Is it safe to treat stocks and ETFs in my brokerage account as savings and emergency funds as long as I have a significant number of lots with a Stop Loss or Stop Limit Order in place? My Savings Account technically doesn’t cover 3 months of expense, but combined with my brokerage account it does. Is it safe to be have 1 month in savings and 2 months in stock/ETF with stop loss orders in place that if exercised equate to 2 months of expenses?
I think the conventional wisdom is “no”. Cash is king and if you have a legit emergency you want that stability from basic savings.
For me, I work for a company in n NASDAQ (big fucking deal). If the overall market takes a shit both my investments AND my job will be at risk. Liquid emergency savings cover that possibility in a way that stonks and ETFs can’t. OFC savings rates kinda suck so there’s sort of a loss there too.
It’s not as safe as you think. In normal situations, market orders fill almost instantly.
If the market drops below your threshold due to major news, like the Covid shutdowns, your sell order will enter a queue. Depending on the ability of your brokerage to execute orders in competition with the rest of the market, your sell order may complete quickly, or not. You’re potentially taking a huge loss.
I’d recommend building up your savings account. Getting more than 4.5% in a risk-free HYSA is an easy choice in this case.
One of the benefits of an emergency fund is instant availability. I can access those funds almost immediately if needed. If my house burns down or gets wiped out by a tornado, I would rather not have to deal with liquidating investments and waiting for the funds to clear. At that point there will be more pressing issues to deal with.
Earning a return on my emergency fund is secondary to availability in terms of importance, to me at least. There are plenty of good options out there for high interest savings accounts.