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I don’t think we’ve ever had a post about this, so here are some easy questions for today: how much do you keep in your checking account? How much do you keep in the savings account attached to your checking account? How much cash do you keep in your wallet or in your home?
{related: check out our personal money snapshots, where anonymous readers share their net worth, salary, and other thoughts on personal finance}
I think I’ve mentioned all of my answers before, but — as someone who makes a LOT of transfers to and from the family high yield online-only savings account, I don’t like to keep a lot of cash around. In fact, I really only like to keep as much as I need to cover automatic transfers, plus the minimum, plus a bit of a buffer. So –
- for our main checking account, I try to keep about $1500 in there — for my business checking account I have a bit more just to cover various automatic transfers and automatic investments
- for the savings account attached to our checking account, I hate to keep more than the minimum in there, so $500 — we bank with Chase and last I checked the interest rate on our savings account was something like .01%
- cash we almost never have these days — we’ll get $400 or $500 in cash maybe once a year and then distribute among myself, my husband, my eldest child, and a few $20s put somewhere fairly accessible. A few years ago I went to our local bank branch and got $80 in $1s and $5s and that’s lasted us through a lot of Tooth Fairy visits and occasional travels/tips
The end result of all this is that I need to keep an eye on any big expenses coming down the pike so I can move money over from our high yield savings account (we like Ally) — but that isn’t the worst thing. We keep our emergency fund, as well as several sinking funds, in Ally.
{related: not sure what to do first/next in your personal finance journey? here’s our money roadmap}
Readers, how about you? How much do you keep in your checking account?
Stock photo via Stencil.