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Clicky-poll: Emergency Nest Egg

ETA: Bonus question -- when factoring "expenses," do you factor how you currently spend money, or the way you WOULD spend money if there were a loss in income?

[Poll]
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie

Re: Clicky-poll: Emergency Nest Egg

  • Ours is based on giving up things like most eating out, clothes, vacations but not cutting fixed expenses like cable and data plans. If we cut ALL extras or luxuries, we could stretch it a lot more.
  • Ours is based on how we currently spend money. It could be stretched over a year, if we made some cuts.
    Another old nestie with a new name.
  • I voted on what I want my e fund to be, not what it currently is.
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  • imageMartiza:
    Ours is based on how we currently spend money. It could be stretched over a year, if we made some cuts.
    Exactly that.
  • Our e-fund is based on fixed expenses and cutting a lot of luxuries from the budget.

    Also, if everyone answers with what they want their e-fund to be rather than what it is it could really skew the results which I don't think were jen's intentions.  I'd also love to have a million dollar salary, but that's not what my answer would be if this was a salary poll.

  • My e fund is not where I want it to be at all, we would need to cut all luxuries.
  • imageMadisen:

    Also, if everyone answers with what they want their e-fund to be rather than what it is it could really skew the results which I don't think were jen's intentions. 

    Yeah, definitely an interesting question, but not what I was going for.

    "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie
  • imagejenhappy:
    imageMadisen:

    Also, if everyone answers with what they want their e-fund to be rather than what it is it could really skew the results which I don't think were jen's intentions. 

    Yeah, definitely an interesting question, but not what I was going for.

    Well...sure. Wouldn't we all pick 1+ year if we were answering the question that way? Who would actually say, "Nah. I'm good with just 6 months, thanks?"

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  • lol, well there is definitely the idea of having more than needed being liquid. Part of why I was asking was that we are having a discussion about how much we want to keep liquid and how much to throw at our debt, for instance. So even if I made millions of bucks, I wouldn't necessarily want to keep 2 years of expenses liquid.
    "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie
  • I was realistic in my choice. Meaning I usually have that much in my e fund, but right this moment I don't. I didn't pick over one year just because I wish I had that much.
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  • imagejenhappy:
    lol, well there is definitely the idea of having more than needed being liquid. Part of why I was asking was that we are having a discussion about how much we want to keep liquid and how much to throw at our debt, for instance. So even if I made millions of bucks, I wouldn't necessarily want to keep 2 years of expenses liquid.

    LOL. Good point. In this current economy where it seems like no job is safe, I would ideally have a year. When weighing options like you guys seem to be about what to have liquid & what debt to pay off, we've settled on closer to the 6 month mark.

    Laner- That makes more sense now that you clarified. :)

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  • Ours includes cable, internet, and phones but cuts out trips, eating out, fun shopping, etc.
  • We expect some costs when we move back to Cali.  We don't want a lack of funds from stopping or delaying our move, so we are currently keeping more cash than we would usually because we expect to need it in the short-run (within 3 years).
  • We don't have a bunch of separate accounts devoted to specific things. Just our own individual bank acc'ts which we use to pay our regular bills and one joint savings which we don't ever touch, it's reserved for our real estate investments (down payments). So I guess that could technically count as our "e-fund", since we'd pull from there if there ever was a huge emergency that we couldn't cover with our checkings/individual savings. When our checking gets higher than we need, we dump it into the joint savings.

     I don't think the MM gods approve of this method but it makes sense for us.

    image
  • We are basically living paycheck to paycheck right now.  We had a 3 month (without extras) padding before DH broke his foot and I went on Maternity leave.  Basically our emergency fund covered a long term emergency and now we have to build it back up somehow.
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  • image+jennasue+:

    We don't have a bunch of separate accounts devoted to specific things. Just our own individual bank acc'ts which we use to pay our regular bills and one joint savings which we don't ever touch, it's reserved for our real estate investments (down payments). So I guess that could technically count as our "e-fund", since we'd pull from there if there ever was a huge emergency that we couldn't cover with our checkings/individual savings. When our checking gets higher than we need, we dump it into the joint savings.

     I don't think the MM gods approve of this method but it makes sense for us.

    I would consider your e-fund whatever part of that savings account you would not be willing to use for your downpayment. 

    Our e-fund is 6 months worth of expenses, not to include travel, home improvements, Roth contributions, and the like. It assumes that both of us are out of a job at the same time, which would be an extreme situation, but we both have the same employer, so could theoretically happen. I think this is conservative, but that fits our personalities and is what we are comfortable with.

    Currently our savings account is higher than that amount and we are deciding how to best leverage the extra. But we only consider the amount above what we've calculated our e-fund to be, to be available to us.

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