10 Items that an emergency fund needs to cover

Lately I have been putting a lot of focus on my emergency fund. I am working hard to get it up to the level I want: 1 year of expenses covered. I have done some thinking and realized that yearly expenses are more than just bills and groceries. There are a lot of bases to cover!

Here is what an adequate emergency fund should cover:

  1. 6 to 12 months of monthly bills (utilities, food, rent, gas, etc)
  2. ALL insurance deductibles (home, health, auto, etc)
  3. 5x doctor visit co-pays
  4. 2x prescription co-pays
  5. $500-$1000 car repair fund
  6. $500-$1000 emergency home repair fund (plumber, electrician, locksmith, etc)
  7. $1000 travel emergency fund (death or sickness in family, etc)
  8. 6x minimum debt payments (for all non-mortgage debts)
  9. $500 pet emergency fund (if you have pets this is for non-budgeted vet visits)
  10. $500 catch-all slush fund for random items (parking tickets, smaller unexpected needs, etc)
Some will argue this is excessive. Obviously some of these items will not apply depending on your own financial scenario. Pick the parts you need. I may be over-thinking it here but I want to be sure that just about any disaster that life can throw at me will be covered. Having too much savings is a great peace of mind to me. It is always better to oversave than the opposite.

Does your emergency fund cover everything you need?

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