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If you measure backup funds by expenses instead of income, it really changes the calculation. Three months of expenses is already tough for most people, and the extra three months is more like a safety net for those with unpredictable situations.
The tricky part is when someone is just starting out. In the first stage, you are trying to stack Bitcoin and build that cushion at the same time. That is when most people slip, because one unexpected bill wipes out their savings and forces them to sell sats. Even a small buffer before going heavy into accumulation helps avoid that problem.
Sure there are going to be folks who have more experience and some who have less experience in managing their finances, yet I like to consider that many normal people get into a habit of keeping a little bit of a cash cushion so that they are not putting themselves into situations of completely running out of cash, since it is quite stressful to run out of money.. and so it seems likely that many normies are already in some kind of a habit to keep somewhere between 2 to 6 weeks of their expenses in cash, and sure some normies are more prepared with larger quantities of funds and some are less prepared and maybe just keeping $100 or so in the cookie jar, and not everyone falls within a range of keeping at least a 2 week cash cushion.
Most people are also not used to investing, so if they get into bitcoin they have to learn how to invest (to the extent that they had not already known about investing), but they also have to learn that since bitcoin is so volatile and also upwardly inclined in the longer term, therefore, it is not good to just tap into the bitcoin investment once it is in place, even if the bitcoin investment might be in profits, and so therefore the back up funds, such as emergency funds and reserve funds become more and more important to keep a gap between the person's ongoing income and cashflow situation as compared with their investment into bitcoin that they may well have had decided that they would be holding 4-10 years or longer or for the remainder of their life.. ..
Bitcoin is likely a life time investment so if we build it up early then we may well just constantly be keeping our value in bitcoin and learning how to manage it.
I agree with your suggestion that there likely is going to be quite a bit of variation in regards to how much back up funds guys are keeping, and that their own financial and psychological circumstances will most likely affect how much they keep, how they are going to keep it and the extent to which they need to make sure that they are not putting themselves in stressful situations and/or that they are perhaps trying to figure out ways to prioritize the protection of their BTC stash.... so with greater and greater practice they will likely get better at it, especially if they are trying to learn from their experiences.
What you pointed out about most people already having a small cushion, even if it’s just a couple of weeks of expenses or some cash in a jar, really makes a lot of sense. That habit might not look like much, but it’s the starting point that can grow into something more stable once they begin to see the need to separate daily survival money from long term investments like Bitcoin. The challenge for most newcomers is often that they usually underestimate how quickly those little gaps between income and expenses can decide whether they hold or are forced to sell.
And I also agree that learning to treat Bitcoin as a lifetime position changes how backup funds are viewed. Once you frame Bitcoin as something to hold 4 to 10 years or longer, every bit of cash buffer feels like insurance against touching your stash too early. The process won’t be perfect from the beginning, but over time people refine how much they keep, where they keep it, and how they balance peace of mind with steady accumulation. That balance is what helps someone avoid stress while still building a position they can carry for decades.
Looking at savings rates shows how big the gap can be.
Many normal people have forgotten how to save (and/or so they never learned it) in modern times. When the money is debasing so bad and they are not able to earn interest on their deposit in banks, then they don't want to save and they have not learned how to save, even though intuitively people still know that if something (like a currency or something that is spendable) is more valuable or less valuable then they would spend the less valuable thing first and hold onto the more valuable item. Many folks are still just learning that bitcoin is the most valuable of currencies and/or assets, so there is a need to spend fiat and even other assets before spending bitcoin, and part of the reason for us to build and maintain a cash cushion is so that we won't have to spend bitcoin merely based on some short term situation in which the income might be low and the expenses high (or expenses exceed income).
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The real shift comes when people see that fiat savings are constantly eroded, which discourages the habit altogether, while Bitcoin flips the incentive because what you set aside today can hold or even grow in value. That is why a cash cushion matters so much in the early stages, since it shields the Bitcoin position from short term shocks. Once someone avoids being forced to sell sats during an unexpected expense, saving stops feeling like punishment and starts becoming a system that protects and grows long term value.