<prompt> Human: My in-laws recently found themselves in a loose the farm situation. We gave them what is essentially a secured loan. Originally I was planning to divest some non-tax-advantaged investments to cover the loan, but ended up choosing to pull from my emergency fund instead.Im feeling pretty naked at the moment with my EF at less than half where I want it.Some of the reasons I made the choice: I would have been selling low on my investments It feels less permanent; more like Ive put off the decision. I can still divest later. Ill feel more pressure to rebuild my EF than to reinvest I think part of the problem is you build an EF to get through the tough times, but when you have an EF nothing really actually feels like an emergency. Im curious what the rest of PF thinks. Did I make the right choice? What would you have done?  <response>: Only you can say if loaning the money to your inlaws makes sense, but your choice to use your cash reserves seems smart for two basic reasons:1. Your cash reserves are still not empty so you still have plenty of cash to deal with more minor bumps in the road.2. In the case of a big emergency, you still have the option of diverting at that time. Basically your true amount of funds available in a big emergency was always much higher than your cash reserves in your emergency fund. 