<prompt> Human: I am 26 years old, married, and have a 9 month old son. Ive been trying to do better money wise, and established an emergency fund over the last few months, but it has recently been wiped out. While driving to work our only car broke down and repairs totaled more than my savings. I have paid off the repair costs and am back up and running, but living without that fund makes me very uncomfortable. I pay into my 401k regularly as its partially company matched. My question is, do you think I should stop paying into it until my emergency fund is back? I dont want to lose free money from the match, but I am scared that if anything else happens I wont be able to handle it financially.  <response>: I wouldnt. Its better to take the money out of another luxury-type area than from your 401k. Instead, restructure your finances so you pay yourself - which is to say your savings - and your bills first, and everything else is budgeted as play money. This play money is where your emergency fund rebuilding should come out of.So for example the way I have it set up is I have 2 checking accounts and 1 savings. one of those checking account receives my direct deposits, and its the same account where monthy bills come out of, all on automatic payments. Then, when I get paid I go into that online and transfer what I need to my savings first, and transfer play money into the other checking account, making sure the amount left is enough to cover a month of bills and necessary recurring expenses including gas groceries, though that can be separated out into another account if needed. the play money is the card I use whenever eating out or doing something for fun. With this system, rebuilding an emergency fund is just a matter of more money back into the savings account, and less into the play money account until its rebuilt. 