Early in my career my wife and I were very aggressive savers. We lived a fair bit below our means. The day after my first layoff we sat down to look at what t

Early in my career my wife and I were very aggressive savers. We lived a fair bit below our means. The day after my first layoff we sat down to look at what the new budget would look like. The first thing to go was all of our investment and money market contributions. Completely painless. The lesson I learned is that the best part of saving for a rainy day isn't the nest egg you build up, it's the flexibility you gain from having a nice amount of surplus cash flow. Or, when looking at your cash, it's not the constant that matters, it's the first derivative. (and maybe the second)