How big is your emergency fund?

ruperts

I don't have anything that I strictly consider an emergency fund however I do have a high four figure sum in easy access cash savings which could be drawn upon in the event of an emergency.

ruperts

economic wrote: »

im 33, living in london, here are my numbers:

property equity: 336k
cash: 229k
P2P: 9k
S&S isa: 132k
gold: 3k
pension (equities): 88k

Haven't really answered the question there, have you? Any excuse to post your "numbers", I suppose.

economic

ruperts wrote: »

Haven't really answered the question there, have you? Any excuse to post your "numbers", I suppose.

other posters did, so why cant i?

TadleyBaggie

chelseablue wrote: »

Blimey, I can only dream of such an amount

It's all come from pension pot lump sums, I was rubbish at saving whilst I was working but always made sure my pension provision was taken care of.

gingercordial

chelseablue wrote: »

I currently have £11,000 in my 123 account.

This is my Emergency Fund money that I can use if me or my partner are ever out of work.

As well as this cash I have a credit card with a £5,000 limit (balance £0)

Not sure I need a £16k EF

Tempted to use £5,000 of the cash to overpay the mortgage, if I did this I would still have £6,000 + £5,000 on the card available.

How much do you have as an emergency fund?

It depends on:

- How many months would this cover you for compared to your mandatory expenses?

- What is the market like for jobs in your industry, so realistically how long would you be out of work for? Some skills are in high demand, others less so.

- As a home owner your requirements for emergency funds are higher than mine as a tenant as I have no responsibility for major structural repairs.

- How long would it take you to build that back up if you made your mortgage overpayment? If you can have it back up in a few months, paying the mortgage to save interest makes more sense than if it has taken you years.

Mine? About three months of expenses so far. I'm saving for a house deposit so that isn't anything like the amount of cash that would be available to me in the event of the kind true emergency but it's what I've got set aside in case of say the car breaking down or suddenly needing to move house. If I lost my job I guess that would derail the house-buying plans so I'd start to use deposit money if I couldn't find a new job after three months.

Eventually I would like it to be at least six months if not 12.

Eco_Miser

I don't have an emergency fund as such, but I do have about three years expenses in cash (earning 3-5%) mainly as a buffer for irregular dividends, and should dividends fall (I'm retired and somewhat reliant on investment income).

This meant when the 90-year old roof started leaking I could renew it (didn't even think of claiming on the insurance, as it only needed a small patch (followed by another, and another, as new weak points developed, so I decided it would be easier and cheaper in the long run to replace the whole lot at once), and when the shower failed I decided to renew the whole bathroom (it needed renewing, but without the impetus of the shower it could have lasted years longer), and when the boiler started misbehaving, I replaced it.

None of these would be covered by insurance as the failures were from old age, and most of the expense was unnecessary (from an insurance point of view) improvement, and they were arguably not emergencies either, but having the cash available meant I could proceed without delay.

slopemaster

Ours is about £17,000 cash.

Needs to be quite high due to the fact we rent out 3 properties - so it is enough to pay for our living expenses if a tenant stops paying and it takes 6 months and a court case to get them out, plus the house is trashed...or, we need a new roof and a new boiler at the same time, and then our (15-yr-old) car needs replacing.

However, I am now considering reducing this to about £5,000 - £7,000 cash ie just enough for really immediate needs.
As we are now old enough to access money from pensions, I figure I can put the rest in there, and still get at it within a month in case of emergency.

RD69

Can you re-claim mortgage overpayment?

We overpaid our mortgage with the Nationwide, but ensured that we had the ability to claim it all back within 2 weeks. So, in-effect, the overpayment became our emergency fund.

We now maintain a very small mortgage (<£1k) just to retain this facility (>£250k).

Mogley

Currently have £4.4k in emergency fund.
£1k in mortgage overpayment (Nationwide borrow back facility as per RD69).
£3.4k in 5% cash accounts.
My target is to have £10k in emergency fund by the end of this year which will cover 6 months essential expenses.
Currently the OH is on maternity leave earning SMP so some of our savings are being used to cover the shortfall in salary. Recent car repairs have also hurt the savings (better than borrowing though which is what used to be done).

Blue264

We keep 6mths wages immediately accessible, which I fully realise is an enviable level of security for the majority of people. I never had that when I was single. My OH currently has a high income but only a 6mth rolling contract, so if push comes to shove, the costs of possible relocation back to the UK has to be factored into the equation.