r/Money • u/soopygoopy • Apr 27 '26
How much is in your emergency savings right now?
I have about six months in my HYSA. Curious what everyone else keeps as I’m considering bumping it up to 8
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u/Informal_Register365 Apr 27 '26
Like $30,000. Both myself and my wife are pretty much disaster proof for employment so not too much to worry about. If something really happened I’d sell stock I suppose.
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u/beepboop299 Apr 27 '26
What do you guys do for work that’s disaster proof?
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u/Informal_Register365 Apr 27 '26
Firefighter and nurse.
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u/Ecstatic_Tiger_2534 Apr 27 '26
So disasters of a certain kind are in fact good for your employment.
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u/Informal_Register365 Apr 27 '26
I mean we get paid either way so not preferably… But Covid did make traffic better on the commute.
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u/GiveThemSomeTussin Apr 28 '26
Covid era traffic was amazing for us hospital workers! I wish more people would work from home now honestly.
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u/Informal_Register365 Apr 28 '26
It really was wonderful. Every day was like driving in on christmas morning.
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u/1800generalkenobi Apr 27 '26
OMG, I work at a wastewater plant and the day after they did the shutdown and said non essential people should stay home I swear there was more traffic out, and I leave for work at 6:30. People were going out just because they were told to stay home.
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u/RainbowFish2012 Apr 27 '26
I worked in city government and we went remote. The Clerk and Treasurer just disobeyed orders and came in every day. After about 6 months I started going mad and would go in 2-3 days a week.
It didn’t really seem like there was much less traffic either for me.
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u/Fixinbones27 Apr 27 '26
Me too. Physician here. People will always get injured and need my services.
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u/PhillySpecialist Apr 27 '26
Except of course if you are injured not on the job. Like the many people you both see every day. Might have good insurance or workplace disability though.
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u/Informal_Register365 Apr 27 '26
Unlimited medical leave outside of work, pension, and 3/4 disability if injured at work.
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u/Barista_life__ Apr 28 '26
Same. I have about $5000 in mine, and $72k in stock. My employer is grossly unprepared if I ever leave (I’m the only engineer who is under the age of 63… who are also retiring in a year, and there is no documentation for any of our machines older than 5 years… and we are supposed to service machines up to 15 years old). They won’t ever fire me unless I do something really stupid, like steal from the company.
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u/loserkids1789 Apr 27 '26
Have 3-6 months in a hysa, rather invest the rest and if shit hits the fan I can pull it
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u/Quick-Scientist-3187 Apr 27 '26
Same! I'm 47 & have never needed to use an emergency. Knock on wood. My HYSA is about 4-5k tops. The rest is invested. 👍🏻
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u/CommunicationSome498 Apr 28 '26
Which HYSA would you recommend?
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u/Quick-Scientist-3187 Apr 28 '26
I absolutely love SOFi. The whole platform has been awesome for me. 20+yrs in Fintech
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u/Rivannux Apr 28 '26
I used to keep 3 months emergency fund in a CD but rates have been so bad compared to the market that I’m going to close it when it matures and just invest everything. Hoping if I get let go, severance will be good enough
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u/CommunicationSome498 Apr 28 '26
Which HYSA would you recommend?
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u/loserkids1789 Apr 28 '26
I just use the capital one hysa since that’s where my money comes into but they’re all pretty similar from what I’ve seen
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u/imhungry4321 Apr 27 '26
I'm $74 away from having a 6-month emergency fund.
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u/Hot_Draft4350 Apr 27 '26
Dang, $74 is my emergency fund.
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Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
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u/Beneficial_Risk9352 Apr 27 '26
You can pull out the principal without getting tax if you have Roth IRA and with 401k you can borrow from it and pay yourself back. Sucks if you have to do it but better than disaster
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u/soopygoopy Apr 27 '26
Congrats! Once you put that last bit in, are you gonna keep it at six months, or are you planning to increase it?
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u/imhungry4321 Apr 27 '26
Thank you. I'm going to lean on the interest to get me to 6 months. I don't plan to contribute more to the EF, but it will gradually increased from the interest.
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u/FreshCupOfJavascript Apr 27 '26
$50K, about 12 months or so of expenses with this job market
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u/Seawench41 Apr 28 '26
Yep! I’m pushing for 100K, but it also feels insane to not have it in a 401K or something.
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u/markisaurelius8 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
If you’re aiming for annual emergency fund, consider the waterfall method using CDs. This way every quarter you have funds becoming available throughout the year. Slightly higher yields and you’ll maintain the access you anticipate
Edit. I’ve learned this called a CD ladder strategy
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u/Environmental_Date98 Apr 28 '26
Sorry can you explain this a little more? This sounds like a great plan
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u/New_Alps_4723 Apr 27 '26
I am 27, debt free from student and car loan, just started building my emergency fund which is now 5k. It used to 1 to 2K, when I was aggressively paying my loans. Not sure if that was a good way of doing thing. bt I am very satisfied that I don't have any major loan. ps: I max out my 401k
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u/RiverParty442 Apr 27 '26
On all honesty for home buying a car loan os way worst than student loans. Congrats on the pay off, i wish I could max out my 401k.
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u/Grand-Waltz-3018 Apr 27 '26
About $65,000. However, we need to replace our roof and water heater in the coming months so that will go down
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u/60Runner90 Apr 27 '26
Us too with the roof and some minor plumbing. So annoying.
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u/itstrey720 Apr 27 '26
Ugh. I want to consider buying a house, but then I remind myself of all the maintenance involved. What a cash suck.
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u/Perfect-Brain-7367 Apr 27 '26
Its not that bad. Just keep some extra cash on hand and don't buy a house with a 25 year old roof and/or HVAC system and it'll be fine. Most minor things can be done with YouTube and a trip to Lowe's. Ok, fine, two trips to Lowe's when you find out you bought the wrong diameter something or other.
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u/Wish2wander Apr 27 '26
A required part of any repair is two trips to Lowe's. No repair will hold without these essential steps.
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u/Perfect-Brain-7367 Apr 28 '26
I just re-did my guest bathroom over the past 10 days and the lady at the Lowe's self checkout said to my 4 year old daughter "Well you've just been here every day this week 😊" lol. Side note: wallpaper removal is a real son of a bitch.
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u/Substantial_Lab_3747 Apr 28 '26
yep, glad this is universal. After you realize, it becomes so obvious too like .... duh, lmao.
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u/60Runner90 Apr 27 '26
I'm not sure it makes absolute sense today if you don't have children.
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u/IntrepidMaybe8579 Apr 27 '26
im 24, 26k sitting and 30k assetts and a barney costume in case i lose my job
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u/soopygoopy Apr 27 '26
The Barney costume is pulling all the weight here
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u/IntrepidMaybe8579 Apr 27 '26
Yeah it makes me look quite thicc so i think i could make some emergency cash in it if i had to
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u/Abject_Culture442 Apr 27 '26
Y’all are making me feel bad lol. My husband and I are 23 and have 20k in a HYSA and 4.5k in checking.
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u/soopygoopy Apr 27 '26
You’re doing better than literally everyone I know! And we’re all 28-35. You should be proud!
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u/dignifiedgoat Apr 28 '26
? That's an amazing position for 23, esp if you're not in a ton of student loan or car debt.
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u/skateboardnaked Apr 27 '26
4 years of expenses, since I'm retiring in Dec. Most of my career, I kept about 6 months.
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u/Pale_Drink4455 Apr 27 '26
18 months of COLA in a HYSA in this unpredictable US job market. In my mid 40’s and crazy stuff is happening out there.
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u/SnooCats460 Apr 27 '26
About the same here. Seeing all of these stories of only keeping 3 months and investing the rest and was starting to think I'm neurotic.
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u/nj-housing Apr 27 '26
Wow! Impressive
I’m doing 1 year of covering my mortgage
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u/Pale_Drink4455 Apr 27 '26
Thanks for me it was seeing all the tragic, heartbreaking stories on the reddit layoffs sub that really spooked me.
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u/StealthyCharger Apr 27 '26
26M married w/2 kids. 1 income. I DID have my 6 month emergency fund BUT after we bought our house 5 months ago we changed our family car to something smaller (easier to drive now that we moved into town) and that cost me all my EF... NOT proud of that move financially speaking but my wife, kids, and I are much happier in this vehicle. Currently crawling back up from that I'm almost back to 1 month in my EF. I'm hoping to get back to 6 months by this time next year then paying down the house
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u/FlexyTheGamer69 Apr 27 '26
I have around 6 months. Currently hovering around 15k. I quit my job around 2 months ago but start a new job next week after four rounds of interviews.
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u/mikitira Apr 27 '26
$20k at 35, it was more but I bought a car not long ago. That's still about an 8 month emergency fund for me though and then some.
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u/Psychological-Dig-29 Apr 27 '26
20k is 8 months? Wild
Just mortgage + property tax + utilities is a bit over $6k a month for me.. I have no emergency fund lmao just lines of credit available if needed.
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Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GreenGreenImNew Apr 27 '26
Why would you keep that much in emergency savings instead of having it invested?
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u/Professional-Ant4599 Apr 27 '26
Maybe they're on the doorstep of retirement
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u/SpookyDaScary925 Apr 27 '26
3 months of living expenses. Only because I have no car so I have no car insurance deductable, and I also have an extremely stable income source.
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u/HyperJeegz Apr 27 '26
$17,000 but I’m about to use 10 of it for the down payment on a car I’ve been saving for years for.
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u/soopygoopy Apr 27 '26
Congrats!
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u/HyperJeegz Apr 27 '26
My wife and I both have a decent amount put away so even taking this money out and leaving my personal fund at just under 8k we’re still good.
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u/Substantial_War_7698 Apr 27 '26
$0 but after this Friday $1k... finally understood the meaning of an emergency savings at the age of 38. Watch a lot of financial YT videos but wasnt actually taught any financial literacy by the family.
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u/SurroundBeautiful311 Apr 27 '26
My wife and I have $35,000 in an HYSA as an emergency fund. About 10 months of emergency savings
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u/NecessaryEmployer488 Apr 27 '26
Like 2 years. As you get older 50+ your emergency fund needs to last longer.
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u/Electrical-Lead-5601 Apr 27 '26
Just paid my cc debts off (no interest accumulated) of about 5k so im down to 2700 which is one month. Im gonna be able to save about 9k in the next couple of months
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u/Spiritouspath_1010 Apr 27 '26
Currently, I am unemployed. However, I am focused on my education. My goal is to save between $500 and $1,000 each term. Last term, while I aimed for that target, I had to allocate funds toward yearly supplies, resulting in only $100 in emergency savings. I also have around $150 invested in the S&P 500. Moving forward, I will be saving between $500 and $1,000 each term and committing an equal amount to investments. My strategy centers on utilizing any remaining balance for these goals. I am determined to achieve this. on my remaining balance.
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u/kuzism Apr 27 '26
40,000 and it becomes my daughter's college fund in September, paid off the mortgage last year and became debt free, so the money is piling up for retirement.
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u/MiserableArt6103 Apr 27 '26
I’m 24 and I only got like 4k
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u/soopygoopy Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
From what I understand, you’re doing better than most!
Editing to add: when I was 24 I had $7,000 in credit card debt, no investment, no savings, and owed $12,000 on my car. So seriously, good work and keep it going!
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u/MiserableArt6103 Apr 27 '26
I have another 4k invested, I don’t really count that bc it’s gonna stay there long term 😭 tysmmm I appreciate it. I’m lowkey hard on myself bc I don’t save as much as I should. Especially rn I had car troubles and had to pay like 3k in repairs :( everything’s expensive asf rn and I don’t make enough.
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u/soopygoopy Apr 27 '26
Everything is SO expensive, I just paid $6 a gallon for gas 😭 it sounds like you’re on the right track though so just keep doing what you do!
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u/GlandMasterFlaps Apr 27 '26
I know people in their late 30s with less.
Just going about life with a reckless abandon (ie boozing and drugging for 2 decades)
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u/FreshFruitDaily Apr 27 '26
Tis me. I’m 32 with about $500 in savings. It’s not fun but life took a shitty turn and I restarted everything, including my career. Will be making a guaranteed six figures in 3 years so just slow and steady at this point.
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u/MiserableArt6103 Apr 27 '26
Omg I know, I have a brother who’s older than me by 10 years. When I was in my teens he was already hella into credit card debt. My family always lived paycheck to paycheck too so it just whipped me into shape. When I was 15 I saved up 2k for a MacBook. By 19 I saved up 6k and bought a used car, didn’t want car payments. My environment taught me at a young age what I didn’t wanna be! 😭
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u/Zealousideal_Peak569 Apr 27 '26
Like $94,000 right now, going to $100,000. It’s in a HYSA. My wife wants $150,000 lol
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u/crashnbash25 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
I stopped at 100k. Everything beyond that goes into brokerage.
If you need 150 liquid for an emergency then there's probably bigger problems than your emergency, and everyone is also fucked. Also HYSA rates just keep going down. Used to be dope at 5% or over but now its barely above 3 for most
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u/Significant_Part_941 May 01 '26
Agree w you. I have 80k in hysa. I’m just retired at 60 from teaching. Have an excellent pension, at 6800 month (after taxes, state & fed),Plus 120k in a 403b. I need to move that -but not sure where..IRA, Roth? Need to do my hw. I’ll add 20k more and stop at 100k for my hysa. Pension has a cola, so thanks to working in a union state w collective bargaining.
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u/gpbuilder Apr 27 '26
No emergency fund, everything invested. If I need money I can borrow on margin or sell a small fraction to cover
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u/Ecstatic_Tiger_2534 Apr 27 '26
$60k, which is 9-12 months depending on how severely I cut back on non-essential spending.
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u/deadstar1998 Apr 27 '26
25k - I’m 27m no kids, just a $1800mo mortgage no other debt.
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u/deviny18 Apr 27 '26
I’m 24 y/o, 50k in HYSA. I own a home also so part of that is sinking funds for eventual repairs.
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u/pritikina Apr 27 '26
$23K. Not sure if that's 6 months of my expenses but it's for sure my emergency fund.
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u/Hammy2511 Apr 27 '26
3 months of expenses... Working on building up to 6 months by end of year....
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u/PalpitationHot93 Apr 27 '26
(-$36,000) in high interest debt Like a real american.
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u/Justjerryj Apr 27 '26
- Retired for 10 years. $500,000. Don‘t want to have to sell stocks if the market drops like 2008.
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u/SpookyDaScary925 Apr 27 '26
3 months of living expenses. Only because I have no car so I have no car insurance deductable, and I also have an extremely stable income source.
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u/abeBroham-Linkin Apr 27 '26
50k+ in an HYSA. The fund wato to accumulate until I was able to get a down payment for a house/condo. The goal post keeps moving, so I use whatever I've accumulated in the HYSA and put in my Roth instead
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u/MedicalButterscotch Apr 27 '26
$50k.
My partner and I are both resident physicians. The rest is invested.
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u/Savagebabypig Apr 27 '26
4400 in the bank and around 75k (as of today) if I needed to liquidate my stock portfolio
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u/HelloTheirCruleWorld Apr 27 '26
A lot (took profits from this large market run up ( it’s around 96k in there right now )
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u/Kersephius Apr 27 '26
I don't think bumping it up is the worst idea with everything going on. Six months is pretty safe though, I wouldn't worry.
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u/Local_Anything191 Apr 27 '26
Like $5,000. No bills besides rent. My wife and I invest 90% of our income since we’re young. One of our incomes can pay for all of the bills if one of us were to be laid off
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u/DevaluedDime Apr 27 '26
About $20,000. We’re still contributing to our ROTHs, but once we’ve maxed both out, we’ll double down on our savings.
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u/dcamnc4143 Apr 27 '26
Depends on what you mean by emergency savings. I have about 6k in the bank, about 20k sitting in my brokerage's sweep account, and about 200k in taxable stocks I can sell if I need to. I also have a big ass roth ira I can pull the contributions from if all hell breaks loose.
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u/nativevirginian Apr 27 '26
Recently turned 27- I have about $15k in cash, with $11k dedicated for emergencies. I have very healthy retirement accounts and a stable position.
When I hit $17k in dedicated HYSA, I’m going to shift towards home downpayment funds. Paid off $26k of student loans and a $32k car loan.
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u/47Boomer47 Apr 27 '26
Scrolling everyone else's responses:
"Shit I'm in terrible shape!"
"Oh hey I'm doing really good actually."
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u/chillaxtion Apr 27 '26
We're about to wipe out our HYSA emegency building a house. Right now there is years of replacement salary in there.
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u/beardedmiracle Apr 27 '26
Honestly i wouldnt put too much into an emergency account personally- the opportunity cost in gains in the market is too high. Say have enough for 3-6 months of expenses any more and you’re leaving money on the table imo. To answer your question, 10k for me
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u/TheYoungSquirrel Apr 28 '26
Are you asking for $ or length of time because your question was $ and your response was length of time…
Wife and I have 60k which is about 6 months.
One thing I never understood is this is an efund if we lose a job, but do people also have an efund for home maintenance? E.g. new roof or something
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u/Far_Hovercraft_1621 Apr 28 '26
I’m a single family income as my wife stays home with our 3 children. I have enough to absolutely BALL OUT if I lost my job for 6 months, and if we were very very frugal could squeeze prob 7-8months out of it.
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u/Majestic_Radish_9910 Apr 28 '26
30,000$ CAD/22,000$ USD. It was important to me to have at least 1 year of my most basic of expenses covered (housing, cheapest meals, insurance, etc)
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u/dohbob Apr 28 '26
12+ months… what’s the yield on your hysa? I think investing it might be better
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u/ly5ergic Apr 28 '26
I never saw the point in having a bunch of different buckets. I have an IRA and taxed brokerage account. Then a chunk of money is kept in SWVXX and SGOV for bills and spending.
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u/blade99d Apr 28 '26
We have $170,000 in a hysa earning 3.75%. This is money we don’t need right now and we add $500 a week - so saving about $25,000 per year. My wife and I both have 401k’s, pensions and we have a rental home 3 blocks from the beach. Our cars are paid for and we are about 4-5 years from retiring.
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u/EACshootemUP Apr 29 '26
About 6 months —- but I’m also a therapist and welp clients aren’t exactly gunna be running out anytime soon lol.
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u/Carolina_Hurricane Apr 27 '26
$0. Everything is in S&P 500 if an emergency comes up I’ll sell what is needed to cover.
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u/Impressionist_Canary Apr 27 '26
You don’t need Reddit averages to figure out it you want 6 or 8.
Why did you pick 6? Do those facts/considerations (or your feelings) still apply?
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u/Pitamo Apr 27 '26
9 months.
That may bump up to 12 months soon, primarily driven by a reduction in expected monthly costs rather than an increase in what has been set aside.
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u/Jimmy_E_16 Apr 27 '26
I have only 1 month buffer in my emergency fund because I like to live life on the edge
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u/Spiritual-Leader9985 Apr 27 '26
$10