Hiya,
Hope you're all doing OK.
A question about emergency funds with the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic... Myself and my husband live in the UK and are both on zero hours contracts, he's a nurse and is 49, I work in a university and am 44.
We normally have at least around 6 months spending (over £6k) in cash on hand. We usually earn approx £24k a year together and live on 12k a year and save 12k a year. Our house is paid off (worth approx £220k). Our savings go into Vanguard life strategy 60/40 ISA. We currently have around £60k in there.
We stopped paying into Vanguard in April as whilst I can work from home for now, my husbands nursing work stopped (private) and he's unable to work during the pandemic. However we've just found out a few days ago that he is allowed to be furloughed (receive 80% of monthly income from government) after being told originally he wasn't.
The employment future for both of us (like many people) is uncertain. We're not sure if he'll be able to go back in to that role in the foreseeable future even when his department is working again as its high risk and I have underlying health conditions. Depending how long furlough lasts, we'll have more decisions to make about his role later on down the track. My work is usually regular but I think there's a good chance it may be affected in September with the new academic year as my role relies on student intake numbers which may well drop. Though we've worked out that even if I dropped a day which is the worst case scenario, we would still be covering all outgoings for both of us.
We're debating whether to start contributing to Vanguard again... Maybe £500 a month. We currently have over £12k in bank accounts. Unusually for us, my husband is the one keen to start paying in to Vanguard and I'm the one wondering if given the bigger picture and our individual situation we should be keeping more cash on hand as this uncertainty could pan out over years not months...
We also have the option of hubby starting a pension in September (around £2k a year). Another tangential thought is possibly moving to a flat / cheaper area and releasing some equity from the house if needed. Our rough plan was to retire in the next 5-10 years, my husband 5 years before me.
We know there's no crystal ball for any of us but wanted to see peoples thoughts. We could obviously start paying in to Vanguard and stop if things change with our income. We are simple investors and just save into Vanguard and have taken the advice here not to interfere or pull out money now but wondering if given our situation, its advisable to be paying in...
Many thanks!