Edit
I tried to start a discussion on "this is why we have emergency funds", but because unlike the majority of the wall of shame and comedy board, there is a statistical certainty at least one person is in a pinch due to circumstances beyond their control, rather than their own doing, I was instead a dick
Sorry
Thanks for reassessing and understanding. I do have an emergency fund and I'm thankful, but yea I have a coworker who is sole income for a family of 5.... and was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last fall. Suddenly instead of savings they have out of pocket max for copays, missed work, etc.
Yes, even good planners who value emergency funds run into crunch periods where their cash flexibility is depleted. DH and I have had minimal debt and a 6 month minimum emergency fund for the past 18 years or so. However, if something like this shutdown had happened during 2008 we would have been rapidly screwed b/c of an extreme temporary cash crunch we experienced that lasted about a year. During that time, for reasons related to caring for parents, we in short order went from...
no debt except one small mortgage, a full 6 month emergency fund, and a flexible cash stream,
...to extra bills related to moving a parent cross country; a home equity loan used for a down payment on a second house; a loan for a second car (needed so that parent could have one of ours); a second mortgage (for the house for said parent); all the utilities and expenses being paid for parent, who had no income. We consumed our emergency fund during this time as well.
From 2008 to 2010, we were in 'panic mode' trying to pay off this new mountain of debt while simultaneously rebuilding our emergency fund and fund retirement accounts. We spent almost no fun money at all. It absolutely sucked and I was in a constant state of anxiety.
Now keep in mind that this happened to coincide with the Great Recession! My income is erratic (b/c I'm a private contractor), but DH is a federal scientist, so at the very least we knew we could count on his income during an otherwise chaotic period. But we were still often paycheck to paycheck during that period, not b/c of any lack of planning or stupid blowing of money. Just b/c Life Happens Sometimes. Had this kind of shutdown occurred then, we would have been in complete panic mode. We would have rapidly had to run up credit card debt (something we never do) or tap into retirement funds.
Ever since then, I've wanted a bigger emergency fund than conventional wisdom recommends. What if one of us had had a medical crisis during that time also? Or a car accident that totaled one of our cars (such as just happened a few months ago)? Or if I had not been able to get contracts to supplement his steady income stream (b/c it was a recession)?
Shit happens, and even for those of us who plan and save and generally are very responsible with money, there are times when we are all much closer to the brink than we like to think about.
I am so thankful this current shutdown is happening when we have more than a year's worth of slush funds available. I can't imagine what this would be like for us in 2008-2010, or when we were first starting out in the first few years post college.