$7000

Anonymous wrote:$140,000

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Me too (145k). What % of your investments is it? Mine is about 25%.
I would like to invest about 90k of that in stocks/Index funds but haven't yet.

So relieved to see someone else say zero. As we are in the middle of a short-sale, I am unemployed and DH's commission-based salary has gone down, we are barely above water.

I have $5K in a checking account "cushion", another $7K or so in completely liquid savings and $15K or so in non-retirement assets that I could liquidate in a day. I also have parents and in-laws and an ex who could help out (monetarily or with a place to live) if it came down to that.

For the poster with $70K in liquid cash, you might want to put some of it in CD's. I've seen CD's that pay more than savings account interest, and are liquid in the sense that if you pull the money out early, the penalty you pay is that you don't get any of the interest you would have earned. You can ladder a bunch of them to expire at different times.

$140,000

$5k. We did have about $25k but spent most of it buying our new house about a month ago.

ibonds often do better than liquid savings accounts-- you need to hold them for a year but there's also a 10k pp per year limit on buying them so that may force you to gradually purchase them anyway (after one year they are very easy to access, although between 1 and 3 years there is a 3 month interest penalty for cashing them in)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know you should have x months of living expenses, depends on what your expenses are, the rest of your financial situation, etc.

Just curious about the actual dollar number most people keep in cash/money market for emergency purposes.

80k...we have 5 rentals so we need large cushions for repairs, etc...

Just curious about your rentals, because we are looking into investing in real estate and currently have 1 rental. How much do you make per month? Do you have other jobs or are your rentals enough to cover your living expenses? Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:You have $70,000 sitting in liquid cash?

I do too. What is so weird about that? If you need at least 6 - 8 months living expenses in cash, that is not such a bad idea. I would argue at least 12 months living expenses in cash is not a bad idea. Now, with that said, we also invest in retirement so it is not like we have all of our assests in cash.

Anonymous wrote:I have $70K and it is sitting in my savings account, earning next to nothing.

Should I put it somewhere else? I want it immediately accessible. Where it is now, I can transfer it to checking with a few clicks.

Talk to your bank/credit union and see what type of long term CDs they offer. Often you can just call to liquidate the CD early and the penalty is the last 3 months interest.

But that means you might be earning 1% interest ($700/year) on money you have no *plan* to touch for a while.

$25k. I wish I had $50k.
I have fairly low expenses compared to many, so this is a solid 5 months of savings for me. I'd would like to have closer to a year.

Anonymous wrote:45K in a Capitol One "high interest savings." I'm interested in where other people keep their emergency fund. I want it to be safe, but I hate that it is sitting there earning next to nothing.

They all earn next to nothing. There's no magic liquid 6%.

Anonymous wrote:45K in a Capitol One "high interest savings." I'm interested in where other people keep their emergency fund. I want it to be safe, but I hate that it is sitting there earning next to nothing.

I want to know too. We have more than a year of expenses in savings earning almost nothing - but we're undergoing fertility treatments and DH is looking for a different job. It feels like we're always "almost" going to have a baby, rent a bigger place, buy a house if DH gets a job w/o an expiration date. We live well below our means and have no debts so every month that goes by is just more money piling up. I don't even look at how much it is b/c it just reminds me how long we've been in limbo. This thread is making me want to do something proactive. Our 20-30% down payment for a house is already in a diversified mix of low fee Vanguard funds.

45K in a Capitol One "high interest savings." I'm interested in where other people keep their emergency fund. I want it to be safe, but I hate that it is sitting there earning next to nothing.

$50k.