Emergency fund amount

[TheRootedNomad]

Our typical EF account has roughly 6 months of expenses in it. I rund everything off for it including what our monthly expenses are. I don't include all the bigger extras like say kids summer camps or the car repair we paid cash for but I do include the fairly routine extras like soccer fees. Since DH and I both make fairly close to the same amount without overtime by doing it this way either one of us could be out of work for a year or both of us for 6 months before we really had to start looking at more desperate forms of paying bills like pulling from retirement.

For a long time both of us have felt we were in very secure jobs, even when the economy was REALLY bad. I have always worried about how I would replace my current position pay wise though as I've worked my way up with just under 20 years in but with out the "paper" I would need somewhere else. While I'm not likely to get canned depending on the rotating chain of command over me there may come a time when I choose to walk as it's come close a couple of times. Having an EF of that size gives me the ability to be able to do that with time to find something good. That piece of mind, makes things SO MUCH less stressfull.

With DH we didn't think there would be a problem with him finding a replacement position at the same or more money but that it would be a physical issue/injury that may put him out for awhile as we have been down the year out due to injury before path.

......Can I just say ..... and let me repeat that as we just went through DH being out of work for just under 6 months with NO real warning. Him and his boss had a disagreement in early Dec., work returns to the norm for the next week. DH takes his 2 weeks unpaid for the holidays and returns to..... you no longer have a job....At that point it's the slow season in his field and no one is hiring. We didn't even have to stress for the next few months. Did I anyway....no but we were careful. At the end of Feb. he started putting feelers out as hiring generally starts in March. By the end of March he was REALLY looking. (i was starting to stress a bit as he should have been able to walk in anywhere in his field and be hired on the spot but his previous boss has been known to blackball people he cans.) He didn't get a real hit till the begining of this month.

Anyhow, did we go through the whole or half of the EF? No. We cut back some but still enjoyed some extras. Dh did do some odd/side jobs and save us from pulling some from the EF as well. However, we did use money from it AND if anything would have happened like our 14 year old car blowing up, or if it would have taken as long as it's taken a lot of other people to find jobs, we would have needed it. It was such a relief to not argue and fight and be in constant anxiety over getting things paid like we did when DH was out injured several years back I wouldn't ever do it any other way from here on out.


Sorry to be so long winded for such a simple question but having been there, done that, I would most DEFINATELY recommend a minimum of 6 months worth of expenses.

[frugalwarrior2]

I always thought 3 months worth of savings would be enough but now DH has lost his section w/in the company. Many sections want him but there is a hiring freeze. We are sending our youngest to college and I was just in the hosp. w/ diabetes.
No one thinks things will line up this way.
We have $5000. E-fund,$10,000 come from taxes, 2 paid for cars and less debt then ever. BUT I wish we had a years worth.
How much you need-never enough would be my new opinion.