[greedy4chips]

I am considering this in a vacuum, whereby you have no CCs to bail you out since that is an EF for some. I am also looking at this from the no other assets to tap into such as home equity or investments for emergency purposes.

Basically I look at it like you have a choice of 4 days of water or a map to get you out of the desert in 1 day, which do you choose?

100% of the time I choose the 20k emergency fund! This is only 20 months away and I will begin to be able to pay the $1k/month to the student loan. Yes the student loan did gain $1800 roughly in those 20 months. However, I have security in knowing I have the money to fully pay the loan off if not paying it would result in certain death.

As far as Katrina is concerned, many rich people were victims too! Every single natural disaster has people who will not heed warnings to leave their homes, seek shelter, or make prudent decisions.

At what point did New Orleans give permission to looters and criminals to take advantage of the disaster?

And why are we rebuilding Atlantis? Is this not a ridiculous concept? All we heard is how many poor people live there because there is no decent jobs for them. Funny how many want to go back to their free brand new homes! We have a local bank middle management person who relocated from New Orleans area. This was his "get out of jail card". A fellow student at my tech school works for him now.