I have a Roth IRA, a 401k and an HSA, but I also keep ~6 months of living expenses in my checking acct. The problem is that if I had it somewhere at 5%, that is money I am missing out on.

1 month CD
more to follow by others

Move it to an easily accessible account, but not checking.  Money market or high yield savings.

I use a Fidelity money market with debit card access.  Debit card is locked in the safe.

I just opened a savings account with Capital One they have a promo right now for $1500 bonus if you deposit $100,000+ for 90 days. 4.30% APY. Seemed like a much better deal to me than a 6 month CD at ~5.5% and none of the downsides of a CD.

Emergency fund means emergency before all other things. If you don't want to lose out on what you can make off 35K then at least take 50% of it and have it available, the rest elsewhere. Even trying to pull more then 5K at one time out of most any account in cash will probably get you some pushback from many or most places. Sure they will probably do it but they will also tell you the max is less then that without prior notice.

My credit union has a money market option with an interest rate similar to 6-9 month CDs. I can move money back and forth easily, but it's off to the side AND earning interest.

Mine is in high yield savings linked to my checking, so I can have the funds moved in 1-2 business days with a few mouse clicks.  The current rate on the savings is 4%.  Six months in checking is too much unless your checking account is paying decent interest.  I would move 4-5 months worth to a linked high yield savings account.

High yield savings linked to checking with automatic overdraft protection.

Moved mine to fidelity MM

Emergency fund like job loss or natural disaster/relocation? Obviously keep some cash in the house ready to go. You can't withdraw from a bank in a flood or fire.

I keep my emergency cash fund in a separate investment account where I have 2 stocks and a bond, set and forget.

If it is for an emergency, better make damn sure  it's not the BANK's emergency.

https://www.viobank.com/cornerstone-money-market-savings paying 5.3% today.

I keep mine at Fidelity in a brokerage account, where the emergency funds are held in the core money market fund (SPAXX) which pays 5%.  This account is linked to my personal checking account and can be transferred there in 1-3 days via ACH for free.

I only keep enough in my checking account to easily cover one month's expenses.  The emergency fund is 6 months of expenses.

I have some high credit limit cards, and I never carry a balance.

All my extra money goes into investments... at least transferred to Fidelity's SPAXX fund.

I don't keep much liquid cash around. In a true emergency I can use the cards and have 30 days to figure things out before payment is due. If need be, I can liquidate mutual funds as needed. It only takes a few days to sell funds and transfer the proceeds to your checking account.

No way am I locking up 6 months or more of devaluing cash when I can be earning with it.

While I almost completely agree with that, I still think a cash emergency fund is a good idea.  This will let you spend if the power goes out.

I don't spend a dime for a week or more at a time, on a regular basis. All my bills are on autopay, and I just review them when they come in. Grocery runs every couple weeks.

Power outages here last almost a day... at most.

If all power is out for a long amount of time, there's gonna be bigger problems. Plus... I can write a check.

If I lived in a hurricane evac area, I'd probably have some cash on hand though.

Cash stashed at home isn't considered the "six month emergency fund".

I would consider it to be part of it, though.  I recommend diversification.  Credit cards have already been mentioned, and that would work well in many cases.  You can roll T-bills, or ladder CDs.  An emergency fund doesn't have to be all in one place.

I've got mine in a Fidelity brokerage account.  About 25% of it is in short term t-bills the rest is earning around 4.99%.

That's not really what I consider an emergency fund.  That's just an easily accessible investment that is not directly in your hands.


$800 in the gun safe is an emergency fund. (although with current inflation maybe I should bump that up a bit)

I have a Chase brokerage account next to my Chase checking account and savings account. It's pretty fast to move money between the two, and I have the money in money market funds when it is not needed.

I keep ~5k in the savings account and the rest in the brokerage account. YMMV.

As above, my CU has a MM account paying at 5.25% (up to 100K) and 3.75% with the extra. I'm taking full advantage.

Mostly this.

I'm bad at keeping emergency cash on hand and tend to have it wrapped up in some form of investment.

I do keep a couple hundred thousand available on credit so If a big emergency happens I can cover it and decide which investments to cash out of.

I also keep some cash in my safe for local environmental emergencies.

My personal philosophy, with a disclaimer/note: Roth IRA contributions can be withdrawn at any point with no taxes or no penalty. If you aren't already maxing your retirement options, part of the money that would make up your emergency fund can be put in a Roth as long as you are careful.

As long as you aren't making your emergency fund an important part of your strategy in an economic downturn there is little risk.

My personal philosophy: 2 weeks in cash, 2 months in my checking/savings, 4 months in low risk, higher ROR accounts,  2 years invested in my Roth IRA earmarked as emergency fund*.

*This is money I wouldn't have otherwise invested in my Roth. I am not quite yet in the position to max all avenues of investments so money that would have otherwise gone into higher reward accounts as part of my longer term emergency fund gets put in a Roth IRA. If I never have a need to tap into my E fund that deeply it's a win for my retirement. My job/career is fairly recession proof so economic downturn is unlikely to lead to my need of E fund. If I need my E fund that bad it's low likelihood to be during a major downturn so low risk of value loss for withdrawal.