Santa Fe brewing Java stout . <| sep |> OK that bird is more fabulous that I can ever dream to be <| sep |> Experience of being dismissed , of fear of that happening , is the major reason why so many children and adults to be fair become victims It sickens and saddens me that someone wouldn ' t take genuine fear of another person seriously . <| sep |> That ' s not what they will be doing . They recount in WI , MI and PA only . And this will likely only go one way . <| sep |> What you should calculate is the carrying cost of that money vs . the penalty cost from things like raiding your 401 k . If your carrying costs exceed the penalty costs , then hold less cash . Another useful thing is adding up the nominal cost . Say you are deciding between holding cash in a liquid savings account 1 % vs . investing in your portfolio 5 % avg return . So the spread is 4 %. Now say you need to hold 30 k to pay your living expenses for 1 year . If you do the math , $ 30 , 000 x . 04 $ 1200 . or $ 100 a month carrying cost . So every month you are paying $ 100 to be risk averse and feel good . Not too bad really . If you want to add another 30 k as you suggested , then your monthly bill is $ 200 . cheers !