6 month emergency fund

[champak97]

I always  try to save my FC money for emergencies.

[PGS28]

I know what you mean; last year my phone, washer, and transmission went out (in that order) and this year I had to get my truck joints replaced then my dryer and dvd player went out.

I started in the beginning of the year but one thing after another always happened as well.  I tried to forget i would have this emergency fund but didnt work.  I have started up again and actually pretend as if it doesnt exist!

[meg0694]

I don't but always say I'm going to.  I'm like you, there is always an emergency.  lol

[kapeh12]

I'm in the process of building mine up.  I used to have one, but I bought a house a few years ago and it became my down payment (investment).  Most of the immediate house maintenance has been done, so now I've been concentrating on getting that emergency fund stocked up again.

[ancmetro]

      I wish I had it! I have only enough to live for the next sixty days.

[demaina]

I don't have it, but I do save everything I can.  I started saving when I was little and had close to $3000 when I asked my mom if I could open a bank account.  Once I get a job, I will start working on something like that but for right now, I'm saving as much as possibly but doing what I need to to get that job.

What I keep telling my friend is to put SOMETHING aside.  If you put all the change you get back throughout the day in a jar and that's your savings, then it's better than nothing.  My friend said she has like $100 after all her bills to get food and other things she needs.  I suggest she take $1-5 out at the least and put it aside so her savings start to accumulate.  If you do something, not matter how small it seems, it will add up over time.  And, you can always do things like if you get a bonus one month, put $20 in your savings instead of just the $5 so it sorta scales with your earnings.

You can also do something like a "want" pile and a "emergencies" pile, so for every $5 (or whatever number you set) you put in your emergencies pile, you get to put $1 in your want pile so that as you work towards getting something your really want, you build up an emergencies pile as well.  Plus, then you'll have one pile to go to first before breaking into your emergencies pile.

[kimberlymgiles]

Great idea, but it is so hard for me to save money.

[lray3152]

I have enough to cover at least 6 months of expenses, if not more.  Owning a house, always throws a curveball ; )

[Sweetpea1228]

Its always good to put back funds. It seems hard at first, but once you get started it becomes a habit.

[plennis]

We used to have a year saved up... but then when the economy tanked and we both lost our jobs at the same time, I guess you could call that an emergency!

I was grateful that we had it, but I miss having that security and cushion.

 Same thing happened here, only my husband was injured in a work accident and is now on permanent disability.  We both are working several part time jobs and are always on the look out for anything else we can find.  I think of our home as our retirement since the company we both had worked at for 25 years went bankrupt, taking our almost $700,000.00 retirement funds with it.  They tell us we may still get about $7,000.00, but who knows by the time it is all done.  I was very lucky to be able to save our home through refinancing, by the skin on my teeth(HA HA HA).  SO NEEDLESS  to say, every penny I get my hands on goes to bills.  Before everything had happened we had been on a binge trying to pay everything off, so we are a lot luckier than a lot of people.                        

[tammypete]

We did have that emergency fund until we were hit with the furloughs this summer and then the government shutdown that occurred this month!!!!!!!!!!!  Hits hard when there is nothing to fall back on!!!!!!

[tuyetmai]

I do it some time too.  But the thing is that there are a lot of thing going on in life that you really need to spend it.

[bigfoot951]

In my current living situation I do have a 6 month emergency fund, but that is not my goal.  My goal is to have a 12 month emergency fund in a more expensive living situation than I am now.

[PGS28]

Congratulations!! I'm in the process of saving to buy my home now.

I'm in the process of building mine up.  I used to have one, but I bought a house a few years ago and it became my down payment (investment).  Most of the immediate house maintenance has been done, so now I've been concentrating on getting that emergency fund stocked up again.

[PGS28]

I like your post! Very valuable info.

I don't have it, but I do save everything I can.  I started saving when I was little and had close to $3000 when I asked my mom if I could open a bank account.  Once I get a job, I will start working on something like that but for right now, I'm saving as much as possibly but doing what I need to to get that job.

What I keep telling my friend is to put SOMETHING aside.  If you put all the change you get back throughout the day in a jar and that's your savings, then it's better than nothing.  My friend said she has like $100 after all her bills to get food and other things she needs.  I suggest she take $1-5 out at the least and put it aside so her savings start to accumulate.  If you do something, not matter how small it seems, it will add up over time.  And, you can always do things like if you get a bonus one month, put $20 in your savings instead of just the $5 so it sorta scales with your earnings.

You can also do something like a "want" pile and a "emergencies" pile, so for every $5 (or whatever number you set) you put in your emergencies pile, you get to put $1 in your want pile so that as you work towards getting something your really want, you build up an emergencies pile as well.  Plus, then you'll have one pile to go to first before breaking into your emergencies pile.