3551: Should You Invest Your Emergency Fund? by Jesse Cramer of Best Interest on Calculating How Much to Save For an Emergency

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🗓️ 7 May 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3351: Jesse Cramer challenges the popular idea of investing your emergency fund by reframing what that money is truly meant for: peace of mind and immediate security. He argues that if you’re willing to risk part of it, then that portion was never truly an emergency fund to begin with. This perspective helps clarify how to separate safety from growth so you can make smarter, less stressful financial decisions. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://bestinterest.blog/should-you-invest-your-emergency-fund/ Quotes to ponder: "An emergency fund is the minimum amount of cash you need to sleep well at night." "The investing timeline of an emergency fund is zero days." "Only the money you’re not willing to lose constitutes your emergency fund." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Some follow the noise.
0:03.0	Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion
0:07.7	dollar swings.
0:09.0	There's a money side to every story.
0:11.4	Get the money side of the story.
0:13.5	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:18.8	This is Optimal Finance Daily. Should you invest your emergency fund? By Jesse Kramer of
0:25.4	best interest.blog. True story. In January 2019, my now fiance and I were stuck in a freezing
0:34.0	cold Airbnb in rural upstate New York. It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend.
0:39.9	Oops. But we were financially prepared. Booyah. It felt great. How? Because we had a fully funded
0:48.3	emergency fund. We abandoned the Airbnb and didn't think twice. We knew we might never get refunded, but we didn't care.
0:56.0	We had enough money in the bank to give us options.
0:59.0	That's why emergency funds are so important.
1:02.0	It's money you can count on when you need it.
1:05.0	But there's a growing debate in personal finance circles.
1:08.0	Should you invest with your emergency fund?
1:11.6	Emergency Fund Basics
1:13.6	The traditional emergency fund is what I described.
1:17.6	It's a pile of money that sits in your bank account available for quick deployment in an emergency.
1:22.6	The financial order of operations discusses emergency funds in two ways. First, save about $1,000
1:30.1	in cash to cover insurance deductibles. Later, save three to six months of spending in case you
1:36.3	lose your job. Furnace dies, got fired, car accident, your emergency fund plays an important role
	...

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