Has anyone ever had to use their Emergency Fund?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. In June we decided to pay off our house. We were 7 years into a 15 year mortgage, had enough in checking to cover a year's worth of bills and whatever we might need so we dipped and feel good about it. By December it will be all paid back. The fund wasn't drained. We had $10,000 left.

We didn't have to, we wanted to.

Then it's not an emergency. The posts about using EF for a down payment or paying off mortgage are ridiculous. Emergencies are unexpected, necessary costs like medical emergencies, job loss, etc. deciding to use funds to pay a mortgage early is not an emergency

[Anonymous]

We bought a car. That's been it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, when a new job situation forced us to become a 2 car family and we needed to buy a 2nd vehicle. Used our saving for that early this year. Been building it back up all year. Glad it was there.

[Anonymous]

OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

[Anonymous]

Yes we've dipped into it. Twice for about $5k during both of my maternity leaves. And then again for a few months when my DH was unemployed.

Thankfully never had a huge bill we couldn't cover. We have our emergency fund covered and are now adding to it to save for a new car in a few years. And possibly some home stuff that will need to happen.

I could not sleep at night without that fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

+1. The case for an "emergency fund" is very thin if you have other assets, including those (like stocks) that are slightly illiquid.

[Anonymous]

We're a 2 income home. DH wad unemployed for tjr first half of this year. Luckily he found a job just in time. We did not have to dip into it, but would have it something big had come up, like a dead car or dead AC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

I have an emergency fund of 40k cash. I also do a lot of speculation and have a 2 income family, both in IT sales. We double downed on crypto currency, cashed out 300k of that for college for our 2 kids are are riding the wave with the rest. I would not be one bit suprised if we are headed for a 2009 type correction. If it does crash and we end up eith egg on our face, at least we will have some cash left. So much money is bring made out there, it is ridiculous and most of it speculatative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

I have an emergency fund of 40k cash. I also do a lot of speculation and have a 2 income family, both in IT sales. We double downed on crypto currency, cashed out 300k of that for college for our 2 kids are are riding the wave with the rest. I would not be one bit suprised if we are headed for a 2009 type correction. If it does crash and we end up eith egg on our face, at least we will have some cash left. So much money is bring made out there, it is ridiculous and most of it speculatative.

What you are talking about is asset allocation, not an emergency fund. Yes, your asset allocation should contain assets with a variety of risks/returns. Sure, you can call the short-term/cash portion of it your emergency fund if you want. Personally, I do not label my liquid assets in low risk, low return investments as an "emergency fund," and don't maintain any explicit emergency fund.

[Anonymous]

When I was single from age 18-30, I always had to have 10k in my savings account. The money was never tangible to me, I never thought "oh I can just borrow some for this thing I want" or really considered it my cushion. I lost a few jobs and always picked up waitressing or temping because it felt like it wasn't there. Now that I'm married with a child, the number is 30k. I don't know where this 10k/person thing came from, but it's there.

I've been investing my whole adult life as well and think of those investments as the "emergency fund" that I can liquidate if I absolutely must.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

Not true.

Emergency funds are invested. I have savings and investments and 1 of my investments is an emergency fund.

You are clearly not a financial advisor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

Not true.

Emergency funds are invested. I have savings and investments and 1 of my investments is an emergency fund.

You are clearly not a financial advisor.

I think we all agree financial advisors often recommend emergency funds. What pp is saying is that this is poor advice.

I have a pile of money in mutual funds that I would use if I needed short-term liquidity. You... have two piles of money in mutual funds, and one is designated for use in an emergency? I don't see the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP and others

Emergency Funds are designed for people who have little or no other savings/investments

If you are a typical DCUM person you do not need an emergency fund

Invest the emergency fund and when you have an emergency take the money out of your investments. Over the long term having 20-50-100k sitting around doing nothing is stupid when you could be getting 7% return by investing it instead.

I have an emergency fund of 40k cash. I also do a lot of speculation and have a 2 income family, both in IT sales. We double downed on crypto currency, cashed out 300k of that for college for our 2 kids are are riding the wave with the rest. I would not be one bit suprised if we are headed for a 2009 type correction. If it does crash and we end up eith egg on our face, at least we will have some cash left. So much money is bring made out there, it is ridiculous and most of it speculatative.

What you are talking about is asset allocation, not an emergency fund. Yes, your asset allocation should contain assets with a variety of risks/returns. Sure, you can call the short-term/cash portion of it your emergency fund if you want. Personally, I do not label my liquid assets in low risk, low return investments as an "emergency fund," and don't maintain any explicit emergency fund.

When you have 7 figures in Cryptocurrency and the rest in Fidelity because that is where your employer parks your RSUs and you work at a job that yoi can easily get canned after a bad quarter, yes 40k in cash is an emergency fund.

Yes, we are unusual, but we like to gamble.