How much is in your checking account on average and what is your HHI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the interest rate of your checking account?
If it's less than 0.5%, put in smart pig! ally,etc?

Are you maxed out in 401k? That's a lot of cash on hand unless you have medium risk job.

Anonymous wrote:Where are people keeping their emergency funds if not in a checking account? We keep 60,000 in our checking acct as the emergency fund, which is about 4 months of expenses for us. Where else should we put it? Savings accounts pretty much earn no interest now.

We max out 401K. Have no savings other than the emergency fund and the 401K. We've paid off 300,000 in student loans in the last few years so that's where all of our money has gone. Just saved this emergency fund last year, didn't really think about putting it anywhere other than a checking account. Main breadwinner has a fairly secure job - if let go would have about 6 months severance.

[Anonymous]

HHI $170k

Checking account: usually between $5k and $8k

We also have enough to cover about four months worth of expenses that we can access same-day from savings accounts without having to liquidate any investments. Savings and checking are with the same bank.

[Anonymous]

HHI: ~$300k; checking account: ~$15k (try not to go below $10k, so I don't have to think about overdrawing); savings: $70k

[Anonymous]

We each have 5 to 10,000 at any one time in each of our checking accounts. Our HHI is about $446K.

[Anonymous]

PP, unless you have some known home repair/renovation expense.

Park some of that $60K in Money Market, Smarty Pig.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the interest rate of your checking account?
If it's less than 0.5%, put in smart pig! ally,etc?

Are you maxed out in 401k? That's a lot of cash on hand unless you have medium risk job.

Anonymous wrote:Where are people keeping their emergency funds if not in a checking account? We keep 60,000 in our checking acct as the emergency fund, which is about 4 months of expenses for us. Where else should we put it? Savings accounts pretty much earn no interest now.

We max out 401K. Have no savings other than the emergency fund and the 401K. We've paid off 300,000 in student loans in the last few years so that's where all of our money has gone. Just saved this emergency fund last year, didn't really think about putting it anywhere other than a checking account. Main breadwinner has a fairly secure job - if let go would have about 6 months severance.

[Anonymous]

220k

Monthly transfer to checking of 7k to cover the bills, usually there's about 1.5k left before the next transfer.

Every couple of months something happens that obliterates the accrued left over funds.

[Anonymous]

Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me.

[Anonymous]

HHI: $700k
Checking: $24k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me.

Maybe crazy to you but we need more than that in our checking per month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me.

Maybe crazy to you but we need more than that in our checking per month.

+1, and to expand, if I have less than $5000 then I need to watch the order in which things like paychecks and mortgage payments and preschool tuition and utility bills all hit our checking account to make sure that we don't overdraft. If we start the month with approximately as much as we're going to spend in the month already in checking, then the order in which all this happens doesn't matter. And it's not like any accounts are making substantial interest right now, so losing a little bit of money in interest payments is more than worth the peace of mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me.

Maybe crazy to you but we need more than that in our checking per month.

+1, and to expand, if I have less than $5000 then I need to watch the order in which things like paychecks and mortgage payments and preschool tuition and utility bills all hit our checking account to make sure that we don't overdraft. If we start the month with approximately as much as we're going to spend in the month already in checking, then the order in which all this happens doesn't matter. And it's not like any accounts are making substantial interest right now, so losing a little bit of money in interest payments is more than worth the peace of mind.

Exactly this. Even estimating very generously, if I keep $10k in a checking account as a buffer, I am paying at most $100 a year for that (in opportunity cost measured against a 1% interest savings account). It is definitely worth $100 (to me) to not have to worry day-to-day about whether my mortgage payment comes in before my paycheck, or my credit card bill, etc. The stress of living paycheck to paycheck is more trouble than $100 per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me.

Maybe crazy to you but we need more than that in our checking per month.

+1, and to expand, if I have less than $5000 then I need to watch the order in which things like paychecks and mortgage payments and preschool tuition and utility bills all hit our checking account to make sure that we don't overdraft. If we start the month with approximately as much as we're going to spend in the month already in checking, then the order in which all this happens doesn't matter. And it's not like any accounts are making substantial interest right now, so losing a little bit of money in interest payments is more than worth the peace of mind.

Exactly this. Even estimating very generously, if I keep $10k in a checking account as a buffer, I am paying at most $100 a year for that (in opportunity cost measured against a 1% interest savings account). It is definitely worth $100 (to me) to not have to worry day-to-day about whether my mortgage payment comes in before my paycheck, or my credit card bill, etc. The stress of living paycheck to paycheck is more trouble than $100 per year.

Original quoted pp here. I realized that I was only counting our checking account that doesn't pull daycare and mortgage bills from it, which is separate. We probably have a minimum of $1,500-$2,000 at any time in the two accounts combined. And my husband and I use separate personal accounts; I let mine go down as low as $100, but he doesn't. So, we are way higher on our checking account balances than I originally thought- just spread out across four accounts. We also have alerts on all of the accounts, so we will know if we are too low.

Do what works for you! I think lots of things are crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me.

Maybe crazy to you but we need more than that in our checking per month.

+1, and to expand, if I have less than $5000 then I need to watch the order in which things like paychecks and mortgage payments and preschool tuition and utility bills all hit our checking account to make sure that we don't overdraft. If we start the month with approximately as much as we're going to spend in the month already in checking, then the order in which all this happens doesn't matter. And it's not like any accounts are making substantial interest right now, so losing a little bit of money in interest payments is more than worth the peace of mind.

Exactly this. Even estimating very generously, if I keep $10k in a checking account as a buffer, I am paying at most $100 a year for that (in opportunity cost measured against a 1% interest savings account). It is definitely worth $100 (to me) to not have to worry day-to-day about whether my mortgage payment comes in before my paycheck, or my credit card bill, etc. The stress of living paycheck to paycheck is more trouble than $100 per year.

Original quoted pp here. I realized that I was only counting our checking account that doesn't pull daycare and mortgage bills from it, which is separate. We probably have a minimum of $1,500-$2,000 at any time in the two accounts combined. And my husband and I use separate personal accounts; I let mine go down as low as $100, but he doesn't. So, we are way higher on our checking account balances than I originally thought- just spread out across four accounts. We also have alerts on all of the accounts, so we will know if we are too low.

Do what works for you! I think lots of things are crazy.

I'm with you PP. I hover around $500 in checking because I have a bunch of automatic savings/bill pay coming out of it as soon as the paycheck hits. My checking is backed up by the credit card if ever I miscalculated and I have wire transfer with a bond fund savings acct (used to be money market but went searching for yield) if an emergency came up, as well as an unused heloc. Otoh, DH has the auto pay of mortgage and daycare out of his account so keeps a larger buffer. HHI $230k.

[Anonymous]

HHI 50k

Checking 5k to 8k

[Anonymous]

$50 in checking but all my bills are paid. We never keep large amounts of money in my checking account unless a bill is about to draft. I believe in out of sight, out of mind when it comes to money and it allows me to save much more. Our HHI is $160k also.