If you only have one payroll in reserve, then you're already living on the edge and hopefully recognize that one rare-but-real bad event could knock you out of

If you only have one payroll in reserve, then you're already living on the edge and hopefully recognize that one rare-but-real bad event could knock you out of the game. If you're lucky, someone might still come in and save you because your loss is a pittance compared to some. Good luck to you. But if you have more than one payroll, then you should consider that bank failures and other risks are part of the system and spread your capital across institutions so that no one failure wipes you out. Risk management and "accountants that hate life" are some of the overhead costs of significant assets.