Before you trade, what money have you already set aside for bills and emergencies?

Before any trading capital comes into the picture, a lot of us find it helpful to ask whether the household side is covered first. Think about rent or mortgage, groceries, insurance, and a cushion for the surprises that always seem to arrive. Trading money is usually easiest to think about when it is money you could lose without it changing how you live. If a drawdown would mean skipping a bill or borrowing to cover rent, that is a useful signal to slow down and rethink the size of the account, whatever the strategy looks like on paper. I am curious how others draw that line in practice. What does your emergency fund look like, and how did you decide that it was in place before you started trading?