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I think the ideal cash management setup is to get a rewards checking account without a debit card usage requirement (harder than it sounds to find), direct depo

I think the ideal cash management setup is to get a rewards checking account without a debit card usage requirement (harder than it sounds to find), direct deposit your paychecks into that, have a 1-2 month cash buffer there, and invest the extra through ACH pulls out of that. If your portfolio is large, having a month of expenses earning 1.75% or whatever risk-free is likely a small improvement. If your portfolio is large, the lower return on a small portion doesn't matter. If you portfolio is not large, you should have a larger cash position to de-risk your overall life. You might also be able to mail checks written against a brokerage account with that option enabled, but mailing checks sounds like a pain. I know that Vanguard's brokerage account allows both check writing (with a $250 minimum) and direct deposit, but that doesn't quite do enough for running your life out of one account. >whenever I make a purchase or bill payment from it FWIW, if you have access to credit cards, you should pretty much always use a credit card rather than a debit card.

lewisl9029 9y ago
> I think the ideal cash management setup is to get a rewards checking account without a debit card usage requirement (harder than it sounds to find), direct deposit your paychecks into that, have a 1-2 month cash buffer there, and invest the extra through ACH pulls out of that. This is pretty much exactly what I used to do, but the user experience of managing cash from my investment account directly is dramatically better than having to juggle cash between different accounts through ACH, in my experience. Even if I didn't value staying fully invested as much as possible, I'd probably still choose to keep those extra few months of expenses as cash in my investment account just for that experience alone. Though admittedly Schwab wouldn't be the best choice for that usage pattern, because their interest rates for cash are rather pathetic. > FWIW, if you have access to credit cards, you should pretty much always use a credit card rather than a debit card. Agreed. The only things I pay for with debit directly are things that won't let me use a credit card, like for rent.

lewisl9029 9y ago

> I think the ideal cash management setup is to get a rewards checking account without a debit card usage requirement (harder than it sounds to find), direct deposit your paychecks into that, have a 1-2 month cash buffer there, and invest the extra through ACH pulls out of that. This is pretty much exactly what I used to do, but the user experience of managing cash from my investment account directly is dramatically better than having to juggle cash between different accounts through ACH, in my experience. Even if I didn't value staying fully invested as much as possible, I'd probably still choose to keep those extra few months of expenses as cash in my investment account just for that experience alone. Though admittedly Schwab wouldn't be the best choice for that usage pattern, because their interest rates for cash are rather pathetic. > FWIW, if you have access to credit cards, you should pretty much always use a credit card rather than a debit card. Agreed. The only things I pay for with debit directly are things that won't let me use a credit card, like for rent.