A quiet look at your cash
Cash sitting in checking is not a plan.
In about five minutes, this map shows three things:
- How big a cushion your bills call for.
- How much cash sits past that cushion, or how short you are.
- Where your cash lives now, and what each place is, in plain words.
Want to see how it works first? Load made-up numbers:
Step 1 of 5
Whose cash are we mapping?
Your best guess is fine. This gets held on top of the cushion so tax money is not counted as idle.
Pick one to keep going.
Step 2 of 5
What has to go out each month?
Only the must-pays: what you would still owe in a bad month. Leave a line blank if it does not apply.
These often add up. Use monthly amounts; for a yearly bill, divide by 12.
Add at least one monthly amount to keep going.
Step 3 of 5 · optional
What comes in each month?
Money that comes in during a typical month, from every source. Optional: leave it blank to skip.
Step 4 of 5
How thick a cushion?
The cushion is cash you keep close for a bad stretch. Everything past it is what this map calls idle. There is no right answer here, only yours.
Step 5 of 5
Where does your cash sit right now?
Round numbers are fine. The rate is optional: type what you think each account pays per year. Blank rates count as 0%.
Add a bank or institution name to any row, and add more than one account of a type if you have them. Names are used only to check deposit insurance limits, and they never leave this device.
Add at least one amount to see your map.
Your results
My Idle Cash Map
Cushion target
$0
Idle cash past your cushion
$0
Left over each month
$0
to see what's left over each month.
Where your cash lives
Cushion vs. idle
Where it sits
What the idle part earns
This app does not know today's rates, and it does not suggest any. Look up current rates yourself from your bank, your broker, or TreasuryDirect.gov, then type one here.
The map: each place, in plain words
What each kind of account is, how fast you can reach it, how it is protected, and what to ask about it. Descriptions only.
Deposit insurance check
What to do with this
Options people commonly weigh, in no particular order. None of them is a recommendation. Which one fits depends on things this map can't see, like your taxes and your plans.
Plan to grow my cushion
Goal
Months to goal
—
Compare
Simple arithmetic from today's date. No interest is counted, and real months vary.
Cut costs
Common places people find money each month. Check any you want to look at and type what you think it could free up. Skip anything that doesn't fit your life.
This total is added to your monthly amount in "Plan to grow my cushion."
Quick wins
Sort your extra cash by when you might need it
You have $0 past your cushion. Put each part in the box for when you might need it. For example, a roof in 8 months goes in "Under 1 year"; a car in 2 years goes in "1 to 3 years"; money with no plan goes in the last box.
Places people commonly look at: savings, high-yield savings, a money market fund, or short T-bills.
Places people commonly look at: CDs or T-bills timed to the date the money is needed, or Treasury notes. Treasury interest is generally exempt from state and local income tax, and still federally taxable.
A longer-term question worth taking to a licensed professional.
Optional: spread money across dates (a ladder)
Instead of locking up all your money until one date, you split it into pieces that come due at different times, so some is always coming free soon.
Example: $12,000 in 4 pieces, one every 6 months, means $3,000 comes free at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Arithmetic only: no rates.
Rungs
Spacing
My plan in my own words
0 / 2000