Cash on hand

[byebyebooze]

DH and I have been back and forth about the allocation of our money. He likes it hoarded in our bank accounts where it's easily accessible, should we need it. I like to hand it over to our financial planner and know it's making more little monies, even if I can't touch it without jumping through some hoops. We currently do a bit of both, which neither of us is particularly happy about. So, in the spirit of seeing what a bunch of other people do, I present a poll:

[SassyPants150]

We have some investments, but not a lot. But, DH income is based on a bunch of variables instead of a full set salary. He makes his own commissions in addition to his sales team. I'm not ready to commit to much until his dad retires and he gets to take a regular salary.

[sabriel]

I think it's smart to have 6 months of an emergency fund on hand before investing though I am very financially conservative by nature

[kgnordman]

Sorry. Can't help you here. We're in totally different financial situations. My family is just trying to save for a house while paying off 30k in student/credit card debt. We hope to have 3 kids in the next 5 years so there's no investing in our future.

[Ee]

I hate having too much money just sitting in checking/ savings. When you account for inflation, any money sitting in the bank doing nothing is actually losing money!! Unless it's for a specific purpose we just keep a couple months worth of expenses (we go by monthly expenses, not monthly salary...we don't spend even close to what we make so would be pointless) in there at the most. Maybe like $6-7k. In case of emergency we always have credit cards if it takes us a few days to access invested funds (although it's never even come to that). I mean short of the house falling down or having to buy a new car in cash immediately what are we really going to need more than 7k for anyways!?

[Deleted]

We do a bit of both. Have a bunch invested, have some in a savings account as an "emergency fund," and the rest is all in checking. My husband mostly manages it but both our names are on all the accounts and I could access/move money myself if I wanted.

[honeylemon]

We have about 8 months of expenses in savings, an IRA, and a couple other savings accounts (vacation, kids, etc). We haven't done any major investing.

[lgsdesigner]

What is this extra "cash in hand" you speak of? 

[tomatopie]

Depending on the month, we pay a double payment on DHs loans, save some, and the rest goes to investments/retirement. (After groceries, bills, etc)

[hawksfan82]

We've got an emergency fund, which has about 15k in it. We have yet to touch it, except to move money over to invest. We've got a financial planner that handles that stuff, which is nice. We had about another 10k in a different savings account but decided to pay off DH's car so we don't have a car payment for a few months. There's still a few thousand in there. Other than that, we have separate accounts for vacations and whatnot. DH and I are both pretty good with our spending, thank goodness. I'm the one in charge of a budget and keeping track of our finances, which makes me feel useful. I love spreadsheets. He likes it because we can see where we stand and make better decisions on what to do with the money we saved during the month. For instance, we are around 500 under budget for January so instead of that money sitting in the checking account, we will move it to savings and try not to touch it.

[lexisophie55]

We both have investments and retirement through work - that comes out of our paycheck automatically - or gets put in by our employer.

We keep about 4 months salary readily available. Once I start getting over that - I put it towards the mortgage (our only debt). If we think we're going to need a vehicle or a bigger expense, I'll keep it saved and put it towards that.

We are incredibly frugal. It is a little annoying sometimes, but really really helps our money situation. Spending money gives us both anxiety and stresses us out. People tell me that I can't take it with me. They are right, but I can get myself debt free and then enjoy life from there I hate banks taking my money.

[mlbrooks]

We currently only invest in our work 401k. This is mainly because we just bought our house and have been saving for the last 1.5-2 years for our down payment. We are very frugal people (at least I am and honestly DH has gotten SO much better) and we are not lavish spenders by any means but during the time of saving for the house we had 2 car payments (down to one now) and my husband has student loans and I have some credit card debt (like $2k) plus our monthly expenses. I hope after the first year of being in the new house and having the baby we will have a good enough savings (, approx 4-6 months worth of monthly expenses, (which we are on track for) then we can start really investing other than just our 401k. I am pretty conservative with my money but I know I need to start an IRA and do more aggressive investing.

My goal after getting into the house is to do the snowball effect and start paying off smallest debt first then snowball that payment into next smallest debt, so on and so forth.

[sabriel]

As a couple PPs have mentioned we also keep over 6 months savings on hand mainly because my husband works on commission only, so we are a bit more conservative based on the unpredictable nature of that.

We currently don't have any investments and anytime we are under budget we have been putting that money towards our mortgage debt. We figure that the interest rate on our mortgage is higher than any guaranteed return we would be able to get right now so we feel becoming debt free makes the most sense for us right now in the current economic climate

[shmee]

We pretty much have nothing going into savings right now. We consolidated our debt a few years ago and are almost done paying that off, so after that we'll be debt free except for student loans and a mortgage. We're also in a first-time home buyers program, so all of our extra money has been going to that and saving for a down payment on a house. It's made for a tight few years but we're going to be in such a better position financially when it's over with that it's been worth it. If only we weren't young and dumb to begin with!

[pintobean]

We had 6months of expenses in our savings but IVF took some of that away, were working our way back to that. I think were back up to 4 months.

We did meet with an investment planner and have everything set up so we can retire at 63 at our current income. This is set up between life insurances, ira's and 401k. I have 4 years for a state college for my son put away and we will probably start saving for this baby to go to college once it's born.


ETA: I can't see a poll if there is one. I'm still figuring out this app.

[marybeth]

The first house we bought together is now an investment property. We bought it when we were young and stupid and had no money and banks were giving mortgages to anybody who could sign their name.

I put SS. We invest every month no matter what is in our savings. We like to have 2-3 months saved, but it fluctuates and we never stop investing to build it back up. We just cut back on spending.

[meandmylove]

We suck with money. DH did lose his job a couple years ago and spent a couple years in a dislocated workers program. We've been slowly (more like a snails pace) fixing all the issues that caused. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though.

[soyboy]

My husband is all gung ho about investing now that my 100k student loan is paid off. We have 401ks and other retirement plans but we just opened IRAs that my husband wants to put the max into each year. We also try to keep about 10k in savings. I personally like to see more money on my bank account, because it makes me feel more 'safe' but I know its a smarter idea in the long run to invest.

[Starbuck128]

We have a small emergency fun, a small vacation fund and the money we are saving to buy a house. DH's employer matches retirement contributions up to 20% of his paycheck, so usually when he gets a little raise, we just up the amount we contribute to retirement. I don't know much about investing, but that's free money, right? The only other investments we have are the stocks his company hands out as bonuses.

[CaptainLeela]

We don't currently invest anywhere other than in our retirement accounts, but we've talked about it. If we were to invest elsewhere, I wouldn't be comfortable doing so unless we had 6 months of expenses in our regular savings account as an emergency fund. We loosely follow Dave Ramsey and that's his recommendation, which I think makes a lot of sense. 

[soyboy]

Jan 28, 2015 12:43:45 GMT -5 @texasmama15 said:

soyboy $100k student loan?! Holy moly! Do you mind if I ask where you went to school?


We are pretty diversified. My BBA is in Finance and DH is an accountant so numbers are our favorite. We contribute money each month to IRA's, 401k's, permanent life insurance, stocks/mutual funds and our savings. Like others have said, I feel "safer" with a large chunk of money in savings and it's taken me a while to loosen the reins on that thought and put more towards investments. We also have a few bonds that DH's grandparents gave him when he turned 18 that they started buying for him when he was born but we have those tucked away and to not touch for a long, long time.

Those were my grad school loans at a state university, I got my doctorate in physical therapy. At least both dh and I didnt have undergrad loans!

[entropicepona]

We've got about 4 months of expenses in a savings account, plus numerous investment vehicles (401k, HSA, stocks, etc...)

We put down a crap ton of money on our house last year, so we've got close to $150k in equity already. We're also selling long term company stocks each year and putting down a bulk mortgage payment, for more equity and to pay off the house in the next 12 years. The capital gains taxes are more than offset by the tax benefits of a mortgage.

[cosmicav]

Well.... my husband and I have maybe like 3 months worth of rent in the bank, and that's our emergency money. I'm actively job searching, since I just finished my master's, but currently, I'm waiting tables to make money, and that isn't too much in our rural town tbh. (Yep, I'm a pregnant waitress atm lol). My husband has an okay job, and I know he has a 401k started up, but other than that, we have no investments or anything. We are renting an apartment currently so no mortgage, and my student loan payments are currently deferred until we are in a better financial space. We are almost living paycheck to paycheck, and we get pretty much everything second-hand. Even though it's very tough financially right now, I'm optimistic that things are going to work out, slowly but surely! You ladies are an inspiration, what with all your investments and savings and such!

[ajm0711]

The only investments we have are our 401ks. We have some tucked away in savings, but between our student loans, my credit card debt, mortgage and car loan, most of our monthly earnings go towards paying those off. Money has probably become one of my number one stresses during pregnancy, especially when trying to decide whether my job pays enough for daycare and then some.

Hopefully we will be debt free other than our mortgage by the time we decide to have our second kid.

[jerseyakl]

It's so interesting to hear everyone's take on money and how they manage it.

We have a good 6 months of expenses in savings which in our area is, we'll just say, many thousands per month (gag). We have a good savings account so we make decent interest and try not to keep much in checking. We have a hefty mortgage but are good with money with few other big expenses. DH has a "play" stock account where he toys with investing. We also have our retirement plans, DH's pension, etc. We are looking for some real estate investments or supplementary income sources and we may need to look at other investment vehicles other than just savings. Then again, we both love seeing the savings account grow AND come LO, I know a lot will go to childcare and savings for her college. I never had to pay a penny for my nearly $150k college expenses and neither did my brothers because my parents were so good about planning for it. I would like to be able to do the same for my kids --- well maybe not so pricey but still!

Check ya later; I'm off to rummage for change in a seat cushion somewhere. Having a minor panic attack about money thanks to this thread!

[jko454]

We transfer most of what we don't need for monthly expenses into a high interest savings account, and when that gets to be a certain level we invest it. Actually my FIL invests it for us. He is retired and his hobby is the stock market and knows more than we ever will about the topic. If we ever need $$ fast we have our credit cards and a line of credit that has been sitting untouched for years.

[purpleroses]

I think it depends somewhat on your short-term salary and disposable income situation. DH and I only keep a few months' salary in checking and savings, but we're lucky to be in a position where we're pretty comfortable during the month, so for things like a flat tire, unexpected doctor's bill that isn't covered by insurance, etc., we can usually take that out of what we put into future investments versus having to run out and sell stock. I did switch from a guaranteed salary at a cushy (although crappy) law firm job about a year ago, to operating my own practice and more fluctuating pay based on how much I work, so we keep more in "liquid" funds these days than we did before that change.

When I was at the big law firm, I went to a talk with a financial planner who said it's usually women who have a harder time with wanting to hoard cash before investing. I'm like you and place a high value on investments since DH and I are in a position where we can afford it. I guess ultimately my feeling is that, unless you put lots of money in very risky investments or ones where the $ is locked up for long periods of time, the worst that would happen if all hell broke loose is DH and I would sell some stock.

[lolacachia]

We don't do a certain timeframe. A certain percentage of DH check goes right into 401k and investment portfolio. Then the bills get paid for the month. Then whatever is left after shopping, fun money, eating out, etc is put into savings; usually about 1k per month.

[byebyebooze]

Thanks, all! It was interesting to see what you ladies do.