How much money do you have lying around?

[80sjunkie]

Five months in cash and 9 months in cash and investments.

[Deleted]

Way too "much." We have almost no non-retirement investments. We've been operating with a large budget surplus for years b/c I knew I would leave my last job at some point. All that money is sitting in cash. We're taking with a financial planner so hopefully that will change soon.

[hopecounts]

5 months fairly comfy 6 months or so bare bones in easily accessed savings.
It's more than we'd like but I'm a SAHM and we both feel better having it there in case we need it since DH is in the Mortgage industry.

[marchmom06]

A large portion of DH's compensation is comission based, so our cash reserves our much higher than I would prefer to even things out month over month.

Also, we typically end up owning 5 figures in taxes each year, and we've tried adjusting our withholdings. It's not an easy fix with DH's variable income. So, we save a large chunk of money in cash for April.

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2012 8:54:26 GMT -5 @iheartcosmos said:

Sept 8, 2012 8:05:01 GMT -5 v said:

But the question asked for what you could convert to cash in two business days or less. I don't think we could get the money that we have in stocks, mutual funds, etc. into our hands that quickly. A week, maybe, but not 2 days.

Well if we are really going strict with these 2 days, then only what's in my checking account. Even ING takes longer than 2 days.

That's still cash though, so I think it counts for the OP's purposes. It wasn't what you could get your hands on -- it was what could be converted to cash.

Although the lawyer in me then maybe things that cash itself doesn't count because it is already cash, and thus wouldn't be converted to cash.

And really, everyday average expenses doesn't mean much always. I mean, if we got into the position that we needed to use this money for our expenses, I think a lot of my everyday average expenses would be cut back, even if we went to nowhere near bare bones. Our everyday average contains has a very large unnecessary fluff component.

At any rate, the question has a lot of flaws.

[jinnifah]

5k - bare bones, 4month efund. However about 2/3 of that $ is slated for roof repair within the next 2 years. Still, it is available now.

We also have 2K saved to pay back money my sister leant me ages ago.I keep asking to transfer it back to her but she keeps dismissing me and making hints that we don't need to pay her back - but she won't come out and say it whenever I bring it up. So it's now sitting in a TFSA accumulating interest for us.

[MixedBerryJam]

I generally don't think of stocks as "liquid" ... even though, sure, you COULD sell them and take the cash in less than 48 hours, if the market is down, and you'd be taking a loss, you'd want to wait until the last possible minute to sell that, right? I think of "liquid" being cash, cd's, ... and maybe that's it, actually. CD's would still have a penalty, but a minimal one; not like buying a stock at $100 and selling at $5.

[jinnifah]

Sept 8, 2012 16:07:35 GMT -5 @crackhabit said:

About 1 month of expenses so approximately $550k. We live in vvvvvvvhcol!

Holy crap!!!!

[thumper55]

Sept 8, 2012 16:07:35 GMT -5 @crackhabit said:

About 1 month of expenses so approximately $550k. We live in vvvvvvvhcol!

do you mean $55,000 or $550,000!

if it's the latter, I guess me & H are not doing as good as I thought!

[megalicious]

I think I voted wrong. I voted ~5 months, but I was thinking 5 months of our salary. For just expenses, it's probably at least 9... we don't really budget, so I'm not really sure.

[hannamaren]

Sept 8, 2012 21:00:32 GMT -5 thumper55 said:

Sept 8, 2012 16:07:35 GMT -5 @crackhabit said:

About 1 month of expenses so approximately $550k. We live in vvvvvvvhcol!

do you mean $55,000 or $550,000!

if it's the latter, I guess me & H are not doing as good as I thought!

Either way, she is joking.

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2012 21:00:32 GMT -5 thumper55 said:

Sept 8, 2012 16:07:35 GMT -5 @crackhabit said:

About 1 month of expenses so approximately $550k. We live in vvvvvvvhcol!

do you mean $55,000 or $550,000!

if it's the latter, I guess me & H are not doing as good as I thought!

OMG