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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hhi about $180-190k. Generally at least $500 in checking. Keeping $5,000+ seems crazy to me. [/quote]

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

+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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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