How much cash do you keep in your checking account?

1

How much money do you typically keep in your checking account? Normally I keep very little but as I take profits on some of my positions I’ve been transferring some of it into my bank account.

I noticed that once I transfer it into my bank account it somehow becomes more real. When it is in IBKR it feels somehow more abstract and less real - just numbers on the screen that doesn’t feel like ‘real money’. But the same amounts transferred that felt small when in IBKR now seem huge when it lands in my normally low balance bank account.

How much do you normally keep in your checking account?

  • <1k
  • <5k
  • <10k
  • <25k
  • <50k
  • <100k
  • 100k+
0 voters
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2

Monthly “working amount” for the regular (eBilled) expenses.
Savings account holds the EF part.

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3

Same here, I only keep 5k in checking and 15k as emergency.
But I have often 25k as cash in IBKR for an opportunity.
However last time, I had to convert 300k in profit to invest into to a property and the transfer felt a bit unreal to matérialise this amount of profit.

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4

None or CHF 50-100. No EF.

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5

Roughly CHF 300 is my goal.

6

(post deleted by author)

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7

How do you manage that?! I’d be getting overdrawn all the time or spending my time shuffling small amounts into the bank account to keep it in range.

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8

It probably helps to have the abstract view when investing as otherwise you might second guess yourself if you get spooked by arbitrarily moving around large amounts of money. Esp. if you compare how much time it takes to earn the money in a day job vs how much time it takes to invest it in something that could evaporate the next day.

9

In most cases, my salary is sufficient to cover all expenses (September is always a unique month, because of tax payments :frowning: Then I have to transfer some cash from my savings account, as a yearly exeption).

I pay everything with my credit card; so twinting here and there some bucks was/is always possible with the remaining CHF 300.

10

but what if bills fall before the salary hits the account?

11

Then I‘m in deep trouble.

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12

I don’t get it. I don’t even know when my bills hit, they just seem to come at random times and I don’t pay attention as most are automated by eBill or LSV now.

Then there are the big ones: quarterly mortgage payments, tax and annual health insurance - some of which I guess I anyway have to manually deal with.

13

Every bill is executed with incoming salary, 24. of each month.

But even for irregular bills (e.g. change of tyres, bill by DHL for importing goods) which have to be paid by QR-bill are covered.

Can‘t remember the last time, I had to transfer from savings account for such irregular bills. Maybe for you CHF 900 are a sweet spot?

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14

A forum poll would be nice for this question. For me: CHF ~50k

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15

So do you manually pay the bills, or how do you get them to invoice at the right time?

16

I have always tried to keep something like “3 months expenses plus 2500.- (max krankenkasse franchise)” as a “worst case” scenario. These days its usually just around 2-3k CHF on the bank account. Right now I also have some uninvested USD at IBKR, but as mentioned above this doesn’t feel “real”

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17

I have 3 accounts (shared with my wife)

-1:

—where my/her salary comes and from where I pay all the bills or transfer it to other 2 accounts

—I keep min 1, max 3 months of budget; >3mo goes to 2

-2:

—every end of month i put money into it from 1 for the big bills (tax, insurances), investments (3a, 3b), which are usually paid once a year

—It is also our EF= 6Mo of expenses (I know it is a big opportunity cost, but it gives us absolute peace of mind)

-1 and 2 are max 100k

-3:

—mortgage and amortization are taken from here

—I started to put some extra money here for the coming big house renovations

—max 100k

I manually pay the ebills or qr on the last day of the month.

Fix bills (internet, phone) are automatically paid via ebill (upper limit is set to the fix amount).

Mortgage is monthly automatically wired to account 3 at the lender.

We pay everything with CC or Twint, no cash. The CC has ebills.

A short time ago I remembered there was a time without QR bills…was always triple checking the numbers before paying.

PS: we are both self employed, so need some reserves as income fluctuates.

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18

I keep 12-13k, I see it as a good buffer for occasional unexpected bills. My wife keeps a bit more which is certainly not needed, but whatever makes her feel good, I’m already glad she invests the rest.

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19

Out of curiosity, why not pay e.g. 3a or taxes early / more regularly?

On salary payment, I keep regular payments for 1 month plus 2-5k buffer at end of month.
Above that, cash is used or parked short-Term for annual health insurance or quarterly tax payments, the rest goes to extra transfers into investments. Regular investments are considered part of monthly expenses.

20

Not sure I understand your question.

I pay once a year asap 3a (january), healthcare (i think the yearly bill comes in december for the next year) and taxes (whenever the bills come).

During the year I put money aside for the next yearly bills.

3b is different, depends on the budget, renovation etc: either i just stash cash for renovations, pays into second pillar in december, invest in BTC or in VALL.

Does that make sense? How do you do?

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