Think of it this way - you need enough liquid assets to survive if you lose your job. That could be a mix of HYSA, equities, bonds, etc. When I say 1-2 months of a HYSA, that assumes you have other assets you could sell (e.g. VTI).Thank you for all the points you made, really appreciate it. Would you say 1-2 months is sufficient even if my job is not that stable? It's a union job but it's a very unusual industry that is currently going through some turmoil. Perhaps I could be comfortable with 4 months.
To use myself as an example, I have a very stable job, but also one that, should I get fired, would take me probably a year to start another one. I keep 1 month of expenses in a checking account and 1 month in a money market fund, but that's because I have years worth of expenses in equities - I could just sell some if I need to. Etc.
The reason to avoid keeping a relative lot of your funds in a HYSA is inflation. If you kept 6 months expenses in VTI over the past 20 years, it would've grown to nearly 29 months in inflation-adjusted terms over that period (assuming expenses stayed the same) - in a HYSA, you would've LOST 1 month's expenses over 20 years to inflation.
Statistics: Posted by breakfastinbed — Sat Nov 08, 2025 10:37 pm — Replies 7 — Views 813