Banking & savings
Liquidity
How quickly you can turn an asset into cash without losing value.
Liquidity is how fast and easily you can access your money. Cash and savings accounts are highly liquid.
Property, locked FDs, and PPF are illiquid: getting money out is slow or penalised.
You want enough liquid money for emergencies, but not so much that it all sits idle earning nothing.
For example
A liquid fund can be redeemed in a day, while selling property to raise the same cash could take months.