Tell me about your emergency fund

[Anonymous]

Do you have one?

How much is in it - both from an actual dollar perspective, and from a months-of-expenses perspective?

Where do you keep it?

What is it intended for, i.e., how do you define an "emergency"?

Do you have a separate fund for unplanned yet expected expenses, like big home repairs, or do you lump it all together?

Have you ever used it? What for?

[Anonymous]

Yes, with $40K in it which is 12 months of expenses (not actual expenses, but the shortfall after a couple of passive income streams that are not likely to be disrupted. It also assumes 6 months of unemployment compensation). I keep it at Capitol One earning a miserable .08% rate.

It's mainly intended for job loss. I did tap it over the summer to pay for a new roof, which made me realize I should have a separate fund for that kind of thing, per your next question. So now I do. I add $400/month to that fund. I was very glad to have it this month when my rental property's condo board levied a $1600 special assessment. I'm still trying to build the emergency fund back up to its previous level, should have that done by end-year.

[Anonymous]

we have one emergency fund. We transfer a very small amount into it, automatically, every month. I also transfer larger sums periodically (if there's a bonus or some such).
Currently it is in the 8-10k range which represents about 2 mos of living expenses, ie enough to pay our bills and buy groceries. Assuming that everything not mission critical gets slashed, it would stretch to maybe 3-4 mos.
However, the likelihood that DH and I are both suddenly 100% out of work at the same time are close to nil. My job is extremely stable even in these trying times, and DH's is such that he could quit right now and have 2 offers by COB, at comparable pay.
So the above numbers are based on the worst-case scenario that only my income is slashed (which would affect us more). The length of usefulness would depend largely on the daycare situation, which would vary depending on the specific emergency situation.
We draw from it occasionally for larger "O $hit" kind of stuff like the washer died, etc.
I do use it to "stash" specific savings for large anticipated purchases/etc.
We don't have any other liquid funds.

[Anonymous]

Do you have one? Yes

How much is in it - both from an actual dollar perspective, and from a months-of-expenses perspective? $48,000. 10 months of bare bones expenses if we both lost our jobs at the same time. Bare bones would include: Childcare, mortgage + taxes + home owner's, student loan, life insurance, gas, groceries, electricity, water, phone. I never calculated healthcare insurance in there as I never really thought about a situation where we would both be out of work at the same time and need some sort of COBRA or something. I have no idea what that would cost, but I imagine it would bring us closer to 6 months of expenses if we had to cover that as well.

Where do you keep it? Online savings account.

What is it intended for, i.e., how do you define an "emergency"? Job loss, healthcare situation not covered by insurance, multiple things collapse in our home at the same time and wipe our our home maintenance fund and we have to cover the difference, large car expense that we can't cover via the regular amount we save per month.

Do you have a separate fund for unplanned yet expected expenses, like big home repairs, or do you lump it all together? We have a separate fund for home repairs, it's empty now though since our HVAC just died this summer, but that's what it was there for. We also invest in "medium term" for other larger purchases like a new car and a downpayment on our next house, so we could tap that if we needed to, but it's not liquid in the sense that I can have the money in hand today.

Have you ever used it? What for? When our HVAC died this summer, our garage door also broke, our shower pan started leaking, and the water heater let go within the next month. So we took money out to cover those 3 things, that's the only time we've touched it. We were at 12 months of expenses prior to this summer.

[Anonymous]

$30k, though I'd really like it to be more. It's just sitting in my savings acct. That's about 6 months of living expenses and we don't plan on touching it ever unless DH loses his job (I SAH for now).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have one?

How much is in it - both from an actual dollar perspective, and from a months-of-expenses perspective?

Where do you keep it?

What is it intended for, i.e., how do you define an "emergency"?

Do you have a separate fund for unplanned yet expected expenses, like big home repairs, or do you lump it all together?

Have you ever used it? What for?

Yes we have one.
~$75k, it represents about 12 months of expenses
Emergency- loss of employment, disability
Yes, we have a separate fund for the unexpected expenses (which actually are fairly easy to expect if you don't define what will happen, just that something will happen). We allocate about 15k per year for house maintenance- ~10k is usually used the the "unexpected".
We have never used the $75k one, we do use the the annual fund.

[Anonymous]

We have a bunch of ibonds which we would cash in if we needed to-- that is the bulk of our true emergency fund- there are 6-12 months expenses in that.

We also have an internet bank account that we try to add to each month, but we also tap for big purchases. We try to keep 3-6 months expenses in that.

[Anonymous]

We have 10K in an account at ING Direct, or whatever they're called now. We are a Foreign Service family so our expenses are very small. If we work private sector again, or a more traditional government job, I will up it to whatever 4 months of expenses are at that time.

I don't expect a job loss because our job is fairly secure, government shutdown not withstanding. It's meant to cover a medical emergency, a need to buy plane tickets home, or something like that.

We also own 5 rental properties, and I keep a 30K fund for those. It is designed to cover a new roof, a flooded basement, something like that.

HTH!

[Anonymous]

We have about $65k spread between several different accounts that can be easily accessed. We don't specifically designate some as emergency vs other medium term savings, but in my head about $40k is emergency fund-it's what I wouldn't let the balance dip below unless there was job loss or some other major crisis. The balance is what we use for things like house repairs, splurge vacations, a new car when we needed one, etc. We add to this every month.

The $40k would cover 5-6 months easily if we had no income coming in. More if we knew it would be an extended thing and we cut back.

[Anonymous]

I had an emergency fund, but am now using it to help with a down payment on a townhouse. However, as my townhouse is new construction, I have about 10 months to build up a new emergency fund. I plan on saving up $50,000, which will cover at least 6 months of my anticipated expenses with a new house.

I keep my money in an online savings account.

My definition of "emergency" is really just any large expense. However, I am pretty frugal, so I wouldn't use my emergency fund for a vacation or anything. I anticipate needing my emergency fund for home repairs. Ideally, I would love to have an emergency fund to cover 12 months of expenses, but I won't be able to save enough any time soon.

[Anonymous]

We have about $40 K, which is about four months of expenses without cutting back on anything.

It's meant for loss of job, extended illness, catastrophic house problem. Still haven't had to tap it for shutdown, though we might.

Keep it in an online capital one. I have a smaller savings that will cover most car repairs, new hot water heater, etc.

[Anonymous]

6 months of take home pay - not living expenses. In view of recent events, I'm amping it up to 12 months of straight salary - not take home pay, or living expenses.

[Anonymous]

I don't have one. I live paycheck to paycheck - I set aside money from one month's checks to pay the next month's bills. If I had the money, I'd be setting it aside for an emergency fund, but I can barely pay my bills and eat most months. If I lost my job, I'd be screwed. However, I'm also young, rent an apartment month-to-month, and don't have kids. I would like to think that once I've graduated and have a decent paying job, I'll have a better handle on things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have one. I live paycheck to paycheck - I set aside money from one month's checks to pay the next month's bills. If I had the money, I'd be setting it aside for an emergency fund, but I can barely pay my bills and eat most months. If I lost my job, I'd be screwed. However, I'm also young, rent an apartment month-to-month, and don't have kids. I would like to think that once I've graduated and have a decent paying job, I'll have a better handle on things.

I don't have one either, and am getting kind of depressed reading about people with emergency funds that are more than I make in a year. But I'm only 25. It will get better, right?

I do put a little bit aside each month but it's in my 401K, not cash. I thought, given compound interest etc., that would be a better move. Worse comes to worst, I'll move back with my parents.

[Anonymous]

We have ~100k in an online savings account. It is from an inheritance. It would cover at least 12 months of no income coming in at all. Other than that emergency cushion, we live pretty much paycheck to paycheck. God, we need to stop spending so much on stupid shit.