Also, I have more than 25K total in cash, but I feel like I should keep some of it totally liquid...wrong?
thanks for your advice.
I keep no cash on hand. Some people keep 2yrs of cash on hand. What it comes down to is you need a plan for emergencies and unexpected costs. How much effort and depth you go to on that front depends on a risk assessment of your financial situation.
If you have a job which is crazy secure and a good sized line of credit and investments of significance you might decide not to hold any cash so you get every dollar working for you.
If your company has gone through some lay offs and you fear you might be next, you have a skill set that is not easily employable and you have no investments to draw on you might decide that 2yrs of cash is a very smart plan.
Personally I have a line of credit I could live off for 2yrs and a significant amount of $$ invested. I am highly employable and I am willing to go work a retail job tomorrow if I have to so I don't have to use the LOC or pull from investments. I also want to FIRE as soon as possible so leaving cash sitting around is a poor choice for me.
Having said that recently I started to worry about my contract and so I held onto 2 months of savings [~$5K] for a few weeks in case I needed to find new work. That fear passed so I invested the cash.
You need to come up with a plan for yourself.
Just keep in mind that $5K in the market getting 7% annually after inflation is $20K after 20yrs. So holding cash has a cost.