Author Topic: your checking account balance  (Read 57705 times)

givemesunshine

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #150 on: December 02, 2014, 07:21:00 PM »
$10.95 and pay day is a week away!

All money is in a savings account (4.02%) and every direct debit/bill/spend is done on a rewards credit card which is paid in full every statement due date to maximise my balance in savings. Have no payments at all on my current account it is simply the route through which my salary transitions to savings.

Works perfectly for me.

okonumiyaki

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #151 on: December 02, 2014, 07:27:10 PM »
I actually keep quite a high number, varies between 5-15k USD.  Like others, this includes a level of emergency fund.   Above 15 and I would look to add to long term savings, 5k is the floor

MBot

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #152 on: December 02, 2014, 10:03:11 PM »
We just went to 2 chequing accounts. I wish I had done it years ago!

Monthly non-fixed spending (groceries, gas, personal, clothing, household, pets, date night) varies, but depending on month is about $500-750 budgeted for that month's needs, then deposited the start of each month. When it's gone it's gone, or surplus at end.

Monthly fixed expenses automatically come off a second account - at te start of each month we leave enough in there for all bills, plus then paychecks get deposited so there's always extra money. We just check to see what still has to come off before moving the paycheck money around.

lil_miss_frugal

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #153 on: December 03, 2014, 10:07:36 AM »
Up until Monday, I use to keep $9k in my checking... just for peace of mind. I realized there's no way I need that much in checking especially since it's drawing zero interest :-/ I now keep it at $5k. Maybe I'll convince myself to drop it to $3k one day although right now the thought of that scares me.

Public Hermit

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #154 on: December 03, 2014, 10:29:11 AM »
$475.

Will go down to $50 by next Monday.

Usually the range is $5 to $1,500.

h2ogal

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #155 on: December 03, 2014, 06:28:54 PM »
DH and I keep $1000 - $4000 in our Bill Paying account.  I keep less than $2000 in my personal spending account.  If it gets to be more than that, I will look for a place to put it that earns interest.  But I think it really depends on your monthly budget doesn't it?   I feel like having one month's expenses readily available in checking would be reasonable and convenient.

FarmerPete

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #156 on: December 04, 2014, 02:02:41 PM »
Currently I have 5.5k in my joint checking.  We're in the process of moving banks and we have two old checking accounts at the old bank with 1k in each.  My plan is to try and keep 5k in the main checking.  I used to keep 10k and 1k as the base in mine/wifes checking accounts respectively.  I've switched my wife over to using a credit card for most things, and I'm consolidating down to one shared account.  So far, it's working well. 

We use YNAB to track our expenses.  Everything that's "On-Budget" is either a checking account, savings account (Ally), or CD (Ally).  I've currently got a net positive 14k between all of our "On-Budget" accounts.  A lot of that is my buffer (1 month expenses), irregular bill accumulations, sinking funds (car repairs, gifting, home maintenance, vacation), and a $1000 emergency fund.  If you're not familiar with YNAB, the way I do it is divide an annual expense by 12 and allot that number to the expense monthly.  The result is that when a big bill comes, I've got the money to pay for it already saved up.  Other funds are things like "Vacation Funds" where I add $100 to it each month.  The net result is that my fund grows and grows until we go on a vacation.  All of that money that's in the budget has to physically be somewhere, and I choose to keep most of it in my checking account or an Ally savings account.  It really doesn't matter where, but it should be liquid(ish).  I move long term savings to a brokerage or IRA.

notquitefrugal

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #157 on: December 04, 2014, 08:37:40 PM »
Food for thought:
http://livingstingy.blogspot.com/2014/12/starving-your-wallet.html?m=1

I may have to rethink keeping more money than necessary in my checking account. I did seem to spend less money when I kept very little in the account.

Cookie78

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #158 on: December 05, 2014, 07:52:47 AM »
Food for thought:
http://livingstingy.blogspot.com/2014/12/starving-your-wallet.html?m=1

I may have to rethink keeping more money than necessary in my checking account. I did seem to spend less money when I kept very little in the account.

This happens to me for sure. Very noticeably. As soon as I get below about 3k in my account I go into panic do not spend any money mode (even before I found this blog/forum). As soon as I build it back up to 10k I'm feeling pretty comfortable and more inclined to spend. So much so, that I rarely went very far about 10k. But after sitting at 10k awhile I'd put 5k in my investment accounts, then build my checking account back up to 10k pretty quickly because I was spending less. Now, knowing my habits, I put that money in my investment accounts right away if I reach 10k so I don't start wasting money.

In theory I could try to keep it at 3k so that I'm always in panic do not spend any money mode. But baby steps!

Le Barbu

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #159 on: December 05, 2014, 08:20:29 AM »
1k$ is my "zero" as well.

Anywhere between 1k and 5k is normal because so many in-out, 3k swings are usuals. Over 5k, I dump in TFSA, RRSP or mortgage. My annual average is about 2,5k but it's only 0.0025% of our net worth and we don't have an emergency fund. Prefer a springly debt (150k available anytime)

rocksinmyhead

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #160 on: December 05, 2014, 08:23:01 AM »
I used to try to keep it close to zero, but then I accidentally overdrafted so now $1k is my zero. Actually with my current checking account, I would keep my whole $10k emergency fund in there if I didn't think it would confuse me/cause me to spend more money, because it's my highest interest rate (2%). Hmm... maybe I should just do that and figure out how to deal with it.

charis

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #161 on: December 05, 2014, 09:29:10 AM »
1K is also our zero and I hate having money above that sitting there unless it is allocated to an upcoming bill.  We use rewards credit cards (always paid in full) for everything except mortgage, gas/electric, and my student loan payment.  I don't really understand why people would need more than that as a cushion unless your monthly expenses are highly variable.  A transfer from my high yield savings account takes a couple of days if we actually needed it.  I can't think of time when I needed to immediately come up with cash in excess of 1K (or any amount really). 

notquitefrugal

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #162 on: December 05, 2014, 06:06:50 PM »
If I go below a $1k balance in a given month, I get dinged with a $10 service fee, so that's out of the question. As I think I posted before, a $10k projected balance at the end of the month was my old target. Since I keep pretty good track of my balance and I have a HELOC to rely upon if I'm running low, I'm going to go for $4k instead, and may go a little lower if that works out well. Here goes nothing!

Middlesbrough

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Re: your checking account balance
« Reply #163 on: December 05, 2014, 06:24:09 PM »
0-1k depending on the time of the month with 2k waiting in savings.