Of course, any guy (or gal) is going to need to measure up his/her various resources that are available for when shit hits the fan (or may hit the fan), and yeah, NOT being overinvested many times (maybe most) will mean that emergency funds are not dipped into because they are redundant... they have levels of duplication that might show that circumstances are worse and worse the more emergency funds that are dipped into, and who the fuck wants to be going through his garage trying to figure out what to sell in order to be able to NOT have to sell the nice wheels that are not owned outright.  Honey, maybe we should downsize a bit or take in a lodger?  Fuck downsizing, if the motive is because you have failed to adequately prepare for your situation.  

I am not against taking in a lodger, but sometimes the motive is out of desperation rather than having enough actual space for a lodger who ends up sharing the kitchen, and also building or living in a situation in which you purposefully have a lodger and space available is different from having to force to put a lodger into an already cramped two bedroom apartment or some other less spacious situation that is not of your own choosing... sure some people can rationalize that they like having couch surfers, but that seems like something that would be more of your youth rather than when you get older, or doing it out of desperation, like I mentioned.