Our expenses are around $7000 a month and I keep an extra $5k in the checking account as a cushion.

I have a savings and checking account on the same account (my personal). I have a joint money market account in the same institution that is tied to the savings and checking account.

I keep $300 in the checking account, $2000 in the savings account and about $30K in the money market account. When I pay bills, I pay them on-line and then go to the web-site and transfer what is needed from the MM to the checking account to cover those bills. The money kept in savings is my overdraft protection because my credit union will automatically roll funds from the savings to the checking account if needed, free of charge (six times per month, I've never used more than 2). This maximizes the pitiful interest that the two interest bearing accounts accumulate. Something is still better than nothing.

Wow - you guys are super conservative. Our expenses are 12-15K per month and I only keep a cushion of 1K in the checking account. We have plenty of money in our ING account that I can move if need be, but at least most of my money is earning some (paltry) interest.

Jesus you guys are balling lol, I try not to go under $500 after expenses which usually run us about $3500.

Anonymous wrote:I keep about $300 more than monthly expenses in checking. The rest goes to various savings and investments.

This.

I keep about $300 more than monthly expenses in checking. The rest goes to various savings and investments.

Anonymous wrote:OMG--I had $98 in my account the other day.

Lol this. I try not to let it get below $100, but its usually around $300. Our monthly expenses are much lower than listed here. I find if I have a bunch of money sitting in my checking, I'll spend it on stupid stuff.

My cushion is my savings account that is attached to my checking - the bank will pull whatever is needed to cover an unexpected overage, without charge to me.

I have direct deposit twice a month, and I have structured my expenses so I have enough to cover expenses (the rest is automatically transferred to savings). I look at my account twice a month, and if I have a very large expense, I'll transfer money in to cover it (essentially, this usually means to cover the higher credit card bill). So I've almost never had to rely on the bank transferring from the back-up savings.

OMG--I had $98 in my account the other day.

Our expenses are about $10K, and we keep an average $10K balance there.

Umm crazy? My monthly expenses are around 5k.... We normally keep a cushion of 3k extra in our checking at any one time. I don't like to run short. The excess goes into a money market though and it's easy to transfer back and forth.

Our expenses are abouy $12k - 14k, we usually keep about $16 in there.

I usually keep the balance at $20k in checking to cover monthly expenses which are typically in the $15-17k range. I just bring the balance back to $20k as necessary.

I don't know of any rules. Whatever makes you comfortable. Why does your spouse disagree with your method?

Our expenses are about the same. I like to keep a $10K cushion for unexpected expenses that might pop up in a given month. Otherwise, we have to dip into our savings which I try to avoid.

Our monthly expenses are $10-$15k, and that's the amount I'm comfortable keeping in my checking account. Spouse disagrees, and would like it lower, but when we do, sometimes we get caught with too little money in there to cover immediate expenses.

How much is normal? Are there any rules of thumb?