Why bother having an emergency fund at all?

[ThaBronxBully]

This Didn’t Age Well lol

Emergency Money Isnt To Be Toyed With Like An Investment For The Sake Of Gaining Interest, It’s Completely Separate From Your Investments

Be Smart People

 

[winb83]

This Didn’t Age Well lol

Emergency Money Isnt To Be Toyed With Like An Investment For The Sake Of Gaining Interest, It’s Completely Separate From Your Investments

Be Smart People

It did age well. I still continue to live my life the same way. If an emergency happens I'll charge it to a credit card and use my next paycheck to pay that back.

I live off half what I make and save / invest the other half. If I had to I could live off about $1200 a month going down to the bare minimum.

The only real reason to have a highly liquid emergency fund is because you could lose your job and don't have the skills to land another in a decent amount of time. If that's the case you've got issues you need to deal with.

I'm saving for a down payment on a home and I'm saving to pay off my car and all the rest of my free money is diverted to the markets. I put a portion in bonds now but most goes to regular stocks.

 

[ThaBronxBully]

It did age well. I still continue to live my life the same way. If an emergency happens I'll charge it to a credit card and use my next paycheck to pay that back.

I live off half what I make and save / invest the other half. If I had to I could live off about $1200 a month going down to the bare minimum.

The only real reason to have a highly liquid emergency fund is because you could lose your job and don't have the skills to land another in a decent amount of time. If that's the case you've got issues you need to deal with.

I'm saving for a down payment on a home and I'm saving to pay off my car and all the rest of my free money is diverted to the markets. I put a portion in bonds now but most goes to regular stocks.

Charge It To A CC So You Can Earn $5 In “Points” ?

And Emergencies Come In All Forms Not Just Losing A Job, Relatives Die, Cars Have Issues, AC Systems Blow Out, Roofs Cave In, I Could Name A Million Things You Might Need 3k Or More On The Spot, U Telling Me You Gonna Use A CC And Accumulate Interest?


You Saving In Bonds You Need To Worry About Your Down Payment First, Your Emgency Fund First, And Putting Some Investment In Your 401

Worry About Stocks When You’re Settled Financially, You Still Have Ends To Tie Up And You Talking About Stocks, That’s The Problem With Some Of Y’all Penny Trading Robinhood Muhfukkas You Doing Stuff Ass Backwards

 

[winb83]

Charge It To A CC So You Can Earn $5 In “Points” ?

And Emergencies Come In All Forms Not Just Losing A Job, Relatives Die, Cars Have Issues, AC Systems Blow Out, Roofs Cave In, I Could Name A Million Things You Might Need 3k Or More On The Spot, U Telling Me You Gonna Use A CC And Accumulate Interest?


You Saving In Bonds You Need To Worry About Your Down Payment First, Your Emgency Fund First, And Putting Some Investment In Your 401

Worry About Stocks When You’re Settled Financially, You Still Have Ends To Tie Up And You Talking About Stocks, That’s The Problem With Some Of Y’all Penny Trading Robinhood Muhfukkas You Doing Stuff Ass Backwards

Most of my credit cards have well over $10K in limits. I make more than $3K in a month so if something that cost $3K came up I would put it on a credit card and pause my savings / investing for a month and pay it off.

If worst came to worst I have an 800+ credit score I can open a new card with 0% interest for a year and do a balance transfer then pay it off over a year.

You don't seem to get it. Every penny I spend is on a credit card getting 2% cash back minimum. I don't really even have more than $20 cash on me ever. What am I ever going to encounter bedsides a job loss that I can't use a credit card for and pay back? If somebody ask me to borrow money I don't have it because honestly I don't and that's not a lie.

It's because I invest that I learned to live off less than half of my take home pay. I live on a written budget and track every penny I spend so I can have the most money to invest and save. Investing is my passion. Some people fish, play video games, or hoop. My hobby is buying stocks. It's both what I love to do and it earns me money so it's entertainment for me.

My stock portfolio if I had to sell it all now is well over what I need to live for 3 years without earning a single paycheck in that span. Even if it went down half that's 1.5 years I could live with no added income. That doesn't even factor in the fact that I would consume my down payment money and car money before I touched it.

 

[ThaBronxBully]

Most of my credit cards have well over $10K in limits. I make more than $3K in a month so if something that cost $3K came up I would put it on a credit card and pause my savings / investing for a month and pay it off.

If worst came to worst I have an 800+ credit score I can open a new card with 0% interest for a year and do a balance transfer then pay it off over a year.

You don't seem to get it. Every penny I spend is on a credit card getting 2% cash back minimum. I don't really even have more than $20 cash on me ever. What am I ever going to encounter bedsides a job loss that I can't use a credit card for and pay back? If somebody ask me to borrow money I don't have it because honestly I don't and that's not a lie.

It's because I invest that I learned to live off less than half of my take home pay. I live on a written budget and track every penny I spend so I can have the most money to invest and save. Investing is my passion. Some people fish, play video games, or hoop. My hobby is buying stocks. It's both what I love to do and it earns me money so it's entertainment for me.

My stock portfolio if I had to sell it all now is well over what I need to live for 3 years without earning a single paycheck in that span. Even if it went down half that's 1.5 years I could live with no added income. That doesn't even factor in the fact that I would consume my down payment money and car money before I touched it.

If It Works For You Great But The Average Person Is An Idiot, Irresponsible And Probably Making Less Than 40k So I Wouldn’t Be Doling Out That Kind Of Advice

I Currently Put A Down Payment On A Place, Have 50k In Savings (After The Down Payment) Have $0 CC Debt, $0 Car Payments, A Nice 401, A Pension, And A Spouse Who Also Makes Good Money, And I Personally Wouldn’t Use Emergency Funds In The Way You Would

 

[winb83]

If It Works For You Great But The Average Person Is An Idiot, Irresponsible And Probably Making Less Than 40k So I Wouldn’t Be Doling Out That Kind Of Advice

I Currently Put A Down Payment On A Place, Have 50k In Savings (After The Down Payment) Have $0 CC Debt, $0 Car Payments, A Nice 401, A Pension, And A Spouse Who Also Makes Good Money, And I Personally Wouldn’t Use Emergency Funds In The Way You Would

Even if you're making less than $40K the first thing to do is figure out how you can live on half of what you make and plan from there. I drove a POS car for years that literally was falling apart. I slept on a mattress on a floor with no bed frame. I cut spending anywhere I could even though I could afford to live a much better life. Even now I live somewhere where really I could live a place with twice the rent.

For me splurging was getting a 2016 Honda Civic I put 55% down on and financed the other 45%. I could have bought it outright but I'm using the $164 a month payment to raise my credit score back to 850 from like 801-810. When you don't have a mix of credit your credit score will fall to below 800 and it's hard to get it above that.

People's problem isn't having a liquid emergency fund it's living at the edge of what they can afford and living paycheck to paycheck. I have 5 checking accounts and if you add up all the money in each of them it's equal to about 1 take home paycheck. I'm usually paying all my bills with my previous check.

 

[Macallik86]

It did age well. I still continue to live my life the same way. If an emergency happens I'll charge it to a credit card and use my next paycheck to pay that back.

I live off half what I make and save / invest the other half. If I had to I could live off about $1200 a month going down to the bare minimum.

The only real reason to have a highly liquid emergency fund is because you could lose your job and don't have the skills to land another in a decent amount of time. If that's the case you've got issues you need to deal with.

I'm saving for a down payment on a home and I'm saving to pay off my car and all the rest of my free money is diverted to the markets. I put a portion in bonds now but most goes to regular stocks.

I agree with your overall sentiment, but in a world where people just read the headlines and not the actual content, this thread may be doing more harm than good to the average Coli member...

You are arguing a nuanced perspective from a position that the majority of this board (let alone the US population) are not in. I too do not have a traditional emergency fund as (God willing), thank to my saving, I won't ever encounter an emergency that my HSA/CreditCard alone can't weather, but I acknowledge that this isn't the norm, so I don't lead with "You don't need an emergency fund" as a topic of convo.

I view emergency fund as a rainy day fund. In that instance, I advocate for money that I can access in case shyt goes left and it sounds like you do too (even if it is temporarily tied up elsewhere)

 

[Dolla$]

If It Works For You Great But The Average Person Is An Idiot, Irresponsible And Probably Making Less Than 40k So I Wouldn’t Be Doling Out That Kind Of Advice

I Currently Put A Down Payment On A Place, Have 50k In Savings (After The Down Payment) Have $0 CC Debt, $0 Car Payments, A Nice 401, A Pension, And A Spouse Who Also Makes Good Money, And I Personally Wouldn’t Use Emergency Funds In The Way You Would

Do you have kids?

 

[ThaBronxBully]

Do you have kids?

1

1 Year Old

 

[winb83]

I agree with your overall sentiment, but in a world where people just read the headlines and not the actual content, this thread may be doing more harm than good to the average Coli member...

You are arguing a nuanced perspective from a position that the majority of this board (let alone the US population) are not in. I too do not have a traditional emergency fund as (God willing), thank to my saving, I won't ever encounter an emergency that my HSA/CreditCard alone can't weather, but I acknowledge that this isn't the norm, so I don't lead with "You don't need an emergency fund" as a topic of convo.

I view emergency fund as a rainy day fund. In that instance, I advocate for money that I can access in case shyt goes left and it sounds like you do too (even if it is temporarily tied up elsewhere)

People have to understand that you can't live at the edge of what you can afford. You need to live well below your means. People especially in America live life at the edge and end up living paycheck to paycheck. At the very least people need a paycheck buffer. Once you get that then you can begin to do other things with your money.

I look at my co-workers leasing cars they couldn't afford to drive if they had to buy them outright and switching cars every 3 years. Basically using debt as leverage to live outside their means. My attitude is if I can't come up with the cash to buy it outright if necessary then I don't need to be driving it.

For much of the middle class cars are their albatross around their neck holding them back from a better life.

 

[winb83]

2021 and for the most part I still don't have an emergency fund. I have a grand in my SoFi as a buffer. A a grand in my Betterment accounts, A grand in my Ally checking account, soon to be a grand in my Chase checking account when my tax refund hits, and a couple grand in my Discover savings.

It basically adds up to about $6000 worth of loose cash between 6 accounts. Outside that I have about $70,000 in taxable investment accounts I could raid if needed.

 

[KING WILL]

Nice bro..


I'm using my Sofi account as an savings account/daughters 2nd brokerage account.

 

[BornStar]

OP called it

All the potential gains missed out on as opposed to just saving is ridiculous. OP made this in 2019. If the average person would have put that 1200 dollar stimulus into a random popular invest lets say BTC they would have 10k(9830k) right now in less than a year.

If they would have saved that their buying power most likely would have dropped some within that time.

With the argument being SAVING vs INVESTING.

 

[phcitywarrior]

OP called it

All the potential gains missed out on as opposed to just saving is ridiculous. OP made this in 2019. If the average person would have put that 1200 dollar stimulus into a random popular invest lets say BTC they would have 10k(9830k) right now in less than a year.

If they would have saved that their buying power most likely would have dropped some within that time.

With the argument being SAVING vs INVESTING.

OP also mentioned in the Boiler Room thread about when he once had to liquidate his 401k due to an emergency (IIRC). That's when the e-fund would have come in handy. No one is saying have a crazy amount in the e-fund, but it's good to just have some cash lying around for if and when stuff hits the fan.

My mom had over $40K saved in hard cash as general savings. I told her she should widdle down her cash to maybe $8-10K and I'd help her set up a brokerage to invest the rest.

Everyone looks like a genius in a bull market...

 

[phcitywarrior]

2021 and for the most part I still don't have an emergency fund. I have a grand in my SoFi as a buffer. A a grand in my Betterment accounts, A grand in my Ally checking account, soon to be a grand in my Chase checking account when my tax refund hits, and a couple grand in my Discover savings.

It basically adds up to about $6000 worth of loose cash between 6 accounts. Outside that I have about $70,000 in taxable investment accounts I could raid if needed.

Lol, why not consolidate that $6k into one account and call it a day on the e-fund. You practically already have that..