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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I consider myself to be a financial planner even though I have another career. I always read about the need for a 3-6 month emergency fund and I completely disagree with all experts on this matter.  I am wealthy now, but even when I was poor, I never kept an emergency fund. It never made sense to have money earning so little interest.

There are so many different ways to get money if needed:
1. HELOC 
2. 401K/TSP
3. Family and friends
4. Credit cards (I always pay off the entire balance, and my credit limits are much higher than I need)
5. Cash value life insurance policy
6. Mutual funds, stocks.
7. Sell an investment property
8. I am a federal government employee which means my job should be more secure than others. 
9. My profession is in demand so the chances of an extended unemployment is quite small.
10. I am wealthy enough to retire today if I wanted to.

Almost everyone on DCUM could rely on at least 1 of the above. All 10 apply to me. If none of those things above apply to you, then perhaps you need an emergency fund.

Suppose I had $60K in a savings account vs. $60K in a mutual fund or investment property the past 20 years. The extra interest/dividends/rent/capital gains would be a HUGE amount! So I have never had a savings account and I keep my checking account as small as possible.

Does anyone agree that my approach makes more sense?[/quote]

Depends on your personal comfort level and why you need the money/how long you expect to need it for/your realistic chances of paying it back.

First off, most aren't wealthy enough to retire today if we wanted to.  Nor are we both lucky enough to be guaranteed employment tomorrow if we lost our current jobs.  So lets just push those aside as if you put those there for any reason other than bragging on an anonymous message board, yes?

That said, some people, like my DH and I, prefer to have cash that we can easily access if we need it.  Goes back to our personal comfort level.

We have high credit limits, but don't have any 0% interest cards.  Not everyone does for different reasons (ours is because we utilize points/miles, when I was younger it was because I had terrible credit).  That said, your post made me realize I should get a 0% card in case we do need it, because our rewards cards have btw 12-15% interest, which is terrible if you carry a balance at all. Anyway, I digress. If the nature of said emergency is that you can't pay off what you put on your CC in the short-term, the interest (depending on your card) could be terrible, adding onto the financial emergency.

Next, you are overlooking the costs associated with many of your suggested options above.  Tapping into 401k/TSP comes with a penalty: borrow from it with interest or completely take from it with no intention to return the money and get charged much higher interest.

Along the same, there is a charge to sell stocks.

Not everyone has a HELOC.  Most mortgage companies are cutting them back/doing away with them because of abuse in the past.

And finally, you can't just turn around an investment property overnight.  Even if you put a property on the market TOMORROW and get an offer TOMORROW that you accept, 30 day settlement is standard.

So while your suggestions are good, they aren't realistic for everyone's financial situation. And might possibly have made people reading your post feel TERRIBLE about themselves for not having the options available to someone who is as wealthy as you claim to be.[/quote]

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