Comments on: Twitter Poll: How Much Do You Have in Your Emergency Fund?

By: Yana

Yana — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:57:23 +0000

I don’t have something called an emergency fund, but outside of paying taxes, an oil change and (coming up) car insurance/registration, we don’t use my husband’s pay for daily/monthly expenses. We pay for a year at a time for car insurance. When I consider that account to have too much money in it every few months, I transfer about half of it to Schwab Investor Checking, which I consider savings. I started this method this year. What remains in that account would probably keep us going for a couple of months.

By: Khyron

Khyron — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:20:50 +0000

Flexo,

I totally couldn’t find your tweet. You should link directly to it. (Hint, hint!)

Anyway, target is 12 months. Current is about 4.5 – 5 months of expenses. With this week’s paycheck, probably 5.

By: Velvet Jones

Velvet Jones — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:45:01 +0000

I have two “emergency” funds. The first one is $1,000 that I figure can be used for short-term, minor kind of things like vet bills, last-minute air fare to go to a funeral, whatever. The second one is specifically my unemployment fund. I currently have enough money to get me by for 8 months, this includes COBRA payments and increased gas costs during a job search.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:22:15 +0000

Anonymous: See the recent discussion here. General rules are for general people.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:17:58 +0000

General rule of emergency savings fund:
The size of your fund should be equal to at least three months’ worth of your living expenses. Take note that it’s three months’ expenses, not three months of your pay.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:26:09 +0000

BurgBarbL: A support system of family and friends is a great part of an emergency plan for those who are lucky enough to have it.

By: Frugal Babe

Frugal Babe — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:17:46 +0000

Oops, I didn’t login to twitter until just now – missed your poll. But we have about a month’s worth of expenses saved in our emergency fund. We also have $5000 in an HSA (in case of a medical emergency – that more than covers our out-of-pocket max on our health insurance) and we have a little bit of money in a couple other accounts that are earmarked for other stuff but could be used as backup emergency fund if the need arose. Hope it doesn’t.

By: BurgBarbL

BurgBarbL — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:47:10 +0000

I know I should have more than 1.5 months’ worth, but I also know that my parents totally have my back. Treating my parents as an emergency fund isn’t really the greatest idea, but I have other financial priorities at the moment.

By: jim of Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

jim of Blueprint for Financial Prosperity — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:05:00 +0000

Booo… you missed me, i put 9 months. That’s ok though, Twitter can sometimes be a bit unmanageable when you get a lot of responses.

i take it back, there I am… I didn’t look for bargainr :)