Author Topic: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?  (Read 12989 times)

VoteCthulu

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What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« on: March 07, 2017, 08:43:01 AM »
I keep an emergency fund of $5-10k, more so I don't have to worry about moving money around every month than because I'm worried about actual emergencies. This last year I was very glad to have that cash sitting there ready for me, though, since I had both a car and a computer that I needed to replace quickly.

Using my emergency fund, I was able to go get them right away without worrying about what to sell and waiting for an ACH transfer to complete (on some of my accounts process the same day, others can take 3-5 days). I'm sure I could have gotten a loan or worked out some other solution, but I'm happy to forego a bit of investment returns for reduced hassles (especially during a stressful emergency).

This made me curious about what others have had to use their emergency fund for, so please share your stories!

DeskJockey2028

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2017, 08:45:25 AM »
For us, mostly car repairs and house repairs that came up suddenly and weren't planned for!

Spork

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2017, 08:53:57 AM »
* auto repairs... Transmission replacement was about $3k
* home repairs... new HVAC system was about $7k.  Foundation repair was $20k.
* pet emergency... I spent probably $2k on a specialist and some intensive care (and the dog still didn't make it)
* family emergency... spent 6 weeks in a hotel out of town plus eating out (but eating out on the cheap) while Dad was in the hospital.  I don't know that I have a total for this, but it was relatively expensive.

I'm sure there is more... I'm old.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2017, 10:10:47 AM by Spork »

DJStrong

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2017, 08:55:11 AM »
A new washer and dryer (within a week of eachother :/)

MishMash

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2017, 08:57:16 AM »
My fathers funeral.  He and mom were in a car crash, mom was incapacitated, no one had access to anything so we footed the funeral bill until everything was sorted out with insurance and accounts etc.

WindWater

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2017, 09:20:11 AM »
Dental work just recently.  I am self-employed and don't have dental insurance, and it is just about impossible to get decent dental when you are self-employed.  It would have been a HUGE crisis if I didn't have the emergency fund.

JLee

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2017, 09:31:00 AM »
Nothing comes to mind offhand.

My goal is to keep a ~$5k cash buffer.  Anything that I can't handle with cash on hand will go on a credit card and get paid off with subsequent paychecks before interest charges begin.

Anything larger than that, I'd probably find a 0% credit card and just pay it off.  I prefer keeping money invested when possible and not in no/very low interest accounts.

Ben Hogan

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2017, 09:35:49 AM »
Big Hurricane in Houston, power out for a week straight across town. It was all cash everywhere.

Rest of the emergencies like HVAC, and a roof repair it was on CC's while I moved fund to cover the CC bill. The points made the cost abit less painful.

FireHiker

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2017, 09:40:38 AM »
Last year we used a big chunk when we re-financed our mortgage because the previous mortgage company screwed up our impound account (which we are required to keep because we had a VA loan). We got some "back" since we had a month without a mortgage, but it was really helpful to have the cash on hand to bring the impound current and move to a better lender with a lower interest rate.

MsSindy

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2017, 09:45:06 AM »
Nothing comes to mind offhand.

My goal is to keep a ~$5k cash buffer.  Anything that I can't handle with cash on hand will go on a credit card and get paid off with subsequent paychecks before interest charges begin.

Anything larger than that, I'd probably find a 0% credit card and just pay it off.  I prefer keeping money invested when possible and not in no/very low interest accounts.

This is us exactly.  Thankfully, no layoffs, no cars being totaled, no houses burning up in a fire.... just general day-to-day stuff that you know will happen eventually like house repairs that we have in our budget.  We don't have kids, so that helps to make life more predictable.

Saskatchewstachian

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2017, 10:34:31 AM »
This isn't really an emergency, but just a perk to keeping a cash buffer one hand.

Trip booking for a group. While planning for a trip I was booking AirBnB's, hostels, hotels for 6 people for 2 weeks. it was much easier to put it all onto one card then split it evenly vs each couple trying paying for different things then divvy it up later. The total cost was about 3k and I put it onto a credit card (for the points) then immediately paid off the card with my buffer.

NotJen

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2017, 10:48:35 AM »
I've never touched mine.

It's more of an "in case of job loss" fund.  Because of my savings rate and money management with credit cards, I could cash flow a pretty big expense.  I'm thinking $5k at once would not have me rushing to my savings account.  Thankfully, I haven't had to test that yet.

But, I'm single and no income due to a job loss would be a big hit.  Before I had taxable investments, I kept $30k in "high yield" savings, so I could be covered for a year (probably more) of expenses while job searching.  Now, I've convinced myself to be comfortable with $15k in savings, which got easier as my taxable investment account grew to several times that.

runewell

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2017, 10:56:57 AM »
My emergency fund is $65,000.  I max the 401k and the two Roths but the money continues to accumulate.

As a result, my EF remains invested and isn't treated any different from the rest of my portfolio.  Credit cars could handle any emergencies, and within a few days that $65K could be sold off and in my checking account if I needed it.

Some people say your EF should be in cash, and if $5K is all the cash lying around I don't see any problem with that.  Having $50K lying around in cash is silly though (except I understand that aged retirees could have a decent amount of cash lying around to spend in the coming year might have it is something conservative)

golden1

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2017, 11:13:07 AM »
Car and housing expenses mostly. 

Nangirl17

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2017, 11:16:26 AM »
Unexpected sick leave and tax installment due in the same month.
I was so grateful to not have to worry about money while recovering. 

Walsh1122

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2017, 11:19:50 AM »
Thankfully I haven't needed to use it.  I have set aside a little over 3 months of income just in case and keep it invested in a Vanguard account so that its at least working for me.  I have two credit cards, I carry no balances (paid off per transaction) these both have higher limits and I could use them to cover sudden unexpected expenses while I work on taking the funds out of the Vanguard account.

marielle

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #16 on: March 07, 2017, 11:23:31 AM »
Those of you who keep an emergency fund in case of a job loss, how do you deal with health insurance? Do you just forgo insurance? Mainly aimed towards single people or anyone who can't get on a spouse's plan. That's my biggest concern, I think...

I guess I could go back on my parent's plan until I'm 26, since loss of coverage would allow me to join outside of open enrollment? I'd rather not mooch off though.

Nate R

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #17 on: March 07, 2017, 11:24:05 AM »
Car and home repairs.

Spent some other money recently on a discretionary purchase, because things were looking OK, and then immediately after another item got pushed forward from August to February, meanign I needed 2K for that. As SOON as that money was committed, learned I'd have to get my chimney rebuilt NOW vs next fall, and needed 3K immediately to do that. Also have a large tax bill looming soon, so didn't' want to dip into that savings either. Will be dipping into our Emergency fund for the chimney repair.

Retire-Canada

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #18 on: March 07, 2017, 11:38:50 AM »
This made me curious about what others have had to use their emergency fund for, so please share your stories!

My emergency fund is a LOC. That sees pretty limited use. I can't think of a true emergency that it's been used for. I typically just pay for repairs or unexpected expenses by credit card and then pay off the cards by diverting savings. It's nice to have the extra buffer though since it's free if I don't use it.

NotJen

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #19 on: March 07, 2017, 11:49:53 AM »
Those of you who keep an emergency fund in case of a job loss, how do you deal with health insurance? Do you just forgo insurance? Mainly aimed towards single people or anyone who can't get on a spouse's plan. That's my biggest concern, I think...

I guess I could go back on my parent's plan until I'm 26, since loss of coverage would allow me to join outside of open enrollment? I'd rather not mooch off though.

The emergency fund would be used to pay for health insurance.

Health insurance is such a mess that my plan is just to ignore it until I need to look for it... but, I know that COBRA will be an option right away (super expensive), and I suppose I'd look for something on the marketplace.  I would not forgo health insurance - I'd want at least catastrophic coverage.  I'd be fine paying for the small routine stuff OOP.

VoteCthulu

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #20 on: March 07, 2017, 03:52:58 PM »
Those of you who keep an emergency fund in case of a job loss, how do you deal with health insurance? Do you just forgo insurance? Mainly aimed towards single people or anyone who can't get on a spouse's plan. That's my biggest concern, I think...

I guess I could go back on my parent's plan until I'm 26, since loss of coverage would allow me to join outside of open enrollment? I'd rather not mooch off though.

The emergency fund would be used to pay for health insurance.

Health insurance is such a mess that my plan is just to ignore it until I need to look for it... but, I know that COBRA will be an option right away (super expensive), and I suppose I'd look for something on the marketplace.  I would not forgo health insurance - I'd want at least catastrophic coverage.  I'd be fine paying for the small routine stuff OOP.
Same here, the EF can pay for Cobra for a month until I can find a new plan or sell some investments. I would only forego health insurance if the premiums were completely absurd and I couldn't qualify for any assistance.

Lanthiriel

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #21 on: March 07, 2017, 04:29:14 PM »
My emergency fund came in handy recently when I had to do a 2500-mile move in a relatively short period of time. It's been a total lifesaver.

Now that we have no debt, though, I think I'm going to be more fluid with my money. I plan on having around $7k in slush, a short-term savings account for upcoming trips or other known expenses, a down payment fund, and Roth IRAs. Any of that money could hop pots depending on the need. I don't think I'll have a designated 5-figure emergency fund until I own another house.

MrGreg

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #22 on: March 07, 2017, 05:38:57 PM »
I've periodically used my emergency fund (about 50K in a blended whole life policy) to protect my margin balance in equities during market volatility.

Mezzie

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #23 on: March 07, 2017, 06:27:52 PM »
In the past several years, we've used ours for:
-plumbing energencies
-auto repair/replacement (after accident)
-payroll person messing up my paycheck
-emergency FMLA leave
-emergencies of friends/family

Hotstreak

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #24 on: March 07, 2017, 06:41:58 PM »
$2k car repair
$2500 to cover rent on two places, security deposit, moving expenses for job relocation


I have $8k currently in my E fund & also a $5,000 line of credit. 

WhiteTrashCash

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #25 on: March 07, 2017, 07:05:01 PM »
I've actually never needed to use my emergency fund. (Knock on wood). Hope I never will need it.

Miss Tash

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #26 on: March 07, 2017, 08:02:22 PM »
Sewer break:  $11,500.  Just got back from a month in New Zealand and the first load of laundry backed up.  Aargh!  So glad I had my fund, though.  It is so much easier to make decisions when "how am I going to pay for this?" is already covered.

Prairie Stash

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #27 on: March 07, 2017, 08:13:54 PM »
Never used. I have a line of credit instead of the typical EF. As a backup I have a partner that works, as do I, and we can each cover all the bills alone.

I did use the credit line to pay off my mortgage when rates were dropping, it was a long drawn out emergency, I was paying too much interest!

bigfoot11

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #28 on: March 07, 2017, 08:50:21 PM »
Medical expenses. I caught bronchitis twice this last winter so that kind of hit it hard not having health insurance. Steroid inhalers are freakin expensive!!

Paul der Krake

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #29 on: March 07, 2017, 09:21:59 PM »
Buying another car before receiving a check for the previous one.
Moving expenses.

Duke03

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #30 on: March 07, 2017, 10:41:01 PM »
Biggest use I've ever gotten out of mine was in 2008 when the bottom fell out.  I was in the process of getting married when work handed me an extended furlough.  One of those don't call us we'll call you when we need you deals.  I knew it was going to be a rough storm so we circled the wagons and button downed the hatches.  We sold a lot of crap that we didn't need.  Paid for boat, truck, sports car ect... but luckily we weathered the storm and didn't lose nothing we didn't sell and kept our credit history perfect!  The plus side to me keeping a large emergency fund on hand was I didn't have to sell any investments when the market went off the cliff.  The downside was it took me a year and half before I my job called me back to work.  Granted I was working but only making a 1/3 of what other job paid.  My emergency fund took a 30k hit on this on! 

FYI to this day my wife is still pissed off at me for selling the boat and the sports car.  She wants me to go buy new ones, but I'm way to cheap for expensive toys now that I've gotten older lol.

I have had other issues pop up over the years that you just moan & groan and pay the bill.  Not really sure if they are an emergency or not more of just life.

3k for an a/c unit that was 20 days out of the 5 year warranty.
1k for a hot water heater that was 2 months out of warranty.

They sure don't make things like they use to......

badassprof

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #31 on: March 07, 2017, 10:48:07 PM »
My fathers funeral.  He and mom were in a car crash, mom was incapacitated, no one had access to anything so we footed the funeral bill until everything was sorted out with insurance and accounts etc.

Mishmash: I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I hope your mother is better.  What a blessing you could give your family to be able to pay for this and for folks not to have to add it to all their worries.

badassprof

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #32 on: March 07, 2017, 10:53:21 PM »
As a graduate student I ended up having to have several root canals and caps (living in Nyc during 9/11 created a bad nighttime grinding habit, apparently). Fortunately, I had stashed enough cash to pay for over 6000 in bills, which was not an insignificant summfor me at the time. Really cemented for me the value of savings.

Also not an emergency, but my partner and I were able to complete almost 40,000 dollars of home repairs all while I was on leave and at half pay.  That felt great!

Dicey

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #33 on: March 08, 2017, 01:20:44 AM »
My fathers funeral.  He and mom were in a car crash, mom was incapacitated, no one had access to anything so we footed the funeral bill until everything was sorted out with insurance and accounts etc.

Mishmash: I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I hope your mother is better.  What a blessing you could give your family to be able to pay for this and for folks not to have to add it to all their worries.
Mishmash: Another round of condolences from me. What a gift to the rest of your family at such a sad time.

On topic: I do not have a category called "Emergency Fund". I have one called "Reserves". Pre-FIRE, I was in commission sales, so I was always trying to accrue as much as possible and stay a couple of months ahead. I am often swimming in cash. (FWIW, my MO is to accrue/sweep into investments/repeat.) I can't think of a single personal emergency, but that might be because when one has "Reserves", nothing's really an emergency, which is damn nice.

I can think of twice that it's helped family members out in a pinch:

1). I took my parents to look at model homes in a new retirement community. They found one they liked. The builder offered an extra $25k off if they put a deposit down that day. They didn't have that much on hand, so I wrote the $10k check. They paid me back a week later.

2). My brother was in escrow on a home when the deal fell apart on closing day, due to his lender's colossal fuck-up. He called me in a panic and I moved about $200k* into his account that day so he could pay cash for the house (we have the same bank). The house closed. The lender pulled its head out of its ass, funded his loan and I got my money back the same week.

*Hell, no, I don't normally keep that much cash on hand! I had just sold a house and was in escrow on a new one that was a short sale. Since that escrow lasted an agonizingly long eight months, I had plenty of time and cash to help my brother out.

Tl;dr: Springy debt, my ass.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2017, 10:39:40 AM by Dicey »

Linea_Norway

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #34 on: March 08, 2017, 01:47:24 AM »
1,5 Year ago we moved to another house. This process of making our old house representative and making the new house as we wanted it cost quite a lot of money, even without overdoing it. Before selling the old house we had to pay for a photographer and a technical report. And some bunches of fresh flowers every week from the photo session until it was sold, 4 months later. Luckily it was summer most of the time and flowers were cheap.
The new house needed extra shelves in closets and some extra closets. We made many visits to Ikea. We had to buy ourselves into a co-owned snow removing machine, quite a high sum. I also had to take a mortgage on the old house for 3 months until it was sold. In total it cost a lot of money.
Our primary car had 4 repairs the last year that my DH couldn't figure out how to repair by himself.
Some years ago I needed a crown in my mouth. We pay privately for the dentist. Even though I went to a really cheap dentist, this still cost quite a lot of money.

I usually keep up to 40.000 NOK (Norwegian crowns) on my normal bank account. My husband also has an unknown sum in cash on the bank. The rest is invested in the house or in index funds. The latter can be retrieved within a few days.

Villanelle

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #35 on: March 08, 2017, 04:02:19 AM »
Our e-fund is basically our HELOC.  We used it during a complicated series of moves (military) when there were all sorts of paperwork issues and we went months with the government owing us more than $10,000.  We didn't actually end up needing it, but because we were moving, again, while it was happening and it was really hard to track everything and to know when reimbursements were coming it, it was worth the few dollars in interest to pad the checking account a bit.  A few months later when we finally got that $10k, we paid it back. We continued our monthly investments and relied on the HELOC (at 2.8%) instead to get us over the hump.

We may be using it again soon.  Long term tenant is moving out and the rental needs repair depending on the amount and the vacancy period during the work, we may make another withdraw.  (Rough guess is between $5k or up to $10k if it needs all new carpet, plus a few weeks of vacancy--hopefully not more time than that!)  For $5k and a short vacancy, no problem.  For twice that and a longer vacancy, we'd choose HELOC money for a few months over halting investments.  It would be paid down within a few months almost certainly, but it will be nice to be able to do that and continue living pretty much normally, and investing.

SwedishMoustache

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #36 on: March 08, 2017, 04:08:34 AM »
I live in Sweden, which means that i do not really need an emergency fund.

* If i lose my job, unemployment kicks in at 80% of my salary for a period of a full year, with additional benefits available after this period is done.
* my living costs are low enough to be funded on 30-40% of unemployment, and about 8% of my current salary.
* Healthcare is free.
* Education is free.

The only need for an emergency fund would be, as Linda_norway points out, to fund repairs at a house. Unfortunately, i have not yet found my house/country home. I live in an apartment, which i own. Renovations here are not very costly, and unless they only concern my apartment, are paid for by the HOA. Another topic i guess could happen is car repair - but my car is under warranty for another 3 years, which makes this a non-issue at the moment.

i do have an emergency fund - but i only mantain it, at least for the time being, to maintain a cash fund the size of 2x my portfolio leverage. In the future i intend to resize this emergency fund to correspond to a full, annual income, but for the time being...i've never needed to use it on anything.

Shelley

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #37 on: March 08, 2017, 04:11:01 AM »
Traveling interstate when my mum got global transient amnesia, when my grandma got sick with cancer, when my grandma passed away, when my mum cut the top off her foot with a ride on mower, when my brother in law passed away, and when my mum got cancer.

We live 2000 km away from the entire rest of our family. And we love it most of the time!

runewell

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #38 on: March 08, 2017, 06:41:53 AM »
I live in Sweden, which means that i do not really need an emergency fund.

* If i lose my job, unemployment kicks in at 80% of my salary for a period of a full year, with additional benefits available after this period is done.
* my living costs are low enough to be funded on 30-40% of unemployment, and about 8% of my current salary.
* Healthcare is free.
* Education is free.

The only need for an emergency fund would be, as Linda_norway points out, to fund repairs at a house. Unfortunately, i have not yet found my house/country home. I live in an apartment, which i own. Renovations here are not very costly, and unless they only concern my apartment, are paid for by the HOA. Another topic i guess could happen is car repair - but my car is under warranty for another 3 years, which makes this a non-issue at the moment.

i do have an emergency fund - but i only mantain it, at least for the time being, to maintain a cash fund the size of 2x my portfolio leverage. In the future i intend to resize this emergency fund to correspond to a full, annual income, but for the time being...i've never needed to use it on anything.

How much are your taxes?

Serve&Volley88

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #39 on: March 08, 2017, 09:26:05 AM »
I had to get a root canal and crown, which wound up being close to $3K out of pocket (some costs were eventually reimbursed via dental insurance). Luckily I had about $5K in an e-fund.

SwordGuy

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #40 on: March 08, 2017, 07:56:37 PM »
Paying for:

A car replacement.
Funeral travel expenses x3.
A funeral.
Roof repair x4.
HVAC replacement x2.  (Soon x3.)





h82goslw

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #41 on: March 09, 2017, 05:10:49 AM »
I live in Sweden, which means that i do not really need an emergency fund.

* If i lose my job, unemployment kicks in at 80% of my salary for a period of a full year, with additional benefits available after this period is done.
* my living costs are low enough to be funded on 30-40% of unemployment, and about 8% of my current salary.
* Healthcare is free.
* Education is free.

The only need for an emergency fund would be, as Linda_norway points out, to fund repairs at a house. Unfortunately, i have not yet found my house/country home. I live in an apartment, which i own. Renovations here are not very costly, and unless they only concern my apartment, are paid for by the HOA. Another topic i guess could happen is car repair - but my car is under warranty for another 3 years, which makes this a non-issue at the moment.

i do have an emergency fund - but i only mantain it, at least for the time being, to maintain a cash fund the size of 2x my portfolio leverage. In the future i intend to resize this emergency fund to correspond to a full, annual income, but for the time being...i've never needed to use it on anything.

How much are your taxes?

I was wondering the same exact thing.

aperture

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #42 on: March 09, 2017, 05:23:52 AM »
Heat/air replacement $7K - If we did not have cash, we might have had to go with one of the predatory services that quoted almost 2x the price and offered 0% financing
Orthodontist $4K - discount for paying the whole bill at once and met the $3000/3 month spend on a credit card to get miles.
thankfully, that is all. ap

Dances With Fire

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #43 on: March 09, 2017, 06:54:10 AM »
Over the last 15 years or so...

1) Replaced the HVAC system ~6K
2) Replaced a roof on an older house ~7K
3) Replaced a leaking hot water heater ~950
4) Had to replace 2 vehicles (one due to an accident the other some major repairs needed and age.) ~ 15K-19K

FWIW...The major roof replacement happened in 2008- right at the worst possible time for the stock (and corp. bond market for that matter.)
and my job was in question. The DW had her hours cut and lost health insurance coverage.

We had an Emergency Fund, the cash to cover expenses for awhile if it got even worse. My BIL lost his house. (Cashed out his 401K.) Later divorce...We felt very fortunate that we had set aside an EF Fund and didn't have to touch our investments.

OurTown

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #44 on: March 09, 2017, 08:06:01 AM »
I actually do not remember the last time we took money out of the EF.  It's just sitting around in the credit union with a balance of about $20k.

Mezzie

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #45 on: March 18, 2017, 08:19:18 AM »
It's very possible I'll be pulling a few thousand out to help a friend in a couple weeks. That friend may or may not ever pay me back, and that's fine. I'm glad to be in a position to help.

thebattlewalrus

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #46 on: March 18, 2017, 08:25:15 AM »
Had a bad storm roll through and damage the roof a week ago. The shingles are 20+ years old and I am just pulling the cash to do it myself. Material will only be $1200

Ocinfo

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What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #47 on: March 18, 2017, 09:15:12 AM »
It has been 10 years since I had a big unplanned expense (transmission in early 20s) that I couldn't cash flow over a month. I don't really keep a dedicated emergency fund. I do keep 1 months worth of expenses in my checking account (at end of month have enough to pay next months expenses in HCOL area).  This gives plenty of time to access investments or pay credit card through free cash flow (several thousand per month). Also have credit cards with 0% for 18 months with 4% upfront fee.

Edited to add that having good health, car, and rental insurance helps to really limit exposure to big expenses (>$3k). And, I would only recommend the cash flow approach to MMM type folks since it's pretty easy if you have a high income and live on 50% or less.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
« Last Edit: March 18, 2017, 09:20:22 AM by Ocinfo »

Flyingkea

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #48 on: March 18, 2017, 09:52:09 AM »
My partner lost his job the week before Christmas. We were in a HCOL area, there was no other companies that could employ him in a similar role nearby. We had just moved there 4 month prior, and I was not employed.
We were able to continue paying expenses while he job hunted, he got a job fairly quick, but his first paycheck wasn't until mid February. To get the job we had to move long distance, travel there ourselves (we drove and had car trouble along the way), found a place to stay while we house hunted, paid a bond all out of our cash reserves.

scottish

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Re: What Have You Needed Your Emergency Fund For?
« Reply #49 on: March 18, 2017, 11:02:41 AM »
DW's car was hit by a bus.   She was ok, but the car was too bent to be repaired and we had to replace it.

The salesman didn't believe that I was paying cash, even when I brought in the bank draft.