Mike asks, how much is enough?
Well, it depends who you ask. Everyone says 3-6 months of savings. But if you don’t have enough money to get buy, try to sock away at least $1000.00.
For me, I set a target goal of $4000.00. That’s the original Save-O-Meter balance. I hover at that amount, allowing for small dips if there’s ever a short fall. Lately, it doesn’t go below $3500.00. I should stop raiding it at all and open an entirely separate generic savings account.
Next year, I want my Save-O-Meter balance to be $6000.00, just a 2K increase. I could put that in at the beginning of the year. I could slowly build up to it, etc. It’s a question of what to do with my bonus when it arrives next spring. (Walks like a ducks, smells like a duck, quacks, etc. So they say…) I have already committed to assisting my parents with some repairs to their home. Without divulging their business, my mother implied a cash flow problem and I’m tired of sleeping in a drafty bedroom when I visit. I think their energy efficiency will improve with a complete replacement since they’ve been in that house for 25+ years. I see it as a small payback for everything else my parents have done for me. After the windows, we tackle the roof. The basement’s been done, and the kitchen floor can wait.
But I digress.
Per the online financial calculators you can find online, if I wanted to save 3 months worth of emergency expenses, I’d better save about $8500.00. 6 months? Closer to $14,000.00. Ideally? I would save $12K in CD’s, laddered in $1000.00 1-year term CD’s. I’d always have one expiring in the next month so I could withdraw it without penalty. Generally speaking, a credit card can tide you over on most emergencies and when that bill comes due, the withdrawn cash can pay the bill down/off. For some reason, I think if I can have one that’s $10K, I could sleep at night.
I think all that matters is the ability to sleep at night and what kind of emergency you think you’re going to face. I am ok with only have 3 months worth of expenses because I don’t think I’m going to get laid off in the next 2 years. I also know that if I quit, I can find work. I’m not too proud to waitress again. Work is work. It generates money and that’s all the same stuff to the banks and creditors.
Search pfblogs.org for emergency fund. You’ll find lots of input there from PFbloggers in all walks of life and different stages of life. What constitutes an emergency at 25 is way different than at 55, and those emergencies are priced accordingly.
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For me, $1000 is plenty–mostly because I’m young, healthy, and single, but also because if I had an absolute financial debacle, my parents would step in. But really, the only thing I can think of that would qualify as that kind of catastrophe is being fired. That’s not likely, but even if it happened, I can’t imagine that it would take me more than a month to find work–any kind of work (like you said: I’m not too proud to waitress). For me, right now, I’m not too scared to live without an emergency fund. I have a $1,000 CD I could cash out in a pinch, and that’s good enough for me.
You can easily adjust and budget well because you know how to save money. I know it is hard to gain money. So why don’t just spend it wisely? More and more people are facing unemployment and finding it extremely difficult to maintain the smallest financial flow. So I went in search of some good news. Turns out, recession is actually good for some industries. Discount, retail and fast food stores, in particular, have increased profits amid the recession.