Funding my rainy day fund

For the past few months my rainy day fund has been sufficient to cover only a little over three months of my living expenses. I recently had a modest windfall of money and now I am up to seven and a half months of expenses reserve. That is now more than enough to cover the minimal requirement of six months expenses, but is still well short of a full twelve months of expenses.

It may take me another year or two to get up to a full twleve months of expenses reserve. Part of the problem is an ongoing tension between my desire to accumulate this cash reserve and my intense desire to accelerate the paydown of my back taxes to the IRS. I am balancing the two, but the tension remains.

-- Jack Krupansky