How much do you have in your savings account?

[Elganja]

Anything in particular you'd recommend? Already have an account there.

Also considering something like Betterment.

Not sure I want to just throw 10k+ in right now anyway with the pretty recent market spikes.

I'm too skittish to put as much as I should into my Betterment account.

I use betterment as well... but on a much smaller scale (my gf and I contribute to a shared fund for vacation money)

Vanguard... I use for long term funds... I've been a fan of their target funds for when i retire and their S&P 500 fund

 

[Stopsignhank]

I am in the 14%.

 

[IGemini]

Would've cracked the 10k mark this year but had unexpected medical costs that I won't have to worry about again. Far from being drained, though it does set back investment goals a bit.

 

[soulcougher73]

$9423.73

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

$22.14


Costs go up, wages stay the same, people live paycheck-to-paycheck.

This, and still working on paying off debt from x-y years ago.

 

[JTsyo]

I keep about $10K in my savings account and the rest is in the market.

 

[dullard]

This, and still working on paying off debt from x-y years ago.

I assume that is the XY chromosomes you are speaking of. Debt from males many years ago? You do share a lot on this forum.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I assume that is the XY chromosomes you are speaking of. Debt from males many years ago? You do share a lot on this forum.

Just this male!

 

[Mai72]

I saw this:

I have $120 in my savings account. Most of my money is in checking accounts. Is there any reason why I should have more in my savings? I mean beside the whopping 0.03% interest I get in there.

I watched a Dave Ramsey rant on this issue. People aren't saving today. It's crazy. Many are going to work until they die. Or, they'll be retired eating dog food.

You should never save to save. You save to invest. I have a friend who saved $100k and invested the money into multi-family apartments. First month, he's was making 12% ROI. That ROI has gone up as his mortgage on those apartments has gone down. He now has passive income and will be on his way to being a Millionaire. Or, at least having money in his account.

Everyone should be asking themselves how long can I last on my money saved and invested if I were out of work for a long period of time. That's the power of investing and having your asset column full. I hope to get to the point that I don't need to rely on a work check. And, hopefully I can do this before I'm in my 60s. The greatest asset is time. We can always obtain money, but time? Once it's over that's it.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Just bought a house so nothing.

 

[rh71]

Haven't had a savings account in at least a decade. One tenrh of one percent interest isn't worth bothering with. I just keep a lot of money in my checking account and occasionally sweep portions into long term investments.

Why do people keep mentioning such small %s like .1% or .03%? We have a CapitalOne Savings at 0.75% and a CD at 1.5%. I think if you open a savings there now it's 0.60% APY.

As for gamblin... err investing, I am not so good at it so I'd rather not risk it. My mom (accountant) handles my 401k and that's it. Got over 10% ROI this past year but year before at 2% makes that less impressive. Like I said... gambling. Yes, I know... it's better for long term.

I see people talking about rental properties as passive income a lot, so maybe in the distant future...

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I watched a Dave Ramsey rant on this issue. People aren't saving today. It's crazy. Many are going to work until they die. Or, they'll be retired eating dog food.

You should never save to save. You save to invest. I have a friend who saved $100k and invested the money into multi-family apartments. First month, he's was making 12% ROI. That ROI has gone up as his mortgage on those apartments has gone down. He now has passive income and will be on his way to being a Millionaire. Or, at least having money in his account.

Everyone should be asking themselves how long can I last on my money saved and invested if I were out of work for a long period of time. That's the power of investing and having your asset column full. I hope to get to the point that I don't need to rely on a work check. And, hopefully I can do this before I'm in my 60s. The greatest asset is time. We can always obtain money, but time? Once it's over that's it.

I see stuff like this often, but the fact of the matter is, many families are scraping by because they've always scraped by. There's usually places where cost can be cut but often it's just single income, large family, stuck upside-down in a mortgage, stuck in a specific location due to job qualifications, or some myriad combination of the above. The very idea of even having enough money to invest is laughable, as 90% of resources go toward paying off people money is owed to due to past purchases/rolling balances on cards (which may or may not have been necessary purchases) or rent + bills. ROI and saving thousands and retiring at xx age etc mean nothing to someone who's having to tell the cashier to not go over $20 with $50 worth of essentials on the belt.

 

[RockinZ28]

I use betterment as well... but on a much smaller scale (my gf and I contribute to a shared fund for vacation money)

Vanguard... I use for long term funds... I've been a fan of their target funds for when i retire and their S&P 500 fund

May give Betterment a go.

Wife started a new job late last year that has given us a lot more investment options and will lower our taxable income, instead of just throwing most excess into savings. Can put $6,750 into HSA, and should be eligible for a 401k in a few months.

 

[Imp]

This survey question is somewhat misleading but it's also not. Most people, from what I've learned, don't like to put their savings in stuff like stocks and mutual funds. They stick to savings accounts, certified deposits, or real estate. And people with money generally keep at least a few grand in their savings accounts for quick access.

 

[Uppsala9496]

I don't keep too much in my savings. Most is in ETF's and I have about 2 times my savings in a money market account in the event there is a huge dip in the market. Don't want to waste time with bank transfers.
Also don't have any recurring bills aside from my mortgage and utilities.

 

[dullard]

Why do people keep mentioning such small %s like .1% or .03%? We have a CapitalOne Savings at 0.75% and a CD at 1.5%. I think if you open a savings there now it's 0.60% APY.

As for gamblin... err investing, I am not so good at it so I'd rather not risk it. My mom (accountant) handles my 401k and that's it. Got over 10% ROI this past year but year before at 2% makes that less impressive. Like I said... gambling. Yes, I know... it's better for long term.

I see people talking about rental properties as passive income a lot, so maybe in the distant future...

You have the right idea and the right goals. But your priorities are not quite ideal.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of spending so much time and effort on the pennies and just not putting that similar effort into the dollars (penny wise and pound foolish). We could shop around for a better savings rate, but really, it isn't worth the time or effort. The median savings account balance is ~$5000. So at your 0.75%, that works out to $37.50 (taxed). At the mentioned 0.1% that is $5 (taxed). Is it really worth the time, paperwork, and hassle to get $32.50 more (after tax, that is maybe $20 more)?

Then you left one of most important financial details of all to someone else.

The median 401k balance is about $20,000 (although the average is over $100k). If someone just carelessly invests in a high fee fund vs an identical low fee fund, that is $200 in fees a year for the median 401k ($1000 for the average 401k).

What I'm trying to say is the effort being put into finding a 0.75% savings account to get a whopping $20 after tax should be put into the 401k to get $200 instead. Luckily for you, your mom got about the same return as a typical S&P500 fund, so she is doing you a decent service.

Also, if you do an average job gambling, the house cleans up. If you do an average job in stocks, you clean up. Not quite the same. Stocks can be gambling. But just buying an S&P500 fund and holding it for many years is just about the safest bet there is.

Rental properties as passive income is great (mostly because of fantastic tax breaks in real estate). But it often isn't worth the headache or effort until you get four properties. Start with a 4-plex apartment or something similar. If you can't afford that, then I wouldn't recommend rental properties.

 

[Red Squirrel]

About $1,400. I have $100 that goes in every pay. That's typically used for pleasure or emergency fund if something comes up (car breaks down etc). I try to keep credit line at zero, but that gives me 10k of emergency fund that I can then pay down over time too but idealy I'll go into savings first. Costs of living keep going up so I don't have much money left over for savings anymore. I really need to get off my ass and try to find a source of passive income as there will be a point where costs of living will exceed what I make. Not very far off as is right now. I do pay extra on the mortgage though so I could dial that down any time if I needed to.

It's crossed my mind to get into rentals but too much of a head ache and the laws SUCK on the landlord side. If you get one bad tenant it can end up costing you more than what you make as they'll do all sorts of damage, not pay their rent etc and legally you can't do anything. The laws suck for that. I know someone who just went through that and it was a nightmare. She finally managed to evict him after several years of fighting and having to hire a lawyer etc but she's still on the hook to fix all the damages, pay all the legal fees and so on. It basically set her back more than anything. IF you end up with good tenants then life is good.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Also, if you do an average job gambling, the house cleans up. If you do an average job in stocks, you clean up. Not quite the same. Stocks can be gambling. But just buying an S&P500 fund and holding it for many years is just about the safest bet there is.

Yes, it's like betting on the house to win, and the house almost always does.

Even during downturns or recessions, if you hold onto your fund shares instead of panicking you'll do fine in the long run.

 

[dullard]

IF you end up with good tenants then life is good.

I've known landlords to take two approaches. 1) Get as many cheap rentals as humanly possible and run them into the ground. Thus if one tenant out of your batch is a bad tenant, it has very little impact on your entire portfolio. Or 2) get a few select rentals in prime real-estate locations and let the price weed out the likely bad tenants. A high-end rental right next to a medical school renting to starting doctors who are residents working 120 hours a week is almost as safe a bet as you can get. They have the money, reputation to lose, and no time to trash the place.

 

[brianmanahan]

i keep a year's expenses in there, about %6 or %7 of total

probably don't need to keep that much in there but whatever

 

[Carson Dyle]

That is horrible. I have about 55K in my regular savings account as an emergency fund. And deposit to it once a month.

WTF kind of emergency to you envision that requires $55k in cash? Many investments are very liquid. There's just no reason to let that kind of cash sit idle.

 

[ponyo]

WTF kind of emergency to you envision that requires $55k in cash? Many investments are very liquid. There's just no reason to let that kind of cash sit idle.

Many people have that amount and more sitting in cash doing nothing. I bet just about every 1%ers have more cash than that sitting in a checking account or in a safe at home or bank safe deposit box.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Many people have that amount and more sitting in cash doing nothing. I bet just about every 1%ers have more cash than that sitting in a checking account or in a safe at home or bank safe deposit box.

And I'll bet pcgeek is very very FAR from being a 1%er.

 

[ponyo]

And I'll bet pcgeek is very very FAR from being a 1%er.

How do you know? My guess is there are several 1%ers in this thread. If he's not a 1%er, maybe he's a prepper. Or maybe it helps him sleep better at night. Regardless, it's not significant. We're talking $50k, not even six figures.

 

[RLGL]

I have enough to pay 3 months expenses