facebookBeen seeing different accounts of how much emergency funds to put aside, some saying 6-12 months expenses while others preach 6-12 months of salary. How much is too much emergency funds ? - Seedly

Anonymous

09 Jul 2023

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Been seeing different accounts of how much emergency funds to put aside, some saying 6-12 months expenses while others preach 6-12 months of salary. How much is too much emergency funds ?

Currently, I have around 4 months of take home pay set aside for emergency funds. I have been allocating around $650 every month to it with the intention of getting it to reach around $20k (~6 months salary) .

I have seen many different accounts of emergency fund amount online, with some simply advocating for 6-12 months of expenses while others advocate a much higher amount.

For myself, I do not spend much every month (around 400-500/month) and don't have much big ticket items lined up as well. However, my parents are retiring soon and I expect to see my expenses growing in the future, both due to inflation and also new expenses that I may have to take up as I am set to be the sole breadwinner of my family.

On the other hand, being someone who is relatively young (mid 20s) with a long investment horizon, I find the opportunity cost of setting aside money in a rather safe and liquid account for emergency as compared to investing in assets that gives higher returns i.e equities to be pretty significant too.

As the title suggests, what should be the appropriate amount of funds that should be set aside for emergency right now ? Am I setting aside too much or too little ? Do I need to factor in family expenses into the fund or just my own expenses ?

Discussion (12)

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Yeah it depends on your situation. some ppl need to set aside more for commitments. for eg, if i need to service loans (car, house), then i wanna make sure i have more emergency funds. also, maybe those with commitments, 6-12 mths expenses = 6-12 mths salary...

Here's my take on it! https://youtu.be/92z2kHMRxZQ

I talked about it broadly. I think no matter what, you should based it on your expenses :)

Theres no right or wrong regarding how much to save up. Given your situation, how likely is your family able to bail you out in the midst of an emergency. Given that, you can gauge for yourself how many months of income do you need.

30k is the minimum needs you in order to survive the next 6 months in case you lost your job.

This article I came across answered ...

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