[TBH]

I keep a LOT of cash. Probably too much--it's about 25% percent of our net worth.

With this year's tax refund, we got up to that elusive 6-month figure at last. Right now 80% of our E fund is in savings with ING and 20% is in a CD set to mature in July. My plan is to take half of the total and put it into a CD ladder. I think with ING you can set up a ladder to happen automatically (but I'd have to check on that). The other half of the E fund will stay in cash.

There are a lot of shapes emergencies could take:
Job loss (not completely unlikely, but we're diversified by having 3 jobs between us)
Medical crisis for one of us, our son, or my mother
We own an old house and need to expect the unexpected
12-year-old car might give up the ghost

Also, I'm saving for a major expense 3-5 years from now, so now that I've gotten up to my goal of 6 months' expenses, I'm going to keep plugging money into CDs and savings as much as I can.