Just think about it for a minute. Consider 32-year-old with a PhD that has $100,000 in undergraduate loans that he/she has been deferring for 10 years. They probably made $18k a year as a grad student teaching assistant so had no capacity to save money during school. Now they’ve been on the job with the federal government for two years, bought a $300K house and has a mortgage to pay on a monthly basis. Has a spouse and young kids, needs to buy groceries, maybe they have a car payment too. Take home pay is about $4000 a month usually. On top of all that they set up 529s for the kids, and have an auto contribution to retirement each month because they are responsible and thinking about the future. Who really has a lot of money to set aside for cash saving with all those regular monthly expenses? Plus it’s right after Christmas when every probably over spent because it Jesus’ birthday. It’s not about being an egg head book smart guy with no common sense, it’s about a sudden, unexpected massive change in your income when the bills keep coming. (Btw, this is a hypothetical loosely based on real life, it is not necessarily my friend’s situation, I don’t know him that well).