Having an emergency fund is so critical , especially in an increasingly tenuous job market featuring lots of parttime work . Homeowners , having shown they can somehow get together some kind of down payment , should be performing above and beyond in this category , not maxing out their mortgage payment and leaving nothing for emergencies . I recently bought a house where the monthly mortgage payment plus monthly portion of tax was less than my previous rental payment . The first thing I did was rebuild my emergency savings fund , even though my job is pretty darn secure and my credit rating qualified me for a big fat line of credit . I ' ve heard too many horror stories of some massive unexpected expense ruining someone ' s life . All because I didn ' t buy the absolute best house my mortgage preapproval qualified me for .