float Archives - Empathic Finance | Mike Pumphrey, AFC®

Pouring the jug: How to handle when your income is irregular

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on August 21, 2023 | Featured | No Comments

I propose an allegory and model for thinking about how to deal with irregular income in a way that will help you reduce risk and uncertainty. … Read More

Tags: budgeting, float, income, irregular, spending

Do you spend your account down to zero each month?

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on June 13, 2022 | Featured | No Comments

If you plan your spending in a given month by checking if your balance is zero, you’re missing out on some wealth-building strategies. How much money do you have in your bank account? Obviously that’s a thing that varies over … Read More … Read More

Tags: bank account, float, Monty Python, spending

Why Ally’s Surprise Savings is terrifying

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on February 21, 2022 | Featured | No Comments

I explore the Surprise Savings product from Ally and suggest a different way to achieve the exact same results. Last night, I was logging on to Ally to adjust some of my automatic transfers between my checking account and my … Read More … Read More

Tags: Ally, float, savings, savings accounts

It is possible to have too much float

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on August 20, 2018 | Featured | No Comments

Pearl Harbor is a beautiful memorial. I was there a few years back as part of my I’ve-never-been-to-Hawaii tour (which, incidentally, was the trip I was on when I launched this site). When you’re on the Big Island, going to … Read More … Read More

Tags: ATM, float, Pearl Harbor

Surprises, or Why you need more float in your account

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on August 16, 2018 | Featured | No Comments

In my last post I talked about very nearly overdrafting my account. It would have been more embarrassing than anything else had it happened—I haven’t overdrafted an account in over two decades—but it wouldn’t have caused any big problems. I … Read More … Read More

Tags: checking account, float

That time I almost overdrafted my account

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on August 13, 2018 | Featured | No Comments

The idea that once you become intentional about your finances you’ll never make any mistakes is, frankly, ludicrous. When I was training for the Seattle to Portland bike ride a few years ago, amidst all the rushing around and buying … Read More … Read More

Tags: checking account, float, overdraft

In defense of rounding

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on July 27, 2017 | Featured | No Comments

If you’re used to just “not worrying” about money (which can ironically make one pretty anxious) or just wanting to “let things happen”, my suggestion that you track all of your spending (all of it, every purchase, every month, forever) … Read More … Read More

Tags: float, rounding

What to do when your account balance is different than expected

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on April 20, 2017 | Featured | No Comments

Balancing your household budget might be difficult to do, but it’s not complex. You just make sure that the money you have going out is the same amount that is coming in. (In this way, Charles Dickens’ Micawber was only half-right, … Read More … Read More

Tags: balances, budgeting, float

How to calculate your true account balance at the end of the month

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on January 19, 2017 | Featured | No Comments

WARNING: This post contains math. How much float do you need? Well, optimally you’d have enough float such that you could cover your entire month’s expenses on day 1, just to be safe. But in general you want to have … Read More … Read More

Tags: accounts, float, math

How float can help you track your expenses more effectively

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on January 16, 2017 | Featured | No Comments

Let’s talk about float. As I’ve defined it before, float is the money in your checking account that is above and beyond your paychecks. It is a cushion for your day-to-day balance changes. Having adequate float in your account is … Read More … Read More

Tags: accounts, expenses, float

float