The Importance of an Emergency Fund

The other shoe will drop.  It’s not a matter of if, but when.  And when it happens, will you be prepared?

Two weeks ago I began the morning with my usual routine.  Grabbed some coffee, watch the news for the major happenings of the day, and then made my way to the computer for a little deal hunting/writing.

I set my steaming mug of coffee off to the side, gave the mouse a little bump to wake the sleeping computer, and waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.

All I got was the spinning wheel, telling me the computer was trying to do something – exactly what I wasn’t sure.

After what I felt was more than enough time, I gave up and hit the power button to reboot what I thought was just a “stuck” machine.

I leaned back, took a sip of my cup of Joe and waited some more.  the computer acted as though it was trying to do something, but then again, the startup process just didn’t see right.

The progress bar did its thing…until it didn’t.  Stuck at a certain point, the computer was frozen.

I continued for a few hours, repeatedly hitting the power button, holding certain patterns of keyboard keys various “help” articles directed poor souls in my situation to try, hoping for a positive result.  Nothing worked as I had hoped.

Finally, after trying everything my limited computer understanding felt comfortable attempting, I gave up and called for help.

My personal diagnosis – from reading a number of articles via my tablet – a dying, or dead, hard drive.

Which, unfortunately, was confirmed by the computer repair guys at my local tech fix-it shop.

About a week later, and over $300 lighter in the pocket, I got my machine back with a brand new hard drive humming away.  And I do mean humming…as I write this, the noticeably increased noise level makes me long for the pre-break down days.  But, I do have a working computer again, and on another positive note, the new hard drive is much faster than what I had become used to with the dying drive.

There are some things in life that if they break, or break down, we can do without.

And then there are things that we really can’t.

My computer fell into the latter category.

A car, furnace (in the dead of winter), refrigerator and cell phone, are just a few items that, for many, would fall into that can’t-do-without category, too.

And you never know when one of those things will finally decide it’s time to bow out.

Like my computer’s hard drive did to me.

And when that happens, it’s nice to have a nest egg, cushion, or, as the financial gurus like to call it, an emergency fund, from which to pull.

Yes, credit cards can serve that purpose, but the interest rates you’ll likely be paying on that unexpected “loan” make them a really unappealing option.

It’s much better to have a stash of cash to cover those out-of-the-blue emergencies.

You’ll hear many a financial professional push having 3-6 months of your monthly expenses in an emergency fund…some even go as far as saying a year.

That’s a bit much.  Especially when most family incomes don’t allow for a large amount of saving.

However, don’t use that excuse to forego saving altogether.  It’s vital to build some amount of savings for those dastardly expenses that will most assuredly hit when you least expect them.

Start with $100, and keep it out of easy reach.  Then slowly build to $500.  And if you’ve gone that far without having to tap it, go for $1,000.

A $1,000 – $2,000 emergency fund should be enough to cover those can’t-do-without expenses when they do arise.

And, once you’ve got your emergency fund set, you can build towards the larger oh-crap-life-just-happened fund to help when something really bad like a job loss or hurricane makes its really unwelcome appearance.

Having an amount of money from which you can pull when times get tough makes getting through whatever it may be just a little easier.

So if you haven’t yet started your fund, go grab some money now and put it away.  I guarantee you, the rainy day is coming, and it’s not going to tell you when it’ll arrive.

Just ask my now defunct hard drive.