Anonymous wrote:Okay people the question was the minimum you're comfortable with. Sure everyone wants two years and it's something to work towards after you own your own home, but most people don't have that much after buying their houses.

I am comfortable with two years, I am not comfortable with less. Market crash resulted in staying in the job I hated, for the reasons you described. I am not doing it again.

I start to get uneasy if there is less than $10K in our checking account. We have a separate savings account with $250K earning minimal interest. The rest is in investments.

Okay people the question was the minimum you're comfortable with. Sure everyone wants two years and it's something to work towards after you own your own home, but most people don't have that much after buying their houses.

Anonymous wrote:250k is the least I leave in cash.

Are you single? If not, looking for a sidepiece to spend some cash on?

I do not see a reason. We have credit cards with high limits that we do not owe anything on. If there is a major repair from some plumbing disaster, or something, we could easily drop 20k on a credit card which would give enough time to transfer a mutual fund into the account.

Spouse disagrees and wants emergency money languishing in a low interest savings account. Even if there was a major stock marker crash, we would still have enough in our mutual fund to cover stuff. I think this savings account, liquid asset paranoia is for the old fashion folk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threads like these make me further understand why trump won

????

Further understanding had by the idiotic????

I think it depends on what you mean. When we first bought, we probably had $3k in cash and $3k in an overdraft and then credit cards, but it was a condo so maybe a bit less risky. After a while we added a HELOC of $25k, then gradually we've been able to save more, so now we have a healthy savings.

I think we had about 17k left over after buying our house. We only put 5% down. We could have put down 10%, but we would have had maybe 1-2K of savings left over. I was uncomfortable with that amount, especially since we bought a 100 year old home with old-ish systems. I probably would have been more comfortable with a lower amount if we were buying a new home/a home with relatively new major systems, or a condo. Two years later we've built up our savings to about 32K, 28K of which is specifically earmarked for our emergency fund. (The rest is earmarked for other goals, but is certainly available if we needed it for a very big house project.) 28K is 4 months of expenses for us. We're building up to 6 months, which is our target just because "they" say it's the goal. It's probably realistic though, as our concern is having multiple big ticket house issues simultaneously. We also keep in mind our 17 year old car, which requires the occasional expensive repair, but will ultimately need replacing in the next few years, a kid in the next year hopefully (and supplementing unpaid leave). So given that we make enough money to save in anticipation of these events, having 50k in savings is probably a good goal given our individual circumstances.

As an aside, don't underestimate the cost of home repairs. Our house was super cold and drafty (ie couldn't get warmer than 65 degrees) during the cold snap in January so we had an energy audit done - they recommended 6K worth of repairs. We then wanted to move forward with some electrical stuff in the attic before extra insulation was addded up there, which was a 2K estimate (though admittedly that amount covered all of the electrical projects in the house, not just the attic work). Then our water heater blew, and it cost just under 2K to replace. And there were a few other unexpected things like our pet's teeth cleaning which turned into extractions (1K), a 2.5k escrow shortage, and my husband just injured his knee - it looks like he'll need surgery, so who knows what that will cost. All that was just the first 6 weeks of 2018.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two years of expenses

This is insane and completely out of touch.

Out of touch with what? You do what makes you comfortable.

Not everyone makes enough money to save this way. It’s not as simple for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threads like these make me further understand why trump won

????

NP - I assume PP means that Trump won bc people talking about having 1 and 2 yrs worth of expenses saved up don't realize how out of touch they are in a country where there are stats saying that more than 50% of people couldn't come up with $1000 if they had to.

But FWIW me personally -- 2 yrs worth of expenses is optimal.

I had $1000+ saved when I made $1,200 a month. I lived on $600-$700 and saved the rest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threads like these make me further understand why trump won

????

NP - I assume PP means that Trump won bc people talking about having 1 and 2 yrs worth of expenses saved up don't realize how out of touch they are in a country where there are stats saying that more than 50% of people couldn't come up with $1000 if they had to.

But FWIW me personally -- 2 yrs worth of expenses is optimal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two years of expenses

This is insane and completely out of touch.

Why?

NP and same for me - 2 yrs expenses makes me comfortable.

250k is the least I leave in cash.

15K

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You realize that mutual fund and stock investments are liquid?
Assuming not, my answer is 5k, the minimum necessary to avoid bank fees. Otherwise, the answer is 0 since I can easily access money through credit cards and my HELOSorry to all you emergency fund fetishists out there.

PP with two years: it's not an emergency fund

2 years i would disagree, While I don't have every single exit for each of my positions in my brokerage planned out if it came down to it I could have as much as I needed wired to my bank same day to cover the emergency . Yes if this was 2008 all over again I'd rather not be forced to sell in a down market but I'm not 100% invested all the time anyway. I keep less than 10K in a checking account no more than 2k in the house safe.

I am assuming you have a stable income to cover expenses. I do not.