6 months worth of living expenses in 2025 is gonna be, median, $10k in rent/mortgage payments alone. That in and of itself is like 14% of someones annual income at $35 an hour.

I truly fail to see how 20% saved annually isnt something reasonable, considering the need for different draws out of some of it will come sporadically, while you also need to be saving for your retirement in some inevitably inflated future where everything is even more ridiculously expensive than it is now.

The first describes a total emergency fund of 14% annual income that would provide 6 months rent. The second describes annual contributions of 20%, which seems like it provides 6 months living expenses for every year worked. That's an awesome goal, and kudos to anyone who can do it. I did. It let me retire at 45, which is several steps beyond "living comfortably."

You're not going to get any argument from me that shit is fucked. Everyone should have guaranteed access to housing, food, and healthcare, and we don't. A lot of kids were set up for failure by their parents insisting they take out college loans. But your standard for a minimum cost of living is basically the minimum to live like a boomer in the 70s.

The average white male boomer in the US lived like a king compared to everyone else around them, even at the time. The descendants of those people tend to think that the fact that their parents or grandparents had this means they should too. In reality, those boomers were incredibly lucky to be born into a privileged class during an economic golden age.

We don't get that, we get the world they fucked up. Rich dickheads hogging all the wealth and stealing wages is nothing new, it's been the standard for all of human history. What is new is that you can see clearly how well the privileged live compared to you. Maybe that will cause things to change, idk.

In the meantime, we need to make do. An emergency fund is intended to be used for emergencies, which are things that threaten your ability to acquire basic needs (food, housing, health). You keep it funded at 6 months of expenses (e.g., the minimum you need to meet your financial obligations plus food+rent). When it's full, you don't keep adding to it. When you use money from the fund, you replenish it as quickly as you can. Everyone should have one.

You shouldn't be having an emergency every single year though. If you are, it's not an emergency, it's an extra expense you need to plan for. If you are spending double-digit percentages of your income on debt (car loans, credit cards, etc), you need to stop spending money on anything else but basic needs until you pay it off. Or start a revolution, but we're arguing on the Internet so I don't think the odds of that happening are high.

The world sucks. It's not fair. You can still live a good life in it though, even if it's not as good as it used to be.