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What's your zero?

what is the magic #?

  • What is money in the bank?

    Votes: 11 14.9%
  • Atleast 5K

    Votes: 2 2.7%
  • 5-15K

    Votes: 10 13.5%
  • 15-35K

    Votes: 14 18.9%
  • 35-65K

    Votes: 8 10.8%
  • 65-100K

    Votes: 8 10.8%
  • 100K+

    Votes: 7 9.5%
  • 200K+

    Votes: 14 18.9%

  • Total voters
    74

EmpirE231

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How much cash do you try to keep on hand / in the bank? This includes your emergency fund, money in the bank or cash?? (Personal...not business) Once you start saving, what is the magic # to feel comfortable (all things being stable, career, income, etc)
 

atlas

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For a pour young guy like me I feel safe with 8-10 months of funds to cover everything
 

RiverDave

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For a pour young guy like me I feel safe with 8-10 months of funds to cover everything

Speaking personally we've been running on about 8 - 10 minutes worth of funds in the bank.. :D That will change this year though when I offload some shit.

RD
 

Hammer

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I didn't know it was April fools...
 

EmpirE231

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For a pour young guy like me I feel safe with 8-10 months of funds to cover everything

8-10 months is pretty dang good, unless you live rent free w/ parents and have no car payments or debt lol

mortgage: 1750
car: 300
misc: 500 for 10 months, that's 25K + on the low end.



seems like 6 months savings is always the golden answer, but 6 months of expenses can vary greatly depending on lifestyle. This one always makes me wonder, as among my group of friends... sometimes the ones with the most lavish lifestyles, run on the lowest margins for savings.

I try to do my best, then a cool toy comes along and poof :eek
 

primetime

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With all the toys and kids and life, you answered for me already. Zero!
 

atlas

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8-10 months is pretty dang good, unless you live rent free w/ parents and have no car payments or debt lol

mortgage: 1750
car: 300
misc: 500 for 10 months, that's 25K + on the low end.



seems like 6 months savings is always the golden answer, but 6 months of expenses can vary greatly depending on lifestyle. This one always makes me wonder, as among my group of friends... sometimes the ones with the most lavish lifestyles, run on the lowest margins for savings.

I try to do my best, then a cool toy comes along and poof :eek

I have 2 kids and a wife and are home that we owe penny's on and no car payments or credit cards if we don't have the cash we will not buy anything
 

Abc123

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6 months to run the business and my life style. The corporation holds money I don't. I draw a small salary that I live off of and if I need money for something the company will pay me a bonus or lend me the money.
 

milkmoney

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I think I have 189 in my checking account.
 

Bobby V

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For a pour young guy like me I feel safe with 8-10 months of funds to cover everything

Same for me. 8-10 months. But I'm not a young guy and I have a house payment in Yorba Linda and one in Havasu with utilities at both. And golfing, snow skiing and drinking isn't cheap. :)

Now when I get old enough to collect my pension and 401k I'm good for a loooooong time. :D
 

was thatguy

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Lol.
I can check any one of them on any given day.
Drives my bank crazy.

Right now...definitely at the poor side. :(
 

Hypnautic

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2 years savings. No joke. Not counting retirement accounts. And I had to use all of it when the economy took a dump.
Guess that explains why I float the badest MoFo on the water vs. the badest MoFo in the channel.
 

koenig

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I save as much cash as possible. Credit Union deposits in BC are 100% insured. Best place to keep lots of cash in.
 

Maestro

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3 years
That's how long it took me to change careers and get a job, albeit I went back to school.
downsized quite a bit.
My rule is live off min wage budget. save good. If you lose a job, McD is hiring to pay the bills......
 

Riverbound

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3 years
That's how long it took me to change careers and get a job, albeit I went back to school.
downsized quite a bit.
My rule is live off min wage budget. save good. If you lose a job, McD is hiring to pay the bills......

I did the same thing when I changed careers. 3 years of selling everything off to pay the bills and depleting all money I had. It was an investment in my future and so far was a pretty good one.
 

djunkie

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2 house payments, 1 car payment, child daycare, wife's student loans, utilities, FML!!! Lol
 

Riverbound

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2 house payments, 1 car payment, child daycare, wife's student loans, utilities, FML!!! Lol

The GF and I could buy two VERY nice cars for the amount f student loans we have. :grumble. She's going back for her masters.
 

nowski

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I lost our life savings in the Stock Market back in the early 2000's, my friends at Morgan Stanley played a big part in that train wreck. If I lost my job or got hurt at that time we would have lost our home and my Family would have been homeless. I learned a valuable life lesson through this ordeal. I made my wife and myself a promise to never put our Family's well being at risk again. It took 10 years dedicated to saving money to build that nest egg up again. I have a friend at work who has been raking it in in the stock market and has been trying to get me to get back in. I'm not back in but it's tempting...
 

EmpirE231

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Poll results show a wide range of the spectrum!

to me it always seems like never enough... you get to one goal, and set another. At the same time, try to find a balance, and be able to enjoy some of that money you have saved :thumbup:
 

OCMerrill

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I have a real bitchen safe that was given to me as partial payment on a concrete job we did.

In it is a total of nothing.

Our money is so up and down some days it's step in front of a bus and others its lets buy a bus.

I have learned to live with it. Better now since my only monthly payments are house and my boat share. I could use vehicle updates but screw it.

Most all CC debt is paid back with only a few remaining.

My Advice is similar to Atlas. I was raised in the debt world. My kids are in the pay as you go plan. Save it and buy it.
 

koenig

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Our real estate and stock market avoided 08 fairly well. Canada was the best off country in the G8, almost avoiding the recession all together. I think 2014, we'll see a bigger market crash then 08 and start of a deep recession. Like 08 I'm back to cash is king. Going almost all cash!!!!!!
 

copterzach

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Companies hold a lot of money. I have a small salary that pays bills. Huge pile of cash in 2 different safes. My wife hates the stashed cash. She is sure we are going to be robbed.
 

Hugh Jascaulk

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My wife takes care of the household bills, I take care of the investments. She tells me all the time, watch your spending, we're broke. I just laugh it off, show her the broker statement, say ok, whatever.
 

paradise

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Companies hold a lot of money. I have a small salary that pays bills. Huge pile of cash in 2 different safes. My wife hates the stashed cash. She is sure we are going to be robbed.

What's your thinking behind keeping cash in the business? If you have a corp it will (in theory) protect your personal assets in the event of a claim against the biz.

If someone sues your corporation for something, I was always raised to have a lean company. Go ahead and take what little might be there. Not that I ever expect to be sued, we do things right, but there are a ton of litigious assholes out there.

Love to hear the theory on a cash heavy biz.
 

whiteworks

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What's your thinking behind keeping cash in the business? If you have a corp it will (in theory) protect your personal assets in the event of a claim against the biz.

If someone sues your corporation for something, I was always raised to have a lean company. Go ahead and take what little might be there. Not that I ever expect to be sued, we do things right, but there are a ton of litigious assholes out there.

Love to hear the theory on a cash heavy biz.

I think the theory is real simple, cash? what cash? we spent that shit:D
 

bonesfab

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I am shit rich and cash poor.. I joke I am heavily invested in cast iron, steel, aluminum and lead..
 

pronstar

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^^^ "ferrous metals" sounds better to a banker LOL
 

copterzach

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What's your thinking behind keeping cash in the business? If you have a corp it will (in theory) protect your personal assets in the event of a claim against the biz.

If someone sues your corporation for something, I was always raised to have a lean company. Go ahead and take what little might be there. Not that I ever expect to be sued, we do things right, but there are a ton of litigious assholes out there.

Love to hear the theory on a cash heavy biz.

I guess I should have been a little clearer. The oilfield company doesn't have a lot of cash. We just have to pay for all of our chemical and supplies on delivery, while the customers string you out for 90 days. We need to have chemical and parts ready to roll with a weeks notice. Pay fuel bills, salaries, bonuses and operating expenses daily. Major PIA. Welcome to the oilfield.

Helicopter company is currently running on a tight budget. It is in the process of building a 540" BBC "helicopter" engine.
 

mbrown2

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There is probably never more than 5K in checking, never more than 50K in Savings, but liquid investment accounts are different story.....same with 401k and then there is pension. I never felt good about sticking a bunch of money into low growth savings account.
 

copterzach

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There is probably never more than 5K in checking, never more than 50K in Savings, but liquid investment accounts are different story.....same with 401k and then there is pension. I never felt good about sticking a bunch of money into low growth savings account.


What are liquid investment accounts? You can pm me if you want. My cash earns 0, but there is 0 risk.
 

530RL

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Helicopter company is currently running on a tight budget. It is in the process of building a 540" BBC "helicopter" engine.

I'm with the IRS and I would like to audit your "business" expenses........:D
 

copterzach

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I'm with the IRS and I would like to audit your "business" expenses........:D

It's experimental??? If it does not wok in the helicopter, it might work as a chemical pump. Or it might be time to upgrade the company fishing boat. Who knows?
 

TPC

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Benchmark of $300K so we don't bottom out.
The new boat purchase a couple years ago put a healthy dent in it and we recovered back to zero in 10 months.
Held steady until:

This year 2014 bought one child a new car, bought the wife a new car, bought myself a Denali Dually and we'll be re-set back to zero in about 20 months or sooner.
If Polaris releases the XP1000 turbo add some time to that.

Wife hasn't been talking Switzerland trips which are brutal on the cash flow so I think we'll hit zero pretty much on time.
 
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