If you are retired & receiving SS Income, Annuities, Pensions already, that meets your basic needs - how much cash do you carry in checking?

[Mulligan]

I only keep enough in my checking account(near 0% interest) to pay the next bill that needs to be paid by check. That's typically 1-2 bills each month.
My checking account balance currently is about $75.

I used to do that for decades…Out of necessity, ha! I have moved it up to an extra 2k anymore mostly because I am becoming sloppy and dont maintain a check register balance anymore and just believe the bank. And I have a few bills that come out automatically.
I have had a lifetime consecutive streak of never having an overdraft and want to keep it intact. And for many years I had to have that register precise as it got close to $0.00 many a time back in the younger years.

 

[pb4uski]

My checking account register is on Quicken. Our checkbook is designed to make a carbon copy of each check that we write. I haven't kept up an old-fashioned hand written check register for 30 years.

 

[Gumby]

We write few checks and have only a few electronic withdrawals per month, so I keep a paper register. I also have a spreadsheet, but it tracks total spending by category for the month, not particular checks.

 

[scrabbler1]

I am not taking SS, my frozen company pension, or any annuities yet. Since 2008, when I was was 45 and starting my ER, I have been getting a large monthly bond fund dividend to pay the bills. At the start of the month, I have about $4k in my local bank's checking account and it drops to around $2k at the end of the month. That $2k more than meets the minimum balance to avoid monthly account fees while giving me a decent cushion in case there are smaller, unforeseen expenses which arise during the month.

I do have large, lumpy expenses such as income taxes and car insurance. To cover those, I have to plan ahead by carrying forward earlier monthly surpluses . For larger, unforeseen expenses, I have about $40k in a national, intermediate muni bond fund which has checkwriting privileges and pays about 2.5% annually, mostly tax-free. That handy feature allows me faster access to my money compared to having to first transfer an amount from another account to my local bank's checking account, then write a check on that. Saving me 2-4 days using the direct checkwriting feature has often been crucial when I needed to access a large amount of money right away.

 

[aaronc879]

No more than a couple thousand extra in checking. A few thousand more in savings. After that, I have a couple years worth in Vanguard MM that I can get in a couple days if needed. I see no reason to have 5 figures in a checking account

 

[Mulligan]

My checking account register is on Quicken. Our checkbook is designed to make a carbon copy of each check that we write. I haven't kept up an old-fashioned hand written check register for 30 years.

I have thought hard several times to use Quicken and for financial/investing purposes. I would like too, but I always have held back because I was afraid I would get lazy and ultimately not use it for its intended purposes.

 

[skyking1]

That's what we do. Is that "wrong?"

I write so few checks, that I keep the carbon books and just don't bother writing a register. I glance at the account and see them roll on through, maybe 2~3 a month at the very maximum.
So much of the checking transactions are bill pay that the register just becomes a side show.

 

[Semi-Retyrd]

Our SS benefits and my pension are auto deposited in our Fidelity brokerage account which has checking associated with it through UMB bank in Missouri. Since this was set up as a margin account, there is built-in overdraft protection in case a check or bill hits above the cash level. I generally keep a month's worth of expenses in cash (about $6K) in this account which sits in a MM fund paying around 3.9% currently. So there is no need for a separate checking account.

 

[lem1955]

Checking account at local CU $2k - $5k bills paid by bill pay or venmo
Money Market at local CU - $10k
MM at Vanguard in taxable account - $40k - $80k

 

[junkanoo]

I write so few checks, that I keep the carbon books and just don't bother writing a register. I glance at the account and see them roll on through, maybe 2~3 a month at the very maximum.
So much of the checking transactions are bill pay that the register just becomes a side show.

Likewise. Since my snowplow guy moved to Venmo, I write only two checks ... one to the Golf Club and one to the Golf Restaurant. My wife writes a check to the housecleaner. I haven't bothered with a register in 20 years+.

I keep 20K in checking normally and 40K in checking during my winter traveling months. I realize that that is suboptimal, but I pay my credit cards off completely and automatically each month and with a large travel budget on those cards I don't want to get too cute.

 

[mountainsoft]

Our checking account is just a landing place for INCOME. That's where the pension, future social security, and other income goes. I only keep about $2000 in the checking account to avoid any bank fees, and cover any small immediate expenses that might come up..

Anything above $2K gets transferred to our high yield savings account at Discover. I like to keep that somewhere between $20K and $30K. That's about two years of expenses above the pension income. Once social security starts we can probably reduce the amount we keep in savings.

All EXPENSES get paid with our Citi 2% cash back Mastercard. Once each month that card gets paid off automatically from our savings account.

So far I have only withdrawn $11K from our retirement accounts (since retiring) to cover the purchase of a newer car. My SS is supposed to start in January, so I don't know if we'll need to take out anymore yet.

I switched from paper check registers to Moneydance several years ago. It was awkward at first, but now it's great to be able to manage three checking accounts, two savings accounts, and two retirement accounts in one place. Especially when transferring money between accounts. I don't use any of the online stuff (downloading transactions or whatnot), just to record transactions like the old paper registers did.

 

[mebden]

I usually take out enough from my retirement account in December to cover my next year expenses and put it in my HYSA online Vio Bank earning around 3.70% interest and can transfer to my checking usually in 1 day what's needed to pay my bills at the end of the month my balance in my checking account is usually around $300 just to cover my auto pay for my phone and internet as I pay all my bills with a credit card and transfer from savings to checking to pay off monthly so I get points for using my credit card and get myself some gift cards for restaurants so when I go out to eat the bill isn't as bad. I like using other people's money to my best interest. Oh and I don't have social security yet and I also still use my paper book check register to keep track of my money in my checking account

 

[grasshopper]

We use 2 JT checking accounts and 1 MM in brokerage. Deposit SS in each one for Just in Case. Last month I ended November with a $1600 balance, Ms G ended with a $6000 balance. We have travel expenses that come up every other month or so that is paid by Ms G. All of our expenses are paid for from SS and my RMD that just goes into the MM. If balances are high I would buy a 6 month T-Bill or leave it in MM rates are close to Bond rates. Our only check is for our house sitter, everything else is auto transfer. Oh I use Quicken and a spreadsheet.

 

[mrfeh]

For those noting that $50k in a checking account is losing interest, a lot of folks here do not notice or care about a $2k loss (That is at 4%) over the year, it is worth the peace of mind. Personally I do not lose that much as I put most of our spare cash in MM, but the point is that it is minor and for most irrelevant.

I don't care how large my portfolio grows - I will never consider $2K per year irrelevant.

Definitely worth a few mouse clicks.

 

[Al18]

It seems foolish to have $50K in a checking account, earning nothing. Based on the inflation rate, you've lost 2.8% this year. I'd be more worried about handing someone a check with your name, address, signature, bank, account # and routing number and expecting them not to steal your money.

 

[RetiredHappy]

It seems foolish to have $50K in a checking account, earning nothing. Based on the inflation rate, you've lost 2.8% this year. I'd be more worried about handing someone a check with your name, address, signature, bank, account # and routing number and expecting them not to steal your money.

$50K buys us convenience, and $2K loss in interest is a nothing to us. For instance, we are booking 2 rounds of golf at Pelican Hill and Trump National Golf Club, costing about $2+K during Christmas week when we will be in town.

 

[Pointby2]

We keep $3-8k in checking. Just enough to pay monthly bills. Most bills are autopay on credit cards. If any lumpy expenses come up we can do a quick transfer from our linked taxable Etrade account where the funds are available immediately.

 

[latexman]

I balance my checking account and pay bills weekly, usually on the weekend. A habit left over from when I worked M-F. I look forward two weeks when paying bills, and I leave a surplus buffer of $2k at the end of the two week period or at the minimum balance point.

 

[AZsniper]

I keep minimal, less than 5k in my everyday checking (chase). I have a checking account in my brokerage (I keep the mandatory minimum of 500 in there) and can use that for bill pay, checks etc as well, and it is linked with an immediate transfer from my HYSA. I try to keep most of my available funds in HYSA instead of checking and transfer over when needed.

 

[pb4uski]

Have to agree with this.

+1. Is the handyman or hairdresser going to want to go to prison for grand theft?

 

[pb4uski]

I have thought hard several times to use Quicken and for financial/investing purposes. I would like too, but I always have held back because I was afraid I would get lazy and ultimately not use it for its intended purposes.

I don't get your point can you elaborate. You can use Quicken for whatever you want. There are aspects of Quicken that I don't use or don't use anymore.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

No more than a couple thousand extra in checking. A few thousand more in savings. After that, I have a couple years worth in Vanguard MM that I can get in a couple days if needed. I see no reason to have 5 figures in a checking account

Same here. I keep a couple/three months living expense in checking, about $12,000-$15,000. My retirement income is lumpy, it comes in about or 4 chunks a year. I put that in VG MM and keep about a year's living expense there. I can move it to checking in a day or two and it earns 3.5%. I move $5,000 a month from there to checking each month.

 

[Mulligan]

I don't get your point can you elaborate. You can use Quicken for whatever you want. There are aspects of Quicken that I don't use or don't use anymore.

My point was unfortunately I know how I am. I will pay for it and wont have any follow up to actually put the effort into learn how to use it or have any follow up with it.

 

[CRLLS]

Call me old school. I use a local bank to pay our bills and to receive monthly SS and a small annuity. I use Fidelity as my investment center. I try to keep around $10K in our bank's checking account and currently have much more in our bank savings account. That savings account will be depleted in a couple of weeks when we purchase a new vehicle for cash. I do have a few bills pulled from the checking and most get pushed out to the various entities. I suspect that the bank sends a physical check to one or two of them. I write each transaction in my check book register. I find it both silly and a waste of time to write a check and then go over to my laptop, open it up, log in, open an app (Quicken or Excel) to then record that transaction. I have written 16 physical checks so far. I find that writing every financial transaction in the check book keeps me in "touch" with our activity both literally and mentally. Again, investments are all at Fidelity. I keep them separate. I don't use Fido for regular, periodic spending money.

 

[Sue J]

I keep an extra $500 in the checking account at a local bank. There is a savings account at the same bank with an extra $2000 or so and that can transfer to the checking instantly. Anything above that goes to a DiscoverBank HYSA earning 3.4% currently. If needed, I can Zelle $1500 a day from the HYSA to my regular checking account. Or I can write myself a check from the checking account attached to the HYSA and mobile deposit into the every day checking account. There is also the Vanguard money market fund (non IRA) with plenty of cash but it takes a day or so to transfer from there.

DH's pension and HRA (Health Reimbursement Account, a retiree benefit) go to the checking account. We need about 85% of that for the monthly expenses so the balance goes to the savings. Both of our Social Security benefits (extra gravy money) go directly to the DiscoverBank HYSA. My part-time job paychecks also go to the HYSA and then a few times a year I use that to contribute my gross income to my Roth IRA at Vanguard.

So $500 extra in the checking may sound low to some of you, but I watch the bank accounts almost every day and I would easily see errors or problems.

I have spreadsheets for all kinds of things but for the checking account I still keep a check register. Yes, very old school. Some simple things are just useful.

So far, this works just fine for us because we are living on less than the pension. We've seen almost every expense increase this year but still making it work.

I keep the local bank because occasionally I withdraw cash. It's a no fee account and it's all set up to connect to everything in our financial world. We get no interest on the checking and pennies of interest on the savings. We don't use cash often but I do like to have some cash in the house and we also use it for gifts to the family.