We built and paid off our house before 40. We live in the sticks, and have a nice place on acreage. Live nowhere close to any major city, let alone a base. Income risk was real for us (it’d be tough to replace 25% of my income in our area doing a non-flying job). We prioritized paying off the house quickly to mitigate the threat of losing my high income job. We kept roughly 6 months emergency fund then. Now we are closer to 3 months (although we have quite a bit of cash set aside outside the emergency fund for a barn build and an “opportunity fund” in case adjoining acreage to our place becomes available).