How much do you keep in your checking account?

[Anonymous]

We keep our emergency fund in there, so about $30k.

[Anonymous]

Usually around $10k in checking and another $50k in a high yield savings account.

[Anonymous]

I keep about $20K in checking and the rest of my "spending" money in a HYS account. I think HYS accounts are under-utilized by the general population. I didn't use one myself until summer 2023 and kept way more money earning no interest for years in my checking.

[Anonymous]

We have $20k in checking right now and about $12k in credit card bills we're about to pay. Another $25k in a hysa and the rest is in retirement or investment funds.

[Anonymous]

When I get paid, I very briefly have $2k in my checking account. That money disappears and most of the time, I have appr. $100 or less. Payday is this Friday and I have $29 which will go towards gas tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article surprised me. It actually quoted much higher amounts than I would have expected.

https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/banking/article/average-checking-account-balance-203316294.html

"In 2022, families had an average transaction account balance of $62,410, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Meanwhile, the median balance was $8,000."

We keep an average checking balance of around $30k, but our HHI is seven figures; high above the norm so I figured our cash balance would be too. We systematically defer a good amount of our income into retirement and nonqualified investment accounts, but don't like to keep a big checking balance.

The article references more than just checking accounts in that number:

In 2022, families had an average transaction account balance (which includes checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, call accounts, and prepaid debit cards) of $62,410, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Meanwhile, the median balance was $8,000.

We keep a month or two worth of expenses in checking. The rest in HYSA and MMF.

That's what I guessed the article was talking about; ALL cash accounts.
My banking app says our 30-day average is about $6k, which is slightly below our monthly average spending of $7500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I get paid, I very briefly have $2k in my checking account. That money disappears and most of the time, I have appr. $100 or less. Payday is this Friday and I have $29 which will go towards gas tomorrow.

Hang in there. We had a spell five years ago when I got mad at my wife for filling up the gas tank two days before payday. We ended up hitting the automatic overdraft protection on our checking account, so the gas ended up costing about $20 a gallon.

[Anonymous]

On average $5000 - $7000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article surprised me. It actually quoted much higher amounts than I would have expected.

https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/banking/article/average-checking-account-balance-203316294.html

"In 2022, families had an average transaction account balance of $62,410, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Meanwhile, the median balance was $8,000."

We keep an average checking balance of around $30k, but our HHI is seven figures; high above the norm so I figured our cash balance would be too. We systematically defer a good amount of our income into retirement and nonqualified investment accounts, but don't like to keep a big checking balance.

The article references more than just checking accounts in that number:

In 2022, families had an average transaction account balance (which includes checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, call accounts, and prepaid debit cards) of $62,410, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Meanwhile, the median balance was $8,000.

We keep a month or two worth of expenses in checking. The rest in HYSA and MMF.

That's what I guessed the article was talking about; ALL cash accounts.
My banking app says our 30-day average is about $6k, which is slightly below our monthly average spending of $7500.

Oh wait, like including cash in a money market account at a brokerage?

[Anonymous]

40-50k. We use checking to pay for cars, vacation, furniture…etc. We do direct deposit to our brokerage account, so if we haven’t had big purchases and checking gets too high we do a transfer of excess to our brokerage.

[Anonymous]

Rent plus $200

[Anonymous]

Few thousand at most. That’s all we need to keep there for 1 month expenses and it mitigates the risk of fraud draining our balance. We actually just had a fraudulent transaction happen on a literally brand new debit card (inside job?) and I’m happy we didn’t have a huge amount sitting there just waiting to be stolen.

[Anonymous]

I keep way more than I probably should, but I stopped being good about moving money into a linked savings or money market account when those also stopped paying any appreciable interest. I’ve gone back to laddering CDs now that those pay something. I also have a bunch sitting there because my car is very old and I don’t know when I’m going to have to pull the trigger to buy a new one.

[Anonymous]

In a little to no interest bearing checking account? Between $500-$1000. Move enough from a high interest earning money market account to pay the bills each week, and not much else.

Why on earth do so many lose money by keeping large amounts in checking?

[Anonymous]

We keep 1 months living expenses as the buffer in our checking account (15k ish ) and that’s where our paychecks are deposited and bills are paid. Everything else goes to various savings and investment accounts.