How much interest are people earning on their savings accounts? It sounds like most people are keeping liquid $$$ there, instead of in checking. My savings account pretty much earns nothing in interest so I don't even bother. Wondering if there are better deals out there.

Anonymous wrote:$1000 is my baseline, anything above that goes into savings.

Yeah, me too. We get paid, bills get paid, preset amounts get moved to savings, and we keep about $500-$1000 in there as a cushion.

Although we have joint finances, we kept our separate credit union accounts when we married (10 years ago).
I keep about $300 in checking just for those things that only take check and not CC or PayPal. I keep about $2000 in the linked savings that can be automatically transferred to checking to cover overdrafts or just in case. The rest (about $60K) is kept in our joint MM account at the same credit union. Every month, when I pay bills (I pay all household bills), I head over to the credit union, transfer what I need out of the MM to the checking and pay bills. It maximizes the paltry interest that we get.

DW keeps more in her credit union checking account, and then the bulk in her credit union MM account.

$200 at the moment, but am currently living small paycheck to small paycheck. It never gets very high these days.

I keep a $5K cushion at all times, just in case, and all income and expenses flow through there. I make transfers to savings whenever possible, and the 529 plan and retirement are automated withdrawals. I do earn a small interest rate on my checking account, and keeping a balance means no account fees.

(The $5K cushion is two months of mortgage payments or several months of preschool.)

i spend what I make, so sometimes negative where it comes out of overdraft. But I save for my 401K. then at the end of the year hopefully I get a $60K or so bonus.

About 3 to 4 K.

$500 is my $0. The basic idea is I keep enough for my monthly expenses, and the extra goes into savings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anywhere from $10-50k. Just dipped below $10k today because I paid my DCs college tuition for the fall semester. I used to move more between checking and savings but stopped bothering when interest became meaningless.

We keep $30, and when it dips below, my DH freaks. I just don't understand keeping that much in a checking acct., but I'm not the money person. We have additional accts.

Meant $30k.

That seems like a lot. Do you need that much in checking instead of earning something in a savings account or some other investment product? You don't have to be the money person but it's probably good for you to have some idea what's going on financially in your house.

I am the $10-$50k poster. I get interest on my checking balance. It's not that different from savings, both of which are practically 0.

I suspect people with high balances probably have higher monthly expenses. I've got high monthly expenses plus quarterly taxes, tuition payments. So liquidity ends up being a priority.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anywhere from $10-50k. Just dipped below $10k today because I paid my DCs college tuition for the fall semester. I used to move more between checking and savings but stopped bothering when interest became meaningless.

We keep $30, and when it dips below, my DH freaks. I just don't understand keeping that much in a checking acct., but I'm not the money person. We have additional accts.

Meant $30k.

That seems like a lot. Do you need that much in checking instead of earning something in a savings account or some other investment product? You don't have to be the money person but it's probably good for you to have some idea what's going on financially in your house.

We have 3 checking accounts. The one for day to day spending has a buffer of $100 but I check it daily. The one from which mortgage, student loans, cell phones, etc are automatically drawn from has a buffer of $1000. I'd like to up both buffers, but we aren't there yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anywhere from $10-50k. Just dipped below $10k today because I paid my DCs college tuition for the fall semester. I used to move more between checking and savings but stopped bothering when interest became meaningless.

We keep $30, and when it dips below, my DH freaks. I just don't understand keeping that much in a checking acct., but I'm not the money person. We have additional accts.

Meant $30k.

We try to keep at least $1500-$2000 in our checking account at any time.

I do my best to keep it above $0. When I see a balance of $1000 or so I get worried that I forgot to pay a bill. We've been unemployed/underemployed for 4 years now. I miss the days of $5000 checking account balances and transferring money TO savings every month, instead of only FROM savings!!

6000-9000. I cant go below $5000