3-6 months? People don’t go on piling up savings indefinitely? How else do you retire? I mean… there is state pension in the country I live in but I would not count it not going bust in 30 years so I always assumed I will have what I save and then maybe the state pays a bonus.
The 3-6 months is in a liquid savings account. Beyond that, you want your money in investments that will earn interest. They will be more volatile, so aren’t advisable as an emergency fund. They can also be harder to access.
You are of course entirely correct in saying that this is far too little to retire on. However, it is possible to save without being able to liquidate said saving; for example by paying down debts. The Emergency Fund advice is that you should make a point to have enough liquid savings tucked away to tide you over in a financial emergency before you direct your discretionary income anywhere else.
Ah… I see. We keep most of our savings liquid. Safe i.e. government guaranteed investments at the biggest banks here are like 0.5% a year (the Kapitalsparbuch thing here in Austria), sot I don’t give a damn. And I would rather not gamble on the stock exchange. If I would see inflation I would care, but then I would also see more decent interest rates.
I think its a minimum of 3-6 months in a place where you can access it on short notice. of course the most common advice I see around LW, and other “If I knew this when I was 20 years younger...” type posts is—its never too early to be saving money up and building wealth.
3-6 months? People don’t go on piling up savings indefinitely? How else do you retire? I mean… there is state pension in the country I live in but I would not count it not going bust in 30 years so I always assumed I will have what I save and then maybe the state pays a bonus.
The 3-6 months is in a liquid savings account. Beyond that, you want your money in investments that will earn interest. They will be more volatile, so aren’t advisable as an emergency fund. They can also be harder to access.
You are of course entirely correct in saying that this is far too little to retire on. However, it is possible to save without being able to liquidate said saving; for example by paying down debts. The Emergency Fund advice is that you should make a point to have enough liquid savings tucked away to tide you over in a financial emergency before you direct your discretionary income anywhere else.
Ah… I see. We keep most of our savings liquid. Safe i.e. government guaranteed investments at the biggest banks here are like 0.5% a year (the Kapitalsparbuch thing here in Austria), sot I don’t give a damn. And I would rather not gamble on the stock exchange. If I would see inflation I would care, but then I would also see more decent interest rates.
I think its a minimum of 3-6 months in a place where you can access it on short notice. of course the most common advice I see around LW, and other “If I knew this when I was 20 years younger...” type posts is—its never too early to be saving money up and building wealth.