Or they're just talking about different ratios of saving/spending. As I posted below - the situation in which you have 40 weeks of spending set aside is radica

Or they're just talking about different ratios of saving/spending. As I posted below - the situation in which you have 40 weeks of spending set aside is radically different to that of having 4. From my perspective, and I recognise things are probably very different in the USA with your health insurance catastrophe, taking a few months off work to unwind, or check out the job market, or whatever else every now and then is a completely normal thing to do. My first software job came about because I left a job and bounced around for a bit. I had enough mental space and time to physically visit interviews without the sort of typical "pretend to your boss you're ill" stuff. Without that time I'd be somewhere completely different now.