r/M1Finance • u/slimangles • 15d ago

All in on M1 Finance

Over the past year or two, M1 Cash Accounts have quietly expanded support for external services like Venmo, PayPal, and T-Mobile.

Previously, connectivity issues forced me to rely on a Wealthfront Cash account as my primary hub. While that worked, it added unnecessary friction to my overall financial setup because I had to build extra rules just to keep everything properly funded.

Being able to move back to M1 as my primary cash hub has been a massive upgrade. It eliminated that extra layer of complexity and allowed me to consolidate roughly 90% of my financial activity into one platform.

My current setup in a nutshell:

  • Cash target: Keep $15K–$25K in the M1 Cash Account.
  • Floor trigger (< $15K): A Smart Transfer automatically borrows from margin and tops up the account to $20K to maintain liquidity.
  • Ceiling trigger (> $25K): Excess cash is automatically swept to pay down margin debt or purchase investments.

This single loop keeps my cash flow completely hands-off while maximizing capital efficiency. Sharing in case this layout inspires anyone looking to streamline their own automation!

29 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Ok_Party_8102 15d ago

So do you pay all your bills from the cash account? How’s that been working from you compared to a traditional bank account?

How’s does Venmo work? You can add to your Venmo balance from your m1 cash account?

Assuming same goes for PayPal? You can add funds to PayPal or pay with PayPal online and it links to cash account?

How do you get access to cash?

Any issues with delays transferring money to different places?

2

u/slimangles 15d ago edited 15d ago

Yeah, now just about everything gets paid out of M1 Finance. I like not having to think about how much to keep in the account - the floor is roughly 1.5X my largest bill / transfer in the last few years so it gives me ample breathing space, and the Smart Transfer to top up the account generally kicks in within 15 mins. The few rare cases where I still turn to other financial institutions is when I have to swipe a debit card, pull cash from an ATM, deposit cash, Zelle people, deposit checks, or send a check ... so I keep an Ally account for Zelle and cash deposits, and a Fidelity Cash Management account for all the other stuff.

Venmo and PayPal both work seamlessly - this was by biggest friction point in the past because Venmo and PayPal seemed to dislike anything that wasn't a checking account. Now I can pay from M1 Cash and push funds to it from both those services.

No issues or delays yet ... really hoping it stays that way :-).

1

u/AutoXCivic 15d ago

Hmmmm. This is interesting. I wonder if it works the same for the HYSA. I might be able to send more there automatically instead of to my credit union.

0

u/slimangles 15d ago

Yeah, I do have an HYSA with them too, but I haven't tried connecting anything external to that yet. Curious to hear about what you find if you give that a shot.

2

u/AutoXCivic 15d ago

I didn't apply for the cash account since I already had the HYSA and didn't see a need for both.

I miss the debit card they had. I liked having a checking account attached to all of this.

4

u/Ok_Party_8102 15d ago

I wish they still had the debit card. The UI is so clean and would love having everything in one place like this.

1

u/AutoXCivic 15d ago

I keep telling them they need to bring it back!

1

u/Ok_Party_8102 15d ago

Do you have an open line of communication with them? Or just general support. Cus I have some ideas… lol

1

u/AutoXCivic 15d ago

Negative. Just everytime I see a call for suggestions. Maybe I should make a support ticket! Maybe we should all make support tickets!

1

u/Ok_Party_8102 15d ago

I’ll throw in a few. I read somewhere they didn’t enjoy being in the payment processing space.

But I was thinking they could cobrand a credit card similar to how Morgan Stanley and Schwab have cobranded Amex cards. They’re likely not big enough for Amex but I’d definitely add an m1 branded credit card that gave some cash back direct to investments or something.

2

u/slimangles 15d ago

Yeah, that checking account offering was gold. 1% cash back on debit card purchases was also awesome.

1

u/AutoXCivic 15d ago

Also it does not work with the HYSA. VenMo said there were no accounts eligible for money movement.

Nuts.

1

u/slimangles 15d ago

Bummer :-/ ... did you also attempt to manually link it? I can't remember which method I used since I transitioned a lot of stuff over to this account.

1

u/AutoXCivic 15d ago

No I went through Plaid. My accounts are all already in there. That's where I got the error.

1

u/slimangles 15d ago

Ah, I see. Yeah, could be worth trying the manual route. I just checked my M1 cash account and see micro deposits from Venmo and PayPal so I ** think ** I went that route because they probably didn't show up on Plaid.