<prompt> Human: Someone in a comment thread here suggested allowing your Roth IRA to double as an emergency fund because it doesnt have early withdrawal penalties. What do you guys think of that?  <response>: It made sense around tax day where if people didnt contribute to their IRA by then, they missed the opportunity to do so for 2014. Rather than hold 5500 in an emergency fund, they could contribute to their IRA, perhaps hold it in lower risk investments bond funds or even uninvested and then subsequently build up a non-invested emergency fund in the coming months.Some may argue that investing your emergency fund is OK, but generally, you should hold some money liquid and out of investments. At this point of the year, unless there are some extenuating circumstances, it doesnt seem to be best practice to be fully reliant upon a retirement account for an emergency fund. 