s/o s/o emergency funds

mben1119

Those of you who have e funds, how much do you make a year? Dh and I make less than 60,000 combined, and I just don't see how we could have that much saved on our debt to income ratio.

StayingSecret

We have 10 month's worth of needed expenses.  We make $150K/year combined.  No debt though (not even a mortgage), which is what allows us to have a healthy emergency fund.

ETA: We're followers of Dave Ramsey's plan, so I'd recommend people just having a small emergency fund, then knocking out the debt so that you can have a bigger emergency fund. 

laurakaz13

10 months expenses, plus retirement accounts.  We make $180K.  We do have a mortgage, but no other debt. 

MammaBear81

We HAD 6 months of our salary (not just expenses) saved up for emergency purposes, but went through it when DH was unemployed for 9 months.  We are currently in the "rebuilding" stage of savings, we make combined around 100K, but we live in a HCOL area, so we are on the lower end of income for the area, but we have worked hard to have no debt besides our mortgage, and work on a cash only basis, if we don't have the cash, we can't afford it.

jeapplegate

We make about 100,000 in a MCOL area.  I have only been working at my "grown up career" for 4 years and my H for 1.5 so we are still in the building phase.  We have a mortgage, SL and one car payment.  We live well below our means as a vehicle to building up our savings and payoff our car payment. 

I think that most people consider a full e-fund to be 6 mo of bare bones expenses.  Now that will of course take a while to build, especially if you have a lot of debt.  That is where the "mini" e fund idea comes from.  Focus on putting $1000 away, then turn your focus on your smaller debts and get them knocked out and don't accumulate new ones. 

DR and just general financial prudence says that until you have your mini efund and debts with the exception of mortgage (and in my opinion SL) you should cut luxury items such as data plans, cell phones, eating out etc.  That can be difficult for lower income families that already have a bare bones budget, though unless you live in a HCOL area you aren't exactly low income.  I think the DR answer is that you should get a part time job.  I diverge a little in that I don't think that is necessarily the right answer when you have very young kids.  I personally believe they need your time more than you will ever need money.  My advice in those situations is just slash expenses then slash them again - thrift store cloths, beans and rice diet, go down to one car if feasible, cut each others hair, sell stuff on ebay that you don't need etc.  Every $10 that you can squeeze out of you budget put towards those small debts.    

thedash

We make something over 150K combined.

The thing about your e-fund is that it should take time to build up for most people. The idea is to make it a priority and put a fixed amount monthly plus any bonuses, tax refunds, etc towards it until you are happy with the amount. Most financial plans will also recommend that you cut out things like cable, cell phone data plans, and even vacations until you get your savings built up. Not that everyone is willing to live that way for a few years, but that's the idea.

dragon_chica

Close to 200k but we also live in an extremely HCOL area so we wouldn't even be considered upper-class.  We've also been lucky in many ways.  Because of both of our cultures a lot of our family and friends give money as a wedding gift over a tangible item.  We squirreled that away as our efunds and haven't touched it since.  My parents live closeby so for the first 2 years of DD's life and the first year of DS's they did a bulk of the childcare.  We also have a financial planner that helps us to allocate our money in a smart and sensible manner.

caladpi02

We make a little over 250k in a VHCOL area. We have just a mortgage.

DFico21

We have a 1 year e-fund.  Not cutting anything, no change in lifestyle.  Combined we make over $110,000 per year (my husband's business fluctuates)

skyejo

Our income is $180k.  Our only debt we carry is our mortgage and my car.  It made sense to finance our car rather than purchase it because we get a higher rate of return in our investment portfolio than the low loan interest rate (2.25%).  We worked hard to pay off our remaining debt a couple years ago--my $40k in student loans and $15k left on DH's car.  Our mortgage isn't much considering our income so both of those things definitely help us in the saving department. 

olga1311

We make $210,000 in HCOL area. We have abou a year's worth of expenses saved - part of i is e fund and part of it is downpayment for a house

Karla CS

We make about $200k, and the only debt we carry is our mortgage. We live in San Jose, CA (the 4rd highest COL in the US), which is ridiculous.. Our 1400 sq foot house that's in need of serious renovation is about $500k. We're considered 'middle class' at best in our area.

We've got enough in liquid savings (that aren't going to be directed to renovations int he next year) to cover 3 months of expenses, and another 3 months in investments that could be liquidated in a worst case scenario.

 

Divallyn

We have 5 months of expenses and other investment accounts. We have no debt and a small mortgage. We live MCOL. 

We make $130K not including about 10-15K in non guaranteed bonuses. Our savings is taken out of our account before anything else including groceries and mortgage. We live a nice lifestyle but its simple too. Used cars bought with cash, no fancy cable packages, we work close to where we live, we don't eat out often, and so on.