@Rapmaster, I am always aiming to improve!
@Fuzz, I smell a few reasons, with limited job security I want to have some easily accessible funds need be. Helps me sleep at night. Also saving for a down payment on a house within the next 2-3 years tops.
@Sid Hoffman besides that I would love to have a little cash buffer just in case a good opportunity comes along, market pull back, some other investment opportunity outside of the markets, etc
@MDM, thanks for the welcome! I crunched the numbers and doing the 17.5K would leave me VERY little wiggle room. I might go there once I have just a tad more coming in from side income/passive income.
@Retired? , Hard assets are some precious metals I have bought on the way down as Ag/Au had their largest decline in 30+ years. I also gobbled up some mining stocks at these lows. The other $22k is my vehicles, my personal possessions (given realistic depreciated resale value), and some steel and lead.
My next step will absolutely be to get my 401k maxed out annually. I would like to get another $100-200 a month in extra side hustles before I can increase my 401k withdrawals from 25% to 35%.