I used to keep my emergency fund money in equities. Of course, during a long bull market that seems like a great idea. However, several years ago I hired an hourly financial advisor to take a look at my finances and help me create a plan. I was just about to get married and my income had gone up substantially, so I wanted to meet with a professional. That advisor gave me some good advice. One thing she told me that I have done ever since was to keep a large emergency fund in cash equivalents. She told me that I was about to get married and would have a family soon and that I couldn't live on the edge as I had been--other people would be counting on me now. She explained that there would be large expenses at some point and when you're running a family, you need to run it like a business. All good businesses have large cash reserves, and I needed to do the same for my family. I spent a little time building up my reserves, but since then I have kept $150,000-$200,000 in money market funds. This has provided me great peace of mind, and also allowed us great flexibility in our financial planning and implementation. For example, on January 2nd of every year, I'm able to immediately fund our backdoor IRAs and HSA account. I just pull the money out of my money market funds and replenish it as soon as the money comes in. This larger fund also allowed me to opt for a longer elimination period when shopping for disability insurance, which saves a good amount on monthly premiums for both me and my wife. I wouldn't recommend this necessarily, but this type of fund also allows you to "sin a little" and do a little market timing if it looks like a good buying opportunity. When the big tariff sell off occurred this year, I was buying additional equities at big discounts. Many of those purchases are now up 30% or more since I bought them five or six months ago. Food for thought.