Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
More than $10k, yes
And my balance increases every month, yes
I have enough now that I've started taking some and putting it into 5 year CDs at 2.3% (with a 1 time bump up available if rates increase). Every 3 months, I buy another $1000 one. My goal is to have $20k in CDs by the end of the 5 year period (4 a year @ $1000 x 5 years = $20k), then I'll just keep rolling them as long as the interest rate stays better than my bank account rate. If I had to pull the money out for a big emergency that used up the rest of my Efunds, I'd only lose 6 months worth of interest. Much better than the .05% interest I'm getting on my savings account, and still readily available if needed.
I do understand the $10k figure. For the average non 1% American, $10k in cushion is a good figure to have in the bank, it means you have a bit of stability, don't have to wait until payday to pay your rent/mortgage, and can cover most expenses that come up without having to eat Ramen until the next payday (ie you don't have to panic if your car needs new brakes, or your kid needs braces). Sure, it could be $5k, or $100k, and those are important goals, too. But at $5k, I wouldn't feel nearly as comfortable, and at $100k, I could pay off my house (plus, I would never have $100k in a bank account, it would be invested). So $10k was my first goal as well. That extra digit is a significant milestone.
I achieved the $10K mark in my early 20's. If anything I have too much cash not earning any interest. I need to fix that, but as a new homeowner I like having cash on hand for little projects and such. When that subsides, i'll invest more of it.
Any CDers with more than $10,000 saved in their bank account. If so do you plan to save it and earn even more cash.
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I have about enough for a 30 rack of pabst in checking. 8 weeks in a row ive received that courtesy balance notification that my balance went below $25(new record!). ah, the memories of college. I treated my last date to the dollar menu at mickey dees. wonder why she didn't call back. she musta called while my cell service was disconnected.
my e-fund evaporated months ago in my own personal **** show known as the summer of 2015. even now, I can only afford to replenish it with $30 a week. ill see you all in that club in about 6 years. but by then youll need to change that to the $15,000 cuz of inflation.
my cat needs to get a job doing commercials or something. cuz pretty soon, it is no more human food for me and he'll need to share that kibble with me.
I do understand the $10k figure. For the average non 1% American, $10k in cushion is a good figure to have in the bank, it means you have a bit of stability, don't have to wait until payday to pay your rent/mortgage, and can cover most expenses that come up without having to eat Ramen until the next payday (ie you don't have to panic if your car needs new brakes, or your kid needs braces). Sure, it could be $5k, or $100k, and those are important goals, too. But at $5k, I wouldn't feel nearly as comfortable, and at $100k, I could pay off my house (plus, I would never have $100k in a bank account, it would be invested). So $10k was my first goal as well. That extra digit is a significant milestone.
10K has been my goal to keep in our savings since I started staying home with our son. There is something "secure" about that number. We keep a separate checking account to save monthly for things like insurance, taxes etc. But staying near 10K for emergencies is the number that helps me sleep at night. We haven't gone over it in 5 years but we've been able to stay close. Below 7 and I'm back to lying awake at 4am!
We have way more than $10k in checking and savings. Most of it will be used to pay taxes.
Ain't that the truth.
I try and keep it around $15,000 but if we're coming up on estimated tax time it's higher. After paying estimated taxes I'll invest anything above $15,000, sometimes a bit more. My fixed expenses are fairly low, so $15,000 is a good six months for me. For someone with a mortgage payment $15,000 might be more like three months. Absolute number doesn't really mean much without the context of a monthly budget. When I was in college, $15,000 would have been over a year. Now it's more like six months. I have family in San Francisco where $15,000 would be exhausted by the mortgage alone in three months.
Any CDers with more than $10,000 saved in their bank account. If so do you plan to save it and earn even more cash.
Checking account: Absolutely not.
Savings account: Just enough to cover the deductibles on my insurance policies so I'm prepared if disaster strikes.
Investment accounts of varying types and liquidity: Yes.
I used to keep a minimum of $10k in checking on the first of the month ahead of any automatic withdrawals (since mortgage, credit card, property taxes, insurance -- most all payments are on automatic). Our mortgage alone is close to $3k/month as we have a 15 year mortgage. I steadily lowered the target balance to $5k as I realized I never dipped even close to overdrawing as long as I pay attention to cash flow.
About 20k cash in a money market acct. The rest in stocks and VOO mutual fund. Monthly income goes straight to 401k, 529s, brokerage accts. I'm lucky if I see 1000 at the end of the month. Lol
BUT....I just opened a ROTH at Vanguard and will be depositing 5.5k in it some time this week and another 5.5k next year. I also plan on going internationally for two weeks next year. There goes some more cash.
But I plan on working some overtime to build it back up.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
