how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

I've been working hard at saving every dime I can and putting money into savings each pay period. After I pay my bills, I put whatever's left into our ING account. Sometimes it's nothing and other times it's more.

How much do you leave in checking for easy access/withdrawals/non-emergency emergencies? I try to leave no less than $300 since we get paid every two weeks and I'm always scared of the "what if". If I have it left over, I transfer it the next month.

How about you?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

We keep about 5k in our primary checking after all bills are paid off (pretty much all bill are paid from this acct)

We keep about 3k in our second checking (mortgage gets paid from that acct)

We keep about 5k in the savings as a backup to these two checking accounts.

The rest of the emergency fund is in Vanguard MMA and ETFs (more or less). Sometimes I transfer some of this money into new banks accounts for a short stint to capture some free money. For instance, Chase offers $150 for starting a new savings or something like that.

I do feel like I keep a little too much as back up in the bank but it gives me some piece of mind.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

If you have satisfied all your high interest debt then try to save 20% of your take home monthly. I feel this amount should be saved above and beyond what you do for your 401k.

If you take home $100 try to live on $80. If you can do better than that. you will accumulate wealth quicker.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

I like to leave a minimum of 2,000 in the account at all times. You never know when something unexpected might come up so this gives me peace of mind.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

After bills are paid each week, basically $200.00.

TD charges you if you have less than $100.00 in checking.

I have money transferred in my ING each week that I don't want easy access to, and if I needed more cash, I could just do a quick transfer from regular savings into checking.

I also always have my CC on me for the event I run into some major kind of emergency.

Fortunately, that has not happened in as long as I can remember.


I think our last big expense was when my pug got sick several months ago. I gave DH the CC because I didn't know how much it was going to be and we paid it off.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

I don't really have a good answer.

I pay for my work expenses from my credit card (then work reimburses) so I have to keep money in my checking to fund that payment in the case that my reimbursement from work shows up late (or I submit my expenses late), so I need a little buffer. (Typically $ 3500/month)

I also refinanced recently so we now pay taxes and insurance on our own, not through escrow. This is new to us so I kept a larger amount in checking as I didn't know how it would work out paying a large check quarterly between school and village taxes.

I will tell you what... since I read this post I have moved some of my reserve into vanguard. So I appreciate your post as it made me reconsider the lack of interest I have been getting on a chunk of our money!

I agree with you on financial planning. We do our best to max out our 401k, 529s etc. Goal is to fully fund their educations and retire early hopefully.

If you don't mind me asking what do you do for 529s in terms of monthly investment per child?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

My rewards checking account is basically a combo checking/savings. Since it's 3.5% interest earning, I keep all of my savings in there (at least up to 25k - for more than 25k you have to open multiple accounts up).

I don't have any traditional "savings" accounts because the interest rates suck. I just keep a bunch of rewards checking accounts open and they all earn the high interest.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Right now, not much. Everything is pretty much allocated for bills in my checking account. I transfer long term bills like car insurance, homeowners insurance, taxes, savings into a savings account.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

3.5% interest earning.. Thats Great

Which bank is offering 3.5 on a Combo Checking and Savings?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

We do things opposite, but DH feels better this way. Our direct deposit is into our checking and then on the 15th of the month we automatically transfer into our savings. I'm sure I could earn a little more interest doing it the other way.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

DH does it the opposite way - he has his entire paycheck directly deposited into a Savings account, and then transfers a certain amount every week into Checking to pay for his bills. His savings and checking account are linked, so when he pays the mortgage every month, he usually takes out X amount of cash and budgets that amount for the month. If it all goes away by mid month, he will either cut back on personal spending, or hit the ATM.

We just opened a joint checking account, so we both contribute a certain amount every month from our personal accounts into it to pay for household expenses like food and utilities (we both pay separate mortgages on property we acquired before we met).

I have my emergency savings account in my checking account because I get interest on it - there's enough in there for 8 months of expenses if I lose my job or have some type of medical emergency for whatever reason. I try to keep it at X amount, though last month it dipped to $1,000 less than what I had so this month, I cut back on spending.

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

A few hundred after we put away savings each month and pay our bills. I'd rather have the money in my savings because it earns a little interest...

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

not much. I only keep enough money for bills and day to day expenses.

Everything else can be transferred fairly easily.

I too would like to get 3.5% on my accounts. Ave?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

We transfer my entire paycheck to savings and keep a minimum of 4k in checking at any given time. I prefer to have 5k, but that doesn't always happen.

I need to better educate myself on saving for our future, I keep thinking we have plenty of time, but once we buy a house, I feel like we will never have any money!

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

No restrictions to keep the account open, but you only get the interest if you qualify every month (certain number of debit transactions, e-bills, pay one bill, etc.)

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

that's cool. I have a load of debits each month and pay all bills electronically.

I wonder how their bill pay and customer service is?

Re: how much do you leave in checking each pay period after paying bills and saving?

For the 529 go to NYsaves.org

Basically your deposits are tax deductable at the state level up to 5k for single and 10k for married filers (no federal tax deduction).

When you withdraw you pay no federal income tax on the growth of your money as long as it's used for qualified educational expenses. I believe you can shuffle the money from one child to another if you have multiple kids.

There are some calculators out there that figure out the total investment amount per kid to pay for college. I like the one at John Hancock since it has a family cost calculator for mulitple kids.

NY's 529 is run through Vanguard and the investments are basically the typical vanguard mutual funds (but renamed for the 529) with low expense ratios.