THE SHORT · ACCOUNTS
You think you have 2.9 months ahead of you. You have 1.4.
$8,640 spread over three accounts looks like a cushion. Two of the three cannot be used — one is your working float, the other already has a destination.
By the Yoseri News desk · · 2 min read
You add up your accounts and land on $8,640. Your outgoings are $3,010 a month. You conclude 2.9 months of independence, and as a calculation that is not unreasonable.
Look at where the $8,640 comes from.
| Account | Balance | Reachable? |
|---|---|---|
| Chequing — floor balance | $1,840 | No: it is your working float |
| Savings — June trip | $2,600 | No: it already has a destination |
| Savings — cushion | $4,200 | Yes |
Your real cushion is $4,200, which is 1.4 months. Half of what you thought.
The $1,840 in chequing is not savings: it is the balance you never go below because the direct debits go through. Emptying it means triggering insufficient-funds fees — it would cost you more than it gives back.
The $2,600 for the trip is technically reachable. But spending it in an emergency does not make the trip disappear: it postpones it, or it puts it on the card at 19.99%. A dated goal that gets raided turns into debt, not savings.
The reverse is true too, and that is the good news: scattering does not protect, but gathering costs nothing. A single account named "cushion" gives the figure at a glance, and it is the only one worth knowing by heart.
Yoseri’s Accounts and net worth page separates the reachable from the total, and our entry on liquidity explains why that is the only measure that holds on the day you need it.
Where the figures come from
The maths in this article starts from the assumptions written above. Run them again with your own figures — you should land on the same numbers.
Yoseri News is an educational publication. Nothing in this article is investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell, or tax advice. Yoseri is registered as neither an adviser nor a dealer with any market authority.