$45K. Just sitting there earning mostly nothing. Plus a $5K cushion in our checking account.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We do too.

HHI $120k; fairly secure jobs
We currently have $13k in emergency only savings, building slowly. (saving more towards a new car and a bigger house at the moment)

My brokerage account currently has $450,000 in cash I can easily access with over $20M invested. Does that count?

I knew a lady customer in NYC back in the 70's who insisted that her checking account balance always be $3 million dollars. Yes, that's right. At the end of every bank business day, her checking account would be replenished from her savings to bring it back to $3 million. Standing order to the bank president that it be checked every business day.

I have 20K.

I feel secure having less than 6-8months of living expenses because I am a fed employment lawyer. I am good at my job. I tend to think that I am probably as secure in my employment as anyone could possibly be. Does anyone else take into account the actual likelihood of emergency when deciding what amount is best for an emergency fund?

(I also have healthy retirement accounts, college funds, etc. I just do not feel the need to keep a lot of liquid cash.)

How can you take into account the "actual likelihood of an emergency?". The idea is to have this money available if something catastrophic and unexpected happens. Job loss is one thing, and we can weigh the relative likelihood of that, and we can insure against some possibilities like the house burning down, but at the same time, catastrophic illness, disability, accidents, etc just happen, often with no advance warning. Example: One of my children got a devastating medical diagnosis last year, completely out of the blue. I ended up staying out of work for an entire year caring for my child in hospitals & at home. A year of lost income + enormous medical bills and related expenses (and we do have good insurance!) = huge, unexpected financial burden. Accumulated sick leave will only get you so far in that situation, and it became easy for me to see how people who live paycheck to paycheck could quickly lose everything in those circumstances. This kind of emergency seems unlikely - until it happens to you.

$30,000 in savings account
$30,000 in a checking account

If we needed more we could use house money. It's paid off.

$12,000 in the freezer immediately available as cold cash and half a million in an fnbodirect account earning .85 percent interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our income and expenses we have an insufficient amount of cash, but I could get ahold of $100k-$200k without selling anything inside of 24 hours and in a true emergency a good $1m within 3-4 days.

Should I still shoot for 6-8 months truly liquid?

Where would that money come from?

A few hundred on unsecured personal lines of credit. A few hundred from businesses I own (I prefer to keep them with more cash, but they would be fine if I pulled it) a few hundred from existing untapped lines of credit on investment properties (they would still cash flow even I maxed out the helocs) and I could also access margin accounts on my brokerage account and borrow from a cash value life insurance policy. I could get my hands on a few million more, but that would require selling investments.

I have 20K.

I feel secure having less than 6-8months of living expenses because I am a fed employment lawyer. I am good at my job. I tend to think that I am probably as secure in my employment as anyone could possibly be. Does anyone else take into account the actual likelihood of emergency when deciding what amount is best for an emergency fund?

(I also have healthy retirement accounts, college funds, etc. I just do not feel the need to keep a lot of liquid cash.)

$16K.

my net take home is $3200 per mo.

Anonymous wrote:For our income and expenses we have an insufficient amount of cash, but I could get ahold of $100k-$200k without selling anything inside of 24 hours and in a true emergency a good $1m within 3-4 days.

Should I still shoot for 6-8 months truly liquid?

Where would that money come from?

For our income and expenses we have an insufficient amount of cash, but I could get ahold of $100k-$200k without selling anything inside of 24 hours and in a true emergency a good $1m within 3-4 days.

Should I still shoot for 6-8 months truly liquid?

$50k in a money market making no interest. I keep planning on moving some of that into a cd or something, but haven't gotten around to researching options.

35K in a savings account, another 20K in a conservative Vanguard fund. We used to have nearly $200K but used most if it for a down payment last year, so it feels like very little, comparatively.

Anonymous wrote: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'm sorry you are going through hard times. Do you expect to resume working soon or you don't know? Is it hard to find a job in your industry? Could you take any job at all just temporarily (mother's helper for eg)?
Do you have retirement savings that you are not touching?
I hope you can find something soon that will bring you income.