I know I know, the emergency fund isnt meant to be optimized, its insurance not an investment, Ive read the wiki and all the threads. I get it intellectually. But theres something that still bugs me about having 6 months expenses sitting in a HYSA at 4% while inflation runs at 3-4% meaning im basically treading water or slightly losing ground for being financially responsible.
The standard advice is to just accept it and let your invested portfolio do the heavy lifting which makes sense. But I keep seeing people mention alternatives like treasury bills, I-bonds for the non-liquid portion, or even some people doing stablecoin yields for a small percentage. Not saying any of these are right, just wondering how strict people here actually are about the "cash only, dont optimize" approach.
Is everyone truly just parking it in HYSA and not thinking about it, or do some of you split it up and try to at least keep pace with inflation on part of it? Genuinely curious where this community lands because the "just accept the drag" answer feels unsatisfying even if its probably correct.