I used to just park my whole paycheck in checking — turns out that's harder to manage than it sounds.

My setup was pretty simple: paycheck hits (15th and end of month), I leave what I roughly need for credit card payments, car loan, and student loan, and move the rest to savings whenever I get around to it.

Except "whenever I get around to it" turned out to be the problem. Some months I cut it too close and got hit with an overdraft. Other months I just left way too much sitting there doing nothing. I kept bouncing between the two.

Every article online says "keep a cushion," but none of them actually say how much.

What ended up working for me was flipping the order: figure out what's actually going out soon plus a small buffer, leave exactly that in checking, and move everything else to savings or a TFSA right away — instead of waiting to "check the balance" and deciding later.

Anyone doing this differently? Would genuinely like to hear how other people handle it.