<prompt> Human: So, ever since I was young, I was always taught to keep a good amount of in a savings account. You know, the rule of thumb that you should have enough cash around to survive for 3-6 months or so. And looking back, that was generally a good idea. My parents never had a lot of spare cash, and as a student I started with no funds of my own or my parents and lived off of loans and jobs, so I can really see the value in that.Fast forward to 10 years later. I now have a very stable job, and whats more, a bunch of accounts retirement, HSAs, investment accounts, RSUs, etc I never thought about 10 years ago. I currently have a near perfect credit score and probably 200k in available credit on the various cards I have around. Yet, I still have this savings account that Ive been taught my entire life to keep around. It earns a paltry amount of interest 1-237;, and given the high income tax in the state I live in, and my relatively high tax bracket, half of that interest is taxed away.I get that I am very fortunate to be in this situation, and that my question probably only applies to a small percent of people here. I dont feel that I am rich or anything, just very comfortably well off. But I have to wonder if it makes sense to keep an emergency fund anymore. Enumerating some of the common reasons to have one:- You get laid off- You get unexpected medical bills- You get unexpected legal bills- Major house repairsIn any of these cases, I could just charge most of expenses to a credit card, which would provide 30 days to liquidate, and in the case of a medical bills, they would touch the HSA first. Then I could liquidate investment accounts or potentially even retirement if it got to such a dire situation. Even if the investments were to fail, and I were to somehow lose most of the investment account, it wouldnt lose 10037; of its value, and I would probably still have enough to get by for six months. And if I were somehow to get disabled, my company provides disability insurance, so that would help in those situations as well.My point here is, that it seems that for some people, only keeping enough cash around to pay bills, and investing any surplus in reasonable, diverse investments, which can include a significant 37; of stocks, which are volatile in value rather than keeping it in a low interest savings account which will probably lose value against inflation seems to be a better idea. This appears to be contrary to the common advice given on this sub, which is apparently to never invest your emergency fund Let me clarify since it appears that a lot of people are missing the point: Im not advocating putting your emergency fund in the market, Im saying that some people have enough liquid assets that it doesnt make sense to have an emergency fund period.Using a concrete example:Assume you calculate that your 6 month requirements 40K.Now lets say you have investments worth 500K. Even if the market were to crash and your investments were to lose 5037; of the value, you would have 250K of investments. Using credit cards to float any expenses while you liquidate which should take 30 days, you can survive the emergency by selling off some of those investments. In the case of a crash, some of those investments might not rebound anyway, so you might be better of selling anyway.The point is in this case a emergency fund doesnt seem really necessary. If you make a average 737; return on your portfolio, then you might actually be better off putting the 40K in your portfolio, since thanks to compounding it will grow to 80K in 10 years.And if you make much more than you can spend by a few x, then you should invest all excess, rather than keep large cash reserves around. Youre not going to have to sell investments or anything if expenses are higher than usual, youd just invest less that month. You only have to sell investments in the case of a emergency.Assistant: I have thought of it the same way as you. Basically, its not that you dont want an emergency account, you just believe that your investments, which you can probably easily liquidate within a month, are enough. Here, you are correct.There is however one caveat that I have been pondering and has stopped me from removing my emergency fund so far. In the event of an economic downturn, 2 things are likely to happen. You will be more likely to lose your job, and the market will fall.Why is this important? Because if you lose your job, then you will have to rely on your emergency fund. If markets have gone down, then you are actually losing a huge chunk of money by liquidating it all then.Example scenario:Person A has 20k in investments. Person B has 10k in investments and 10k in a savings account. Lets say both desire an emergency fund of 10k, but person A is smart and put in extra so in a big market downturn hell still have 10k.A recession occurs, both people lose their jobs and the stock market drops 5037; just an example. Person A liquidates his now 10k investments, Person B leaves his now 5k investment alone and draws on his emergency fund. You can see here that Person B comes out ahead actually, and when markets recover as they inevitably do, Person B will also be in a stronger position.edit: As some commenters have noted, my calculation is missing some factors. Human: You have neglected to consider the fact that the investments will be growing between now and when the EF needs to be drawn down. There is a reasonable chance that even if the value drops it will still be worth more than the cash account.Assistant: Sure, theres a chance that you could come out ahead by investing your emergency fund. Theres also a risk that you will come out significantly behind due to your emergency fund. The point of sticking your emergency fund in a savings account is to minimize risks as much as possible. If you are ok with a bit more risk, then go ahead and invest it.Human: The point isnt that Im investing my emergency fund, its that I have enough liquid assets or float to wait until they are liquidated via credit that it doesnt make sense to have a fund in the first place.  <response>: But isnt that bad under the scenario that its an economic downturn and you lost your job?Now youre going to have to float all your expenses at 15-2537; APR while withdrawing your investments that could potentially be up to -1537; per year..and then once you get a job, you might have to either pay off the rest of your credit while missing the opportunity to average down in an economic downturn.Theres too many variables at play to even want to edge out on the side of luck Rip Japan after recession that an emergency fund might be a good option. 