Personal Cash Flow Projections

[AJ444]

How do you track personal cash flow projections?

For example, my goal is to keep a minimum of 5k in my checking account at all times. I do this by keeping track of my future anticipated expenditures and income in an excel tool I created. When I had debt it would show me how much extra I could pay and when, and now that I don't have debt it shows me how much I can send to my taxable investing and when. It also uses the sum if function to place transactions in their own buckets to compare against my yearly budget.

Curious how others do it.

[97guns]

I pretty much wing it every month, no worksheets or ledgers, I don't even log in a paper check that I write out. I know how much I have coming in and the known monthly expenditures but everything else is done by feel and seat of the pants and maybe a bit of luck and karma to ward off the expense demon

[corn18]

I use Excel and a monthly ledger approach. It goes back 20 years. It was very useful when I was paying off credit cards with new credit cards. Now it's just a novelty.

[~bs]

I generally keep a specific amount in my checking account. When pay comes in or expenses go out, it fluctuates. At a certain time of the month when activity is low, I check the balance, and if it's at a surplus (which it should be), I sweep the amount to an investment account. If I know I have large upcoming expenses, I forego doing the sweep, and count on using the excess to fund the purchases.

For my business account, I have a backup savings account that I hold ~30k in. For the checking account, I normally hold ~15k or so, not sure. This balance oscillates a lot more than my personal account. Generally every once in a while I'll do a cash draw. Business is generally profitable and slower the past few years, year in and out, so I don't need to babysit the account too much for additional cash infusions.

For my rental account, I hold 6 months rent in CDs. All excess is transferred to an investment account.

[disneysteve]

I pretty much wing it every month, no worksheets or ledgers, I don't even log in a paper check that I write out.

I'm not quite that bad but pretty close. I do record all transactions and balance my checkbook every month but beyond that, everything is done on the fly. I keep a pretty good running total in my head of upcoming expenses. I know how much I need on hand to cover things. When there's an excess, I move money either into savings or extra loan payments. When we have a particularly costly month (big home repair or vacation) then I keep things a little tighter. When we have lower cost months, more will get transferred to savings and investments.

[kork13]

I have a very simple pair of sections on the Excel sheet I use for my spending plan (budget). I have all of my recurring income & expenses listed out by the day of the month they debit to/from my checking account, and their approximate amounts.

Many months, I don't have to worry about our cash flow, and I don't bother updating it. In a month with higher spending, I just update everything with the current numbers for pay, savings/investments, bills, etc. I have a function built to highlight the lowest forecast value for the month, and as long as it stays above $2k, I don't worry about anything. If it dips too low, I'll transfer cash from savings as needed. If it's too high (lowest value above $3k-$4k, I'll transfer the excess back to savings.

[Jluke]

At my credit union I have the following.

Savings: used for upcoming expenditures that are not monthly (e.g. car insurance)

Christmas: I accumulate $ for property taxes throughout the year and time it so I have enough when the bills are due.

Checking: balance $20. If I pay a bill then I move that exact amount in to cover it.

Money Market: around 3k to cover routine expenses and have some cushion.

I use Quicken to track all of this. Escrow, insurance, are treated as negative accounts so they deduct from my overall savings and give me a realistic idea of what my net savings really are.

OP: Unless you have a minimum required balance in your checking I wouldn't leave that much in there. Mistakes happen during transactions (input wrong account number) or people could steal that money from your account with the right info.

I know 5k isn't much when you are a millionaire but I'd play it safe.

[phantom]

I used Excel for years until I discovered GnuCash. It makes adding and removing accounts and recurring transactions much easier. It also makes it easy to spin up various net worth charts.

[greenskeeper]

I pay all expenses at the beginning of the month, regardless of due date.

Mortgage is the last payment, so whatever "surplus" there is goes towards an additional principal payment.

I also like to keep $5k minimum in checking. Which, since I pay all bills at the beginning of the month grows with each paycheck deposited until the whole process repeats again.

[AnnieG]

My age is showing.

I use a checkbook register!

When monthly bills are paid and the balance is over $3k, I transfer money to my online savings.

[97guns]

Yikes!, getting all my bills paid before Hawaii next week and am only finding $99.68 left in my checking account after everything's paid, been a while since I've cut it that close, seat of the pants ledgering works for me

[disneysteve]

$99.68 left in my checking account

That would never happen here. I get nervous when it gets down to $2,500 or so. I realize I'm getting no interest on that money but that's where my comfort level is.

[~bs]

That would never happen here. I get nervous when it gets down to $2,500 or so. I realize I'm getting no interest on that money but that's where my comfort level is.

Back when interest rates were 4%+, it bothered me. but now at .05% or less, carrying a few thousand month to month isn't nearly as big a deal. (online savings accounts do pay up to 1%.)

[disneysteve]

Back when interest rates were 4%+, it bothered me. but now at .05% or less, carrying a few thousand month to month isn't nearly as big a deal. (online savings accounts do pay up to 1%.)

Exactly. If I keep a minimum of $2,500 in the account, I'm missing out on $25 of interest per year. I'm okay with that.

I do balance my checkbook regularly but I sometimes find things I overlooked and forgot to record, so having a cushion in there is important. One overdraft (which has never happened) would cost me more than the interest I'm losing in a year.

[PeggyHefferon]

I used Excel for years until I discovered GnuCash. It makes adding and removing accounts and recurring transactions much easier. It also makes it easy to spin up various net worth charts.

Is that a free app available for iPhone? Sounds better than Mint.