Coworker told me I was tracking my "emergency fund" wrong and it hurt but I fixed it

So I had this 'emergency fund' that was like $3,000 sitting in my regular checking account. Same account I use for groceries and gas. My coworker Janet saw me transfer money out and asked why. I told her it was my emergency fund. She laughed and said 'that's not an emergency fund, that's just cash you haven't spent yet.' Burn. Real emergency fund needs to be in a separate high-yield savings account, totally out of sight. I moved it to an online HYSA (I used Ally) last month and stopped touching it. Has anyone else had that rude wake-up call where someone called out your 'system' as fake?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewgonzalez13d ago

Ha! I kept my "emergency fund" in a shoebox under my bed, so no judgement here.

riley_bell13d ago

Totally feel that. I had the same thing happen with my "emergency fund" that was just sitting in my PayPal balance for like two years. I thought I was being smart but really I was just letting inflation eat away at it while I kept pulling from it for random stuff. Moving it to a separate account where I can't see the balance every day is the only reason it actually stays untouched now. Are you finding it easier to just leave the money alone now?