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"I forget the context, but loyal Little Miss Fortune reader patchwork150 and I were chatting about emergency funds in the comments a while back, and now I&amp;amp;#8217;m wondering about the state of your savings.If I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to stash my savings in a piggy bank, it might be time to invest in a safe! The old emergency fund rule said you should have three months&amp;amp;#8217; living expenses in the bank. Let&amp;amp;#8217;s see. For me that would be: $1,200 rent + $19 monthly fees for the frozen credit cards I won&amp;amp;#8217;t close + $127 student loan payment, although I bet I could defer that if I lost my job + $150 groceries + $100 cell phone bill + $100 pet expenses (including insurance) + $138 for the collection agency&amp;amp;#8212;I think I have about $3,500 to go = $1,834 a month = $5,502 for three months The good news is, I have $5,175.23 in the bank. The bad news is, the new rule for emergency funds says you should have a year&amp;amp;#8217;s worth of living expenses in the bank, and I do not have $22,008 in the bank. The really bad news is, the money I do have in the bank is set aside to pay my taxes, which means I really don&amp;amp;#8217;t have any spare savings. Hmm ... not good. Also bad, the $5,175.23 is just sitting in my checking account, where it&amp;amp;#8217;s earning approximately zero interest. There has to be a better place for it, right? So here&amp;amp;#8217;s what I&amp;amp;#8217;m wondering: Do you guys have an emergency fund? If so, is it enough to keep you floating for a year? Or even three months? And is there a &amp;amp;#8220;right&amp;amp;#8221; place to keep your emergency fund? By the way, the piggy bank has been great for saving holiday funds! Since I don&amp;amp;#8217;t see the cash and I don&amp;amp;#8217;t carry it with me, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t spend it. I just checked, and I&amp;amp;#8217;ve accidentally over-saved. I thought there was $200 in there, but somehow there&amp;amp;#8217;s $260! How does that happen?! I told you I&amp;amp;#8217;m bad with money! Maybe I should just keep my emergency fund under my mattress! Need to stash more money in your emergency fund? Here are some easy ways to save: Dollar Stores Can Save You Cash&amp;amp;#8212;If You Know What to Buy There Possibly the Most Genius Way to Save Money on Lip Gloss Ever Use eBay to Decorate on a Dime (With Tips From One of Their Pros!) Here&amp;amp;#8217;s One Way to Save Money on Haircuts A Site That Will Save You a Few Bucks in the Kitchen More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering for or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;amp;#8217;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow glamour_sexlove on Twitter. Photo: Jupiter Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/little-miss-fortune/2009/10/lets-talk-emergency-funds>