people say 6 months of normal expenses..

I keep 2 month's salary in checking, accessible today. I keep a further 4 months' in a high yield savings account where it can earn me some amount of money while it sits but is still accessible within a day or two (the idea being that my checking and open credit cards can float me for w/e emergency may come around until I can get to this money). Anything beyond that goes into an index fund where the idea is that I don't touch it for decades. The assumption is that anything that might require more than 6 months salary will almost certainly come with some sort of built-in mechanism to allow me time to liquefy that much money.

6x your monthly expenses, also get a small safe or fireproof box & keep some cash in it, if you don't do that already.

I figure it in terms of time. I want to be able to maintain my standard of living for at least six months if all forms of income were to stop.

Note: This account should be FDIC/NCUA (credit unions) insured or a money market account at a brokerage that is invested mostly in US treasuries. This account should not be at a fintech or other firm where your deposit insurance is in question.

https://apnews.com/article/synapse-evolve-bank-fintech-accou...