How much is enough for an emergency fund? I hear 3-6 months salary but there is a big difference between 3 months salary and 6 months salary, and that seems like a lot of money to have sitting around in a low interest account. Even ING (who I have an account with and personally think are wonderful) have an interest rate that just basically keeps up with inflation.

How many months salary is your goal for an emergency fund?
And where do you keep the funds so that they are accessible if you need them but not too accessible so that it gets spent?

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We are just starting this. I'm shooting for 3 months. I definately don't have that right now, sad to say, I probably have about 2 weeks..ugh! But it is a start. Right now, I keep it very accessable. I'm finding out that's not a good idea.

Well I like to keep about 1 month of our salary in a ready emergency fund. Otherwise anything above that I use to pay towards a debt. I'd like to get rid of a home improvement loan and vehicle payment before we build it up more.

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Our goal is to keep 1 month pretty accessable and then setup CDs that come up for renewal at different times. This is what I did in college and it worked out really well, becuase I knew that in a short period of time, I would have money avalaible to me again.

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Mom to Kaylee (10/2006)
Waiting on our second bundle of joy to arrive January 2009!

$1000 for an emergency fund for things like car repair, furnace, etc.

Then we are striving to save 6 months of living expenses. Six, because my DH is the sole breadwinner. So if he loses his job we got from 100% income to ZERO. Alot of money to have not gaining interest, yes. We have not decided in what manner we will keep this money.

Right now we are working on repaying the 1000 emergency fund, had to use it for a repair to my van.

$1000 is a realistic goal for us. When we have some debt paid off we will be able to build it up to 3 months worth of our salaries.

Our goal was to have 6 months of our combined income saved. My husband is a certified financial advisor and he said that this allows us enough time to find another job without rushing into something just to pay the bills. We have ours in a money market account. We can write a check to get the money deposited into our account or setup an online transfer if necessary. It works well for us and it provides a sense of security when you are suddenly left with no income.

Ours is also $1,000 which we have a little more than that in there right now because we know DD's hospital bill will be coming. We try to keep it at $1,000 all the time. Other than that we have a stash that we don't touch at all but we have access to in extreme emergency.

we had this amount and more, at the time we were doing major home remodeling projects, and it was not enough. dh is a mechanical engineer with several patents in his name. He ended up being under employed for 2 years. We never thought it would take that long for dh to find anothr job. I did start to work PT in the evenings. Dh did work, he was working for a friend mowing lawns and snow removal. He was also able to hire himself out as a handyman. With both of us working we still did not make used what dh made alone. I think 6 months is the lowest amount. we are aiming for 9 months now. I think the final determonatin is how many kids u have and the current market. we had our money in money markets also, best rate for ease of access. We also don't consider car repairs a legitimate emergency. the money should be money u don't touch ever unless u are going to lose your home. remember cobra insurane is at least double what u pay for insurance normally. so there is one cost that actually comes up that u don't necessairly think about.
I am very frugal and so is dh. that helped us ALOT.

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

We keep $3000 in savings and another $3000 in CD's that come due at various times of the year. That's not 3-6 months salary for us but seemed to be a reasonable amount. I'm keeping these intact, but not adding anything to them, everything extra is going toward debt right now.

I guess it depends on where we are at in the month at the time a small emergency comes along, like car needs new tires, as to whether I can cover it, or it has to come out of our EF. I mainly want it there for more disastrous type emergencies.

Once debt is paid off, which will be a while, I'll probably up my 401K before I start adding to my emergency funds again. Then see what, if anything is left and start saving more.