Being able to cover emergency expenses from ongoing income is certainly a great target. What it requires is very simple, though not so easy. Increase your savings (or better yet, investing) rate. If you set aside 20% of your monthly income (say that's $1000 a month invested), then when you have a $1000 emergency expense, you can cover it from your regular investment set-aside. Of course, the problem with that is that if your emergency is that you were laid off, you need actual money that was set aside before. That's where having an emergency fund, or at least a sizable portfolio, comes in.