I honestly think the "6 months of salary in an emergency fund"-advice is a bit overblown and certainly not universally applicable.
An emergency fund must per definition be very liquid in order to fulfill its purpose, hence you can only really place the money in a simple savings account with a not-so-spectacular interest rate. This means that the opportunity cost of having 6 months of salary in an emergency fund is the delta of expected return on investment in a higher-yield method of savings, such as placing the money in index funds. This can be quite significant, in particular since saving up 6 months of salary is not an easy task for the average person.
If you had the money placed in investments, the money would be less liquid, and there's the chance that you may have to liquidate it during a downturn, which would of course suck a little. Consider carefully under which scenarios you would have to liquidate, though:
- Lost your job? I have unemployment insurance to cover this scenario for me, meaning that I will get 80% of my current salary for close to a year, a period during which I would have to liquidate nothing.
- Disaster strikes my home? My home insurance policy covers this more than enough for me.
- Medical emergency? I'm lucky enough to live in a country where health care is free, but I have additional health insurance on top of that as well.
- Emergency while traveling? I have great travel insurance. They cover all medical expenses and would even fly me back home post-haste in disaster scenarios.
- Other accidents where I hurt myself? You guessed it, I have insurance for that too.
Now, there's an argument to be made that these insurance policies might be a bit slow to pay out, and that I might need to be a bit more liquid to cover the expenses temporarily. I have a solution for that too - credit cards. With credit cards I can make a short-term loan that should bridge over most issues until I can either get money from any of my insurance policies, or worst case have time to liquidate some of my higher-yield investments.
So yeah, that's my plan. It does not involve 6 months of salary being invested in a low-yield savings account, because that'd lose me a lot of money. I dislike the fact that the 6 months emergency fund is basically parroted as religious gospel, and it feels like people who repeat it have not thought about the issue thoroughly.
Meanwhile giant megacorps after 2 weeks of lockdown go bust bcs free money.
Multiple times now, I've had people on Lemmy tell me that I am either not caring about my future or not caring about my child's future because I buy myself an occasional chai latte and her an occasional smoothie or some Taco Bell food.
I hate this idea that you should deny yourself any and all pleasures in life so that you can have a decent 10-20 end-of-life years when you retire. People made fun of the avocado toast guy, but suddenly now he's got the right idea?
I'm not going to have major retirement savings if I put the maybe $20 a month at most that this costs and it makes our lives a little less miserable right now.
I'm 38 and I just achieved that goal.
Don't stress about this shit (too much).
Go to concerts, take trips, eat your avocado toast. Indulge.
You're only young once, and everyone is poor in their 20's. Unless you're lucky or it's given to you.
It sounds trite, but success will come. However you measure it.
Yeah man I got it saved up and then some, I was able to stretch it 11 months without work most of last year. I got lucky.
Nobody else I know has that luxury.
This hit a lot harder than I feel comfortable with.
If you're under 30, full-time job, no looming debts, no kids, then the 6 months can really be 3 months or around $10,000. If you have a partner, you are even more secure. Remember this is a figure derived from very conservative financial commentators who assume you have a linear college and job progression (which is rarely the case). Even a 1 month savings buffer will save you for 90% of the unexpected expenses.
If you're in your late 50s, finding a new job will be tough, especially if you are laid off during a recession. In that case a generous buffer beyond 6 months would be good.
Either way, having savings is a good thing. Yes you will miss out on those "epic Bitcoin gains", but once you have made an emergency savings buffer, then you can really knuckle down on contributions to retirement.
You should've told me earlier when I could've. Now I learned the hard way.
In my life it was either I could not save anything or I could save a lot, the expenses are basically the same but the income changed. Once the income was higher than the expenses the saving happened automatically and are steadily growing over time.
It's generally 3 - 6 months of living expenses depending on your situation (generally on the low side unless layoffs are likely) which is very different than salary of an equivalent time frame
Consider the value of your purchases, that doesn't mean buying the cheapest thing. It means buy the things that give you the most benefit. Price compare, don't just blindly go to the store and buy something.
Don't drive to the store to buy one thing. Go to the store if you're already going past it or need to do a full run.
If you think you want to buy something you don't necessarily need, don't buy it immediately, put it in your online shopping cart and leave it there for a few days, then decide if you still want it.
Sell stuff that you don't want or use anymore.
Never go out to eat/ order food if you can help it.
Stop drinking soda/energy drinks.
Stop smoking, doing drugs, and drinking alcohol.
Never go inside the gas station to pay, always pay at the pump. You'll avoid impulse purchases and don't buy lottery tickets.
Stop caring what other people think, you don't need to buy a bunch of fancy clothes, shoes, the latest iPhone, etc. The only time you need to dress nice is a job interview and special occasions.
Show up to work on time, don't complain out loud, and have a willingness to learn something new. You don't have to be the best to get more money. Don't stay at the same job if you're not getting promoted or regular pay raises.
Buy a bicycle.
Floss your teeth, dental work is expensive.
Move to a higher cost of living area to get jobs that pay more. Rent is higher, but everything else costs pretty much the same so you're better off and have more job opportunities.
Put as much money into your retirement account while you're young, time in the market is better than timing the market.
Take care of your things, especially if you have a car. Maintenance costs less than a new engine.
Learn to fix things yourself
Go to thrift stores
Take advantage of free services, go to the library, they have access to a lot of online subscriptions.
Stay away from predatory loans from places like rentacenter, buy here pay here car lots and payday loans. Just don't.
Don't take out a car loan if you can't afford it.
Get a savings/checking account with the highest interest you can find. It doesn't have to be a local credit union/bank.
Do your own taxes for free, don't pay someone to do them if you only have a regular job.
Get a roommate and split rent.
Take the bus/train.
Coupons/ deals/ rewards points.
Never talk to the cops.
I’ve got 6 minutes of salary saved, this is adulting!
I think there is a whole lot of variability in this equation. I do try to keep some "cushion" in the bank, but I can borrow if I have to. So if I have drained the savings I can still get by via borrowing for a while if necessary.
I'm fortunate that my employment is very steady. The chances of me losing my job are slim. If it were less steady I'd be better about keeping that cash stashed.
If the unlikely did happen and I lost my job I would pretty quickly have access to a large stash of cash. Which I'd rather save but would spend if it saves my ass from starving and foreclosure.
I don't have anything remotely close to 6 months savings in the bank. It doesn't make economic sense for me to do so. I'm far better off talking any would-be savings and put it towards all this debt I'm still carrying from my college days.
You will never make more interest on an investment than you will get charged interest for the same amount as a loan. Ever. It does not happen. So for me to sit on money that could go towards paying down debts, I'm just needlessly paying more in interest than I would be otherwise.
My current plan is to pay down or pay off all by debts (ultimately paying them off but if they're close then ok); then consolidate all of my remaining debt into a line of credit, and close out all of my other debt accounts. When that's paid, it will hopefully be enough that I can put that available credit towards any spontaneous costs, and if no such costs occur, save as much as I can so I won't need the line of credit if I have incidentals. Hopefully saving up to 6 months or more, plus investing into a retirement fund.
The retirement fund is an afterthought because at this point in my life I expect that I will be financially incapable of retiring. I'll just work until either I go crazy (dementia or similar), or I simply die at my job. I'll just work until I'm dead.
I've been so financially fucked by all the once-in-a-(insert large amount of time here) events that just coincidentally all happened during my life so far that this is what I'm expecting going forward. Record inflation, stagnant wages, everything as-a-service basically robbing you monthly for something you should have bought and long since paid off, but instead you're paying for in perpetuity for no good reason....
Everything has turned into a monthly charge. It's terrible, and you think "oh, it's only $20 a month". Yeah, that's $240/yr. For something that probably doesn't make you any money and probably doesn't help you with your employment or any earnings you may bring in... It's just a stupid tax. We're stupid.
