Do You Really Need a Massive Emergency Fund After All?
By: Opher Ganel
Tags: Money, Emergency Fund, Finance, Personal Finance, Financial Strategy

You must have an emergency fund!

So say almost all financial professionals. And I agree, for most people.

But what if you really don’t need an emergency fund, at least not in the conventional sense?

Why Most People Need an Emergency Fund (Does this Include You?)

Unless you’re still fully dependent on your parents, you probably have at least some financial obligations.

It may be something as small as your share of the rent for that place you’re living in with several housemates. It may be a car loan payment. It may be paying full rent for your place. It may be paying your mortgage. It may be putting food on the table, keeping the lights and water on, and paying health insurance premiums.

As we grow older, most of us take on more and more financial obligations.

Even if you’re the most uber-frugal person in the world, if you get married, have kids, or have aging parents who weren’t careful enough to make sure their retirement is funded, any of these will result in your having to pay for things over time.

What if you have an unplanned expense, or a sudden loss of income such as:

Your kid has multiple cavities

Your car breaks down

Flooding in your house destroys furniture that needs to be replaced and you can’t or don’t want to file an insurance claim (and if you do, you still have a deductible to cover)

Your partner needs emergency surgery to remove an inflamed appendix

Your employer sends you on an extended unpaid furlough because of COVID, a government shutdown, or any other reason

It isn’t a matter of if, but when, something negative and unexpected will hit your finances. That’s when having money set aside for emergencies can save you.

It isn’t a matter of if, but when, something negative and unexpected will hit your finances. That’s when having money set aside for emergencies can save you.

How much you need depends on many factors, not least of which is your level of non-discretionary expenses. Another is how much is riding on your having that money. A third is what other options you have in terms of a safety net.

Is it an Emergency Fund if it Isn’t Super-Safe?

Most pros will tell you to keep your emergency fund somewhere that you can access easily and immediately, and where there’s close to zero risk that its value drops.

That would mean you’d keep your emergency fund in these:

High-interest savings account

Money market account or mutual fund

Certificates of Deposit (CDs) — here you’ll lose some of the interest if you withdraw your money before the CD matures, but the principal is safe

The Problem with Safe Options

Especially in times like today, when interest rates are close to zero, it’s next to impossible to find a safe place for your money that earns enough interest to offset inflation and taxes. This means that if your expenses are $5,000/month and you decide you need 6 months of expenses, you’d be putting $30,000 on the sidelines, where after taxes and inflation you’d be losing almost $400 of purchasing power each year. Over time, this puts a big drag on your wealth-building.

But Maybe You Don’t Need a Massive Super-Safe Emergency Fund

I’m sure you’ve purchased some sort of insurance. It could be auto, health, life, short-term disability, long-term disability, renter’s, homeowner’s, umbrella, long-term care, etc.

If there’s a risk of loss, you can find someone who will take it on in your place, for a fee (a.k.a. an insurance premium).

Essentially, insurance is a contract where you agree to lose some money with 100% likelihood (your premium), in return for the other party, the insurer, taking on the much smaller likelihood of a much higher expense should the risk turn into reality.

For example, let’s say you’re a 30-year-old American guy. The Social Security Administration actuarial table says you have a 0.1865% likelihood of dying in the coming year. That’s about 1 chance in 536. You could probably buy a life insurance policy for $1,000 that would pay out $500,000 if you were to die this year. The insurer takes on the high-consequence (financial) risk for you, and charges you a small fraction of the benefit each year.

You can think of your emergency fund as a sort of self-insurance policy.

If you want to be super-safe, you have to pay a “premium” in the form of losing purchasing power each year.

If you’re willing to take on a bit of risk, your “premium” gets smaller because your money can be invested in something that provides a positive after-tax inflation-adjusted return on average. In any specific year, you could lose money.

Why I Don’t Keep a Lot of Money in Super-Safe Accounts

When I buy insurance policies to cover catastrophic losses. I set really high deductibles, because we can afford to pay those out of pocket, and it reduces our premiums each year.

Similarly, I don’t keep much money in checking, savings, and money market accounts.

If I have an emergency financial need, I’ll cover it from our investments. If the markets happen to suffer significant losses just before then, our losses would be locked in and we’d lose a good bit of money. However, because we have enough invested, even if I need to sell after the markets drop by 50%, it won’t dramatically impact our finances.

The point here is that I know the market will have a down year on average about every fourth year. Most of those down years will be relatively minor — perhaps a loss of 10%. However, there is a minutely small likelihood that I’ll have a massive emergency financial need just when the market has that very rare drop of 50% or more. I’m willing to take that tiny risk, in return for building our wealth faster.

How to Decide if You Too Don’t Need to Keep a Massive Amount of Money in Super-Safe Accounts

If you’re comfortable taking on a higher level of risk to make more money, you may consider keeping most or all of your reserves invested.

If that’s you, here are some alternative ways you might be able to cover an emergency financial need if it happens when the stock market is down significantly.

Credit cards with 0% interest intro rates that won’t expire for a year or more (if you have a great credit score)

A salary advance (if your employer is willing)

Selling assets other than stocks, such as appreciated real estate (if you own any)

Family support (if that’s available)

As you can see, each of these has a caveat. If none of them pans out for you, and you need a lot of money to cover an emergency exactly when the bottom drops out from under the market, you may lose a significant amount of money.

The Bottom Line

If you can take on risk without losing sleep, you can avoid keeping a lot of money in a super-safe account where it loses purchasing power each year.

This is easier if you:

You have relatively few and small financial obligations that you can’t stop, and/or

You have a great support network, and/or

Your income is diversified across multiple sources, and/or

You have enough invested that you could afford to sell a year’s worth of expenses into a severe bear market without derailing your financial goals.

If several of these describe you, perhaps you’ll be comfortable making the same choice I did.

About the Author

Opher Ganel has set up several successful small businesses, including a consulting practice supporting NASA and government contractors. His most recent venture is a financial strategy service for independent professionals (where you can sign up for his biweekly newsletter and get some nifty free PDFs). You can also connect with him by following his Medium publication, Financial Strategy.

Disclaimer

This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be considered financial advice. You should consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.