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system
is there a good rule of thumb for how much i should have set aside as emergency cash?
user
first you should maintain a monthly expense and find out the burn rate. there would be certain expenses that are annual but mandatory [school fees, insurance premium, property taxes, etc]. so the ideal emergency fund depending on your industry should be 3 month to 6 months plus your mandatory yearly payments, more so if they come together. for example most of my annual payments come out in may and i bank on the bonus payout in april to cater to this spike in expense. so if i were to lose a job in march, my emergency funds would be sufficient for routine expenses, if i don't provision for additional funds second you need to also figure out the reduced rate of monthly burn and ideally the emergency funds should be for 3 months of normal burn and 6 months of reduced burn.
assistant