If you own an apartment that you rent, you should definitely have a sufficient emergency fund, because if you qre unlucjy you might not be able to rent out your apartment for a long time. Or even worse “Mietnomaden” that destroy your property and you can’t get them out of there as protection of renters is absurdly high in Switzerland.
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In that scenario you pray the idiot who hit you is rich and get them to FIRE you 
Then you sing “come on baby light my FIRE” all the way to the bank.
Are a lombard loan or credit card limit part of an emergency fund?
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They can be part of an emergency plan and should work most of the time. The times they may not have chances to be correlated with times of financial hardship for us, though (stocks down heavily cutting through lombard loans availability or creditors tightening the ship and lowering our credit limit on credit cards).
I rely on a lombard loan but it is not for everyone
Personally I have good insurance against incapacity to work from my employer and unemployment insurance and I would consider keeping 12 months expenses in cash as too expensive. Over 10 years I most likely “lose” 1 years’ expenses in opportunity cost (7% p.a. doubles in 10 years) and over a 40 year working life the bill is 13 years’ living expenses
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I recently had a large unexpected expense. The tax office decided to send me the bill for the difference between tax at source and their calculation for tax owed for two years at once (2021 and 2022). I’m a frontalier so don’t do individual tax returns any more.
Back when we did tax returns I used to be quite diligent about putting plenty of money aside for taxes based on previous years’ bills. However, when we became frontaliers with very simple tax affairs and very limited possibilities for deductions I assumed that the tax at source would be a good match for tax owed. I also assumed that the bills would be sent out annually.
Turns out both of these assumptions were wrong. I received two bills at the same time for both the years. This translates two approximately the total income for one month. Luckily I had enough in the emergency fund to cover it. To me it’s a reminder not to go to a zero emergency fund.
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Two tax bills amounting only to one month income?? Lucky you, for me that would be at least 3 months income.
I still have an emergency fund of zero, as I’m able to cover large unexpected expenses with a margin loan. I agree it’s not for everyone, but for me personally I prefer to let my money work and as I’m able to quickly pay back the margin loans the costs for this method are low for me.
No, it’s in addition to what was already withheld at source.
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