Earlier today, I asked via Twitter how much everyone has in their emergency fund in relation to their monthly expenses. Here are some of the responses. (I assumed if the message wasn’t sent privately and if the twitter account wasn’t protected that I could re-post the source of the responses.)
- nodebtplan: 3 months of expenses in our emergency fund
- takingcharge: currently only enough to get me through a month or less, but working on saving enough for 3-6 months
- taliaishere: 3 months in the emergency fund, but am working towards 6 months-that would be much more comfortable
- Gblogger: Depends on what I count — we stopped segregating specific emergency funds a while back. But at least 6-10 mos.
- dreamscostmoney: 3-5. It used to be 3, but then I decreased my monthly expenses, so it’s probably closer to 4 or 5.
- BurgBarbL: I have about 1.5 months’ worth of expenses in my emergency fund.
- Private: In my emergency fund? One. Not great, I know. But with my new salary, I’m on a plan to make that three.
- SunFinancial: I don’t have a dedicated emergency fund. All are accumulated in one savings account.
- bargainr: 9 months
Among these responses, the average (while taking the low end of anyone who responded with a range) is about 3.5 months. Not bad! I have about 3 months’ worth of expenses in my account called “Emergency Fund,” but I have about an additional four times that amount across a variety of savings accounts.
If you’re interested in participated in occasional polls, follow me on Twitter. For those who don’t know, Twitter is a “social media” tool that allows you to broadcast and receive quick and short text updates. I promise not to send spam or to bombard you with “new post” updates. Mighty Bargain Hunter has a list of 118 personal finance bloggers who use Twitter, but many only provide automated “new post” notifications, duplicating an RSS feed.
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