I have postponed my emergency fund for far too long, using as crutches a home equity line of credit equal to six months' "Must-Haves" (actually unused as of yet, but wait until next month), unemployment benefits, and retirement accounts. We figured that if we started paying down the mortgage, we could maintain a comfortable 55% equity cushion and having an HELOC that was only 6% of the assessed value of the house. And we were still playing retirement catchup: as long the administration spends on projects we don't approve of, and we're getting employer matches, it makes sense to us to shove as much away in tax-efficient retirement funds as possible. 15% and 30% returns (our employer matches) sure
beat the pants off a 1.75% return from a savings account.

New plan with the salaries and the savings: now that our vacation is 18% paid for, and we have four weeks to cough up the other 82% interest-free, we can have a happy time knowing that the cash is there in our account.

The vacation and the windows would nearly clear us out, though. Maybe we should do 90 or 180 days same as cash on the windows. Even if I borrow on the windows I'm getting a 115% return there (replacement wood windows cost is slightly lower than the value they add to our PNW home) with the tax credits.

And maybe the 20% savings could be cut up as follows:
4% - Mortgage
4% - Home Maintenance (including paying back the rest of the windows costs)
4% - Emergency Fund
4% - Replacement Vehicle
4% - Gold and silver

P.S. Why is it that, of the set of Yahoo! Finance content providers, only Laura Rowley makes sense? I can't believe Messrs. Kiyosaki and Stein.