Our baseline is our immediate emergency fund.

It was 6k, and would sometimes be up or down depending. As high as 10k if we have built it up for Christmas etc, as low at 3-4K, if we just paid student loans and mortgage and one big expense.

However, we went ‘over’ our budget a few months in a row, and incoming payments were less... so lately our baseline is about 3k, getting down not much further than that. And rising to 7k at times.

I keep enough in there to pay bills and an extra $500 or so for incidentals though I put everything on AMEX and pay it off monthly so I can build up points

$5-10k. When it gets higher than 10k, I move money to higher interest savings account at ally bank.

On the off chance that I have more than $1000 after paying the mortgage and it's within a week of the next paycheck, I will transfer out a couple hundred. This would go to the savings attached to the checking account which is where we pull from for large payments (car repairs, camp/childcare, etc).

Lots of previous threads. I keep a lot but also planning to buy a new car cash soon.

Mine probably gets down to about $500 between paydays. I keep at least $10k in my savings though.

I like a largish buffer because ccards are auto paid from there, so I keep roughly 3x of the largest ccard bill in the last 12 months. Surplus goes in treasuries that I prefer to CDs or money market.

Anonymous wrote:How much do you typically keep on your checking account? How much do you decide to keep per month after paying all the bills and saving/investing?

Currently <$100, waiting for pay day. On the off chance there is any left, there are plenty of old bills to pay.

Now, back when I was single, I would keep at least $1000 in checking with the rest in some safe savings-type account. When that got fat enough, I would buy more of an index fund or put it aside for a down payment on my first house. Nothing fancy.

Right now $880. If it gets to be more than $1000 I just sweep the extra funds into my pocket.

It fluctuates between $100-1k. The account is connected to a savings account with $5k and free overdraft facilities. Every two weeks I sweep in funds to pay the the mortgage and credit card balance.

Around $15k never below $10k. I'd put more in savings but my husband gets uncomfortable with the amount lower than $12k. But once money goes into savings, it doesn't come out.