Is it safe to treat stocks and ETFs in my brokerage account as savings and emergency funds as long as I have a significant number of lots with a Stop Loss or Stop Limit Order in place? My Savings Account technically doesn’t cover 3 months of expense, but combined with my brokerage account it does. Is it safe to be have 1 month in savings and 2 months in stock/ETF with stop loss orders in place that if exercised equate to 2 months of expenses?
One of the benefits of an emergency fund is instant availability. I can access those funds almost immediately if needed. If my house burns down or gets wiped out by a tornado, I would rather not have to deal with liquidating investments and waiting for the funds to clear. At that point there will be more pressing issues to deal with.
Earning a return on my emergency fund is secondary to availability in terms of importance, to me at least. There are plenty of good options out there for high interest savings accounts.