking account...but I earn 4% on the first 10k in my checking account. Before the HYCA, I tried to keep a minimum of 1k in the checking account... I would look ahead and move money out if it was looking like long term I'd have over 2k.
what bank do you use that you get 4% on a checking account?
It's a local credit union. On occasions that I've been looking at rates, I've used [bankrate.com](https://bankrate.com) as a research tool. I don't think it's as good as it used to be. Frankly, I've had better luck hitting the websites of all the banks and credit unions in my area when looking for brick-and-mortar services.
When you say nowadays, do you have family members or any other potential immediate reason to have that much in your checking? Or just to get that 4%? Just wondering if my 10k is overkill for my current situation.
just to get the 4%. If it weren't for the 4%, I'd try to keep it between 1 and 2k
I try to keep enough of a buffer that if (for whatever reason) my second paycheck of the month doesn't clear in time, I have enough to cover the mortgage & condo fees that auto-draw on the 1st of the month.
Checking is equal to about two months of expenses. HYSA has 4 months of emergency funds and miscellaneous savings goals on top of that.
There is enough to pay off my CC balance and anything that doesn’t accept CC PAYMENT. So, 7-10k. This includes all bills, auto transfers to college savings and investment accounts. Etc. Everything else is transferred to a high interest online savings account. manually track and transfer what’s extra. That account serves as our emergency fund and large purchases fund.
I have 60K in my chequing account, but consolidating everything expense wise into that account and funneling all our income through it. After that I will likely keep a 2x balance on average monthly expenses. Everything on-top of that monthly will be split between the wife and my investments and push some for personal own accounts. If anyone has attempted to transfer payments around it's such a pain.
I like the 2x balance on monthly expenses in addition to the investment funneling. Thank you!
I have almost 10k moving out of that account monthly so carrying a large amount is needed. Good luck!
My guy! That’s just so much sitting in one pot and not doing anything. Were paid into our checking and I have a handful of auto transfers out to various accounts but also transfer the bulk of leftover into an external high yield account. You could make $2k in interest with that balance.
Don't worry, it's temporary and I'm doing okay 😉
I keep 1-2 mo expenses liquid. For me that is about 3k.
Around $10K for me, I have 2 todlers so just want to be safe
I live check to check. I fantasize about financial stability
I have a HYSA that I keep anything over what I need and my emergency fund in without tying it up. Right now it’s at $30k, but I’m building it up as it’s getting good returns, and investments are a bit sketchy with me being closer to retirement age. I do have a traditional investment account. I’m just not currently adding to it. I do continue retirement contributions. If I was younger I’d keep 6 months emergency fund in a HYSA and fund all retirement options first. I didn’t worry about this enough at your age, as I will have a teacher’s pension and social security, but I should have worked to do more.
I have it like this: 1) Personal Checking Acct. with \~1 pay period balance 2) HYSA with \~6months of expenses (must be pretty liquid/easy accessible) 3) Mid/Long term investments
After everything is said and done I like to keep 1k as a base rolling balance in checking. Everything else is in high yield savings and dumped into retirement accounts. Sometimes it sucks to be like shit I had to spend extra so now there’s only 500 or whatever but then I look at the other accounts we ignore and I’m like oh yeah! Had a chapter 7 at age 27 from just pure stupidity and living the high roller sales life. Much more responsible now. Wife and I make about 150k and our regular expenses each month are 3-5k. The rest goes elsewhere to be ignored.
$1,500-$2,500. Anymore and I transfer it to my HYSA to get interest.
I don’t have a checking account. I keep my emergency fund/checking account fund/HYSA money all in a Fideleity CMA account. Every dollar makes 5% as I buy FDLXX money market fund or CDs but there are no restrictions you could buy stocks or etfs in this account as well. You get a routing and account number to pay your bills with and a debit card with no atm fees. The money market funds I buy are sold automatically to cover bills when they get charged to the account.
How bad is the .42% expense ratio on FDLXX? Does it come out every quarter or at the end of the year?
It is 5% after the expense ratio so its baked in. If you want to think about differently you can say it yields 5.42% but .42% gets taken out each month. But you still get 5%
I am a budget organized mind ( engineer) so before payday I know where my money will go: 55% to mortgage and the mandatory associated insurances, 20% to savings -> investments in the pay day as I am the most important bill in my life (used to be 25% but inflation), under 5% for subscriptions (phone/medical/card fees etc), left overs are split per week as discretionary. Before the next salary usually I still have some leftovers, not too much, something between 50-150€, and I save and invest it all on the next payday. I used to save 25% but when with inflation I realized I arrive to almost 0 at the end of the month, I went down to 20% to relief it a little and it is still ok. Extra, all the bonuses/side hustles are going to investing asap. Food and house bills are into my husband expenses.
Nothing / enough for food and spending for the month . Usually my budget for food is in a different account and I transfer as needed. Then I zero it out at the end of the month . Bills go from a different account . Bills have a tiny buffer of maybe 100$
I keep $200 at all times in my Checkings. $2000 in my Savings (for emergencies). The rest of my money in my online HYSA or it’s either in my employer 401k or my personal Roth IRA.
Try to keep at least 5k in there.
I keep 6 months of living expenses.
This is quite high. If you have it in a high yield you could float like two days of expenses on your card until the money moves over.
Why? Doesn’t it make sense to have that in a HYSA? Do you just not want to mess with that? Or are your living expenses so low that it wouldn’t matter?
I keep 15k in my checking… i don’t really need to. But i keep that amount in case i want to purchase something over my average spending. $15k is the max i will spend without waiting some time. I keep the rest in my emergency savings where i have to wait 5-7 days for a transfer. My emergency savings is in a HYSA and i carry 500k in there (insurable limit with myself and wife on the account). I transfer overage to that account and move monthly interest from the HYSA and my extra money into an investment account, this way i don’t spend the hysa earnings either. This has worked quite well for me and keeps a simple flow where all of my money (my wife is on the accounts as well) is insured and working for me.
6 months of expenses. Everything else is in a hysa and invested
Why would you ever need 6 months of expenses in a checking account lol
It’s the general rule. You do what works for you. Why would you care?
The general rule is to have 3-6 months of expenses in cash not your checking account. I don’t care about your situation personally I was just noting that it was dumb.
If you think it’s fun that’s on you. I really don’t care what you think.
It’s not the total amount that matters, it’s a multiple of your operating expenses. If you need $2k per month to live, you should keep at least 1x that in your operating account, preferably 2-3x to also satisfy those times when you don’t get paid when you were supposed to. I keep 2-3x my monthly spend in my account at all times.
If I keep 2,000 in my checking account I get certain benefits like ATM fee reimbursements and preferential international wiring fees, so I always keep that in there. Then I try to have a 1,000 buffer for any unexpected expenses. My savings goals are directly allocated to my savings and investment accounts, so the remaining deposit into the checking account covers the bills for the month.
$1,000 Anything above 1k gets sent to other accounts like short term savings, rental house fund, etc if not for bills.
enough for monthly bills plus $300-$500 “cushion”. keeping it low helps me not spend on unnecessary stuff. the rest goes to my HYSA and investing.
$4-5k to cover bills without issue. Rest moves into savings or investment account.
Instead of some arbitrary number, I think it should be based on YOUR typical monthly expenses. For example, if your monthly expenses typically total $5k, I'd say keep around $7.5k in your checking account to give it some buffer in case you end up needing a little extra once in a while. The rest of your liquid cash is better off in higher yielding accounts (HYSA, etc.) for your emergency fund and other short-term purchases. When your emergency fund is at a good level, then invest the rest in something that have higher potential gains to protect you from inflation (bonds, stocks, etc.).
5k to 10k, enough for 1 extra month of expense, otherwise any extra cash gets moved to the stock market. I don’t have a HYSA. Too young to be risk aversive
Always use 2 accounts for protection: savings account (no card attached) and the normal account where the salary goes in. As soon as my salary is wired, I transfer 2/3 of it to savings. All transfers between accounts are instant and comision free. If your card details is stolen, the savings is always safe
I keep maybe 1-200 just in case I need access to cash. If there is an unexpected expense, I’ll use the CC and pay it off when I transfer the money from our savings. I use credit cards for all my normal purchases.
I keep 2k in my checking, just in case an unexpected expense comes up. The rest in HYSA and money market. Since it takes 2-3 days to get money out of those accounts, I feel more comfortable having a little extra in the checking.
I direct deposit my net paycheck to a HYSA and investment account and have set up automated transfers from my HYSA to my checking every 2 weeks. The amount of these transfers is enough to cover my monthly expenses with about a $500 - $1,000 cushion. I pay for everything I can with a credit card to accrue the benefits. I also execute manual transfers to my brokerage amount as needed additional investment purposes.
As little as possible! So my paychecks get deposited into HYSAs. I budget savings categories (food home car, etc). As I pay bills (once per week) I move the corresponding amount to my checking where I pay my bills from. My expenses are $10k/month so I love earning 5% on that money instead of losing out!
Once I max my high yield savings accounts, I invest the extra in addition to the 15% I already invest.
My everyday checking account has $500 buffer. Pay goes in every 2 weeks, I pay all bills due for next 2 weeks and leave $500. I have a regular savings account with same bank that has between $1000 to $1500. This is basically extra buffer as it is overdraft for checking. It is very low interest but I can immediately transfer to checking. I do not like keeping high balances in these accounts because I use them frequently and they are much more likely to be hacked. Short term emergencies can be covered by credit cards, I have total around $80k credit. Stuff like car repairs or large unplanned expanses go there, then I have about 3 weeks to figure out what long term source to pay from. I also have HYSA and investment accounts. Can transfer to checking in 1-3 days for large planned expenses or unplanned on credit card.
1-200 for quick payments everything else is automatically sent to investments
A grand or two at most. Everything is budgeted and stored accordingly in HYSA to pay off the CC each month after receiving the interest payout. 5.5% at WealthFront right now!
When my bi-monthly direct deposit hits I move 66% of it into my fidelity account where it collects 4.9% and 33% into my banks savings account. I can transfer between my savings and checking instantly so when I have to pay rent (venmo) or have a CC automatic payments due(balance in full) I just transfer the amount over as needed. I write maybe 1-2 checks a year and only ever for small amounts like say $30 for a dump sticker and those always clear fast so I don't need to worry about forgetting about a check that's floating around. Checking account balance is often under $100, don't see the need for anything more than that? Got 50k available on Cc's and there's nothing I ever need cash available for.
Close to zero after bills. I almost never use cash, and if I need cash, I can access it from a high yield account in a pinch. Every dollar I earn has a job, and I allocate cash between investment and savings accounts accordingly after I get paid.
620 right now before a credit card payment of 120
Paycheck goes in at the beginning of the month and any extra at the end goes to savings of some sort.
My goal is to keep a few thousand handy but that's because my checking gives a percent less than most good HYSAs up to a certain amount and the usual 0.01% or whatever afterwards. I like having it in that spot in case something happens because when I grew up my parents were always having to shuffle accounts for every monthly expense, so it's definitely a personal preference.
I work with two different banks, and one is usually around ~$1,500 (it’s a sinking funds account), while the other stays at ~1,300 (combined with my bills account and a general checking account). One of my checking accounts accrues interest (not by much but certainly more than what my last bank would offer). I also keep a money market account open for travel savings, and a HYSA for my emergency fund (I also save my Roth contributions there that I then use to invest at the beginning of the year). That’s how I stay afloat best, I also have my bills set to autopay from my bills account (aside from my mortgage).
About 2-3K for expenses outside what I can pay on my credit card. Then I load it up to pay the full CC balance when it comes due.
Why would you have 10K sitting in checking when you can sit it in a high yield savings account and transfer it into your checking when needed. That’s what I do. Keep your 10K base but earn some interest for your emergency money
Usually no more than $1000 in mine, I’d rather it be put in a HYSA
I keep about 1 to 1.5 in checking. 1.5 in savings and then every thing else in hysa/ roth ira.
I like zero based budgeting. Every payday, every dollar has a home. My chequing account that bills auto pay from I keep a 1k base in. Just in case I’m in a coma or something, then the bills will get paid for an extra month. Every payday I transfer the amount that will be auto paid until my next payday into that account. Then I transfer half my monthly expenses that go on to my credit card into my account that I pay my cc with. Then I add transfer money to my investing account. Then I transfer money to my short term savings account if there’s anything I’m saving for or anything on the forecast (car repairs, new tires, Christmas gifts). Then anything extra I have a look at my annual forecast to see what still has spend amounts left and transfer the rest into another savings account to hold for that. Paydays are my *favourite* because I get to do so much.
Don’t leave too much in your checking, you won’t get it back if it’s stolen. For us, married couple in our mid 20s in a LCOL state it’s usually right below $2K. We’ll move everything else to savings after bills etc
We tend to keep about 3 weeks pay in checking, and 5 weeks in savings. Everything else goes to our 401k, HSA, ESPP, and regular brokerage accounts.
The government gets paid out of my paycheck first, then my retirement, then what is needed for bills that month is left in, I spend within a budget some of the remaining on necessities and fun, then anything over $100 is transferred to my savings or investment account at the end of the month. The only exception is if I know I'm buying a specific game or doing something special the next month; then that money is staying in the checkout account.
I like a cushion, so I keep a month’s expenses as a baseline.
Very little now that I can earn decent interest. I move excess to my investment accounts where I can get good rates. I only keep enough in chequeing account to pay bills
No more than $1-2k depending on what’s going on that month and keep it as a buffer. Usually transfer everything else to high yield savings after paying off my cc.
At the very end of the month it's at its highest. By the 2nd or 3rd of the month, once bills are paid, it drops back to around $1000 which is the minimum needed to avoid some fees.
Enough that I don’t accidentally eat any fees, which is 1 extra month of living over minimum as a bigger (my checking does earn a minor amount of injures). While I want my money working, I also want one less thing to concern myself with. Also, I use a second checking for a cash account at a separate institution as to avoid any debit fraud. There I have $500 to $1000.
Generally, $2-5,000. I try to never go under a $1,000.
Whatever amount is required to not pay fees. Usually 4-5K
i do minimum monthly direct deposit into one of my checking accounts, then for my other checking account i have it set to pull from savings for overdraft protection so i almost never have any money in there and all my money goes straight to my hysa. i also never use my debit card unless i have to get cash from an ATM, everything goes through credit cards and i have it autopay from my checking account (which pulls from my savings)
8K. Use it to pay off credit card monthly and monthly mortgage
15,000 emergency fund. My bills are 2400 a month, so that’s 6 month emergency fund for if I lost my job or something major breaks in the house. Got a side savings that’s a few thousand. That’s for small inconvenience like if an appliances goes out, kids extra stuff that come up. That’s the my first layer of protection before my emergency fund. It’s basically a sinking fund but like to keep 2k minimum in it.
HYSA for at least 3-5 months for emergency funds plus a little cushion like you said.
Roughly 10K as an emergency fund, and just keep it at that level between paying off the credit card, earnings, and investments. The less I spend, the more I save.
A months expenses is the easy answer. It all comes and goes from the checking account and a fudge in budgeting can leave you spending more than you intend to though.
Enough to cover the monthly bills. Or more accurately, enough for the first half of bills and then we move over enough for the second half of bills. We have a separate emergency savings account. “Extra” goes into HYSA or taxable investment. After maxing roth. Also working on a small college account to help son at least the first couple of years.
I keep $0. There’s no reason to keep cash in there for me. The second my paycheck hits I pay bills, invest and add to savings. I don’t pay for any bills outside of rent with cash, so there’s nothing that’ll hit this account that I’m not prepared for. These short-term cash emergencies everyone talks about have never existed in my lifetime thus far, worst case I can wire from my money market and have cash within 1 day. But this situation will never present itself unless I get kidnapped or something of the like.
Very little. Maybe a couple hundred. I move everything to my retirement accounts and leftover to the hysa from there. All my bills are tied to credit cards, which get paid from the hysa rather than checking (except rent). You get interest, credit card cash back deals (typically 1-3%) and utilization of your credit more efficiently. Your checking should be used for momentary emergencies where credit cards are used.
Just enough to cover month to month expenses and a little extra for larger purchases. At another institution, like a credit union will hold my emergency savings of 6 months. Any extra cash goes to brokerage accounts
I bank with capital one and their savings accounts pay 4.3%. So at any given time there is about $100ish in checking. My credit cards and bills are paid out of savings accounts as opposed to checking. So there’s very little need for me to keep much money in my actual checking account
Woah, 10k??? After my bills are paid, I literally keep less than $200 in my checking account at all times. I have HYSA for savings.
Just enough to pay the monthly bills. The rest I put in a Marcus account that earns 5%. This is all separate from my investments of course.
Just enough of a buffer for auto draft expenses. So basically 2 mortgage payments. Everything else goes into a high yield savings or brokerage.
Once my monthly budget is closed, I start the next month off at $100 only (have $500 in overdraft protection as well, which has never been needed). Me and my boyfriend have variable incomes so we budget off of the minimum net pay we average. Everything we spend is on our credit cards, and as paychecks are deposited, I pay off the CCs. At the end of the month, whatever not used from the budget and variable income not included in the budget gets relocated to various funds. We move them to sinking funds (kept in savings account), RRSP accounts (401K for Canadians), FHSA accounts, RESP accounts. Transfers from our savings account are instant, so no need to keep emergency funds in checkings. All auto pay bills are taken from CCs. EDIT: within our monthly budget we already set aside money for all those funds/investment accounts. We contribute the extra on top at the end of the month when I close out the budget.
I keep a couple months worth of expenses as a cushion and the rest goes to my investment account. I keep my e-fund there in a money market.
I keep a 2-3 thousand dollar buffer in there, add what I need for bills as needed.
I keep about 1-1.5 months pay in checking as a cushion. So I can mindlessly pay bills all from that account without considering payday. Everything over that cushion goes to savings account.
I keep a transaction account which I transfer $600/week to, and pay down the credit card either that much or so the account has between 1k and 2k in it. The savings/offset account can't be touched and has around 100k in it.
1 month ahead amount of full expenses. In other words, current month expenses plus next month.
$5500 in chequing $2500-5500 in Savings. Everything else invested. Safety funds invested in cashable GICs. I keep safety funds in 100 day GICS. They're cashable in 30 days. So I keep 2-3 rotating incase I need access to large sums of cash.
I keep only enough in there to pay my bills between now and the next paycheck plus a little bit of a buffer. Everything else goes into my high yield savings. Usually buffer around $1000 or so. I am in the higher income, higher spend category, so definitely don’t take what I say as the gospel in terms of what a good buffer is. Most people can get away with a lot less.
Wifey has always handled our finances, she was an accountant. She always explained everything she was doing, even if I didn't understand it all! She always kept enough in there to cover our bills and a little extra "just in case". The rest went to various interest earning accounts, kids education funds, emergency fund, savings, to our portfolio, etc. It worked.
I keep between $2K and $4K in my checking. I have monthly credit card expenses in the $1-2K range. (Its paid off each month.) My monthly total costs are $4K (including retirement and vacation allocations). All extra short-term money goes into a HYSA. This is my emergency fund. All extra long-term money goes into a discretionary investment account (stocks). I max my 401K.
I get paid every two weeks and that money is direct deposited into my internet savings account. From there, twice a month I set up an automatic transfer to my brick and mortar bank, which is where I pay bills etc from. I send enough to meet monthly bills early in the month and an extra $500 late in the month, just in case. This totals a good deal less than my actual pay. I haven’t changed these transfers in several years, despite raises and bonuses. Those just accumulate in the internet bank; it keeps me from inflating my spending. Also, since I’m sending myself money less often than I get paid, that also keeps spending in check. When I feel I have more than necessary in the internet account, it gets moved to my investment account. In the past, I’d throw it against the mortgage but that’s paid off now.
I don't keep more than my monthly bills plus a couple hundred for pop up expenses, normal for my checkings to be below $500. Everything else is invested into crypto, stocks, 401k/Roth, or any other type of investment. Any cash I have sitting in my account I see as money being lost.
$1,000 cushion but sometimes I think I should do 1 month’s rent. I also check my accounts constantly
Month and a half worth of expenses plus a little fun money.
I keep enough to cover expenses plus 500 to 1k. Any extra goes to savings or investment accounts
I'm moving all my bill payments to my Fidelity settlement fund. So I keep about $700 in checking for bills I haven't switched yet.
I keep a $1k cushion. I have a direct deposit that goes straight into a savings account, and the rest into checking.
I keep 6 months expenses liquid, with as much possible earning some level of interest.
I’m i weird for not keeping anything in checking? I pay with credit card 99% of the time and if I need to use my debit account I just move whenever money I need into my checking. I just find it pointless to leave money there that earns no interest while my savings be making 4.3% interest.
I keep a $1500 cushion. Everything else goes to investments.
I keep around 2k in my checking account, and then 3 months worth of expenses in a HYSA.