I agree, I get downvoted merciless on r/personalfinance when I say that my only conceivable true “emergency” is a job loss. Anything else I can use credit to income smooth and cash flow. I keep one month of bills in savings
More specifically, I have a HELOC and I’m always getting low and no interest balance transfer options from my bank.
It is also worth understanding when you situation is far more stable than most people. If you've got a stable job and considerable assets then you can basically self insure. Yes, if you surprise need $40,000 and the market is down it will suck to sell a bunch of investments from your taxable brokerage account or rapidly get a HELOC but that case is rare enough that you are willing to eat the loss in that case for additional expected growth.
Almost nobody has this. The r/personalfinance memes exist largely as "the very basics for people who don't have the first idea how to plan for their financial future."
This is just another one of those benefits of being wealthy. On average, self-insuring saves money. But for a lot of people an emergency fund is a critical thing because they don't have access to liquid assets without gargantuan 401k penalties.
This was my same thought process when I was making $80K and trying to dig myself out of bad real estate decisions post 2008 and had less than $100 in savings. Yes I know $80K isn’t a bad income in the grand scheme of things. But it is when you have five mortgages on three properties totaling a half a million dollars during the worse real estate crash in years.
Even then my focus was to always be employable and to be able to find a job quickly.
More specifically, I have a HELOC and I’m always getting low and no interest balance transfer options from my bank.