Perhaps they were trying to tell you that, in addition to a certain amount of reserves that should be estimated for emergencies, you should have your capital fund. The cash reserve should be layered in the form of CDs and T-bonds maturing in such a way that you will have enough funds to take care of the emergencies, plus your money to take care of your long-term plan. Similarly, you will not plan all the major capital expenditures to be taken care every 5- or 10-years, i.e., your boiler replacement, your roof replacement, your underground tank, window replacements, etc. These will be staggered and probably, you may have a capital work every year and your investments should be in line with your plan in order to have cash on hand to pay for these.

So, in builidng reserves you should not only take care of the long-term capital plan, but emergencies by doing an add on to the amount that you need to build.

Finally, all reserves are equal. You will use the money from whatever maturing account you have in order to retire your debt whether it is an emergency or a planned capital improvement. The point is always make a contingency fund for emergencies which should be in accordance with the size of your building and the general coniditons of your facilities and equipment.

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