The worst e-fund disaster of my life was the nightmarish day when I finally walked out on my ex after a year of emotional and verbal abuse related to her affair, even though I still wanted to save the marriage. My ex proceeded to do everything she could to destroy my legal right to parent my daughter.

This is not the kind of thing any e-fund is designed to handle. The legal costs, to date, are in excess of $75,000. That doesn't include the financial settlement, which required me to hand over a six-figure sum of money to my ex.

Essentially all of the debt I have, except my mortgage, arises from that single event.

I'm not suggesting that an e-fund should be expected to handle something like this. But... it should handle the retainer you pay the day after something like this happens. And you should know what you're going to do if something like this does happen.