Comments on: Root canals and emergency funds

By: Creditcardfree

Creditcardfree — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:42:54 +0000

Yes, we have an EF. It has about $10K in it. I highly recommend one…we started with about $1K when we were first married. I believe the only way we have gotten ahead financially is due in part to an EF.

By: Sher

Sher — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:41:49 +0000

I have about $9,000 in an emergency fund (money market account). I also have a Freedom Account (see http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/freedom.html for the idea) that has about $3,000 in it, that I use to pay insurance, home escrow, unexpected car repairs and my son’s root canals. (He’s had 3 root canals over the past 2 years, to the tune of $700 each.) I have an automatic withdrawal of $100 a month, withdrawn from my regular checking and deposited to the money market account. And I have a payroll deduction of $90 each pay day deposited to my Freedom Account. PLUS, I add extra deposits like part of my income tax refund, etc. It’s taken a few years(!) to get to this point, but I feel more comfortable when the unexpected happens. And the unexpected does happen! My goal for the emergency account is $18,000 (6 months expenses–a past divorce changed the way I looked at my income) PLUS I want to pay cash for our next car. Long ways to go… You, however, get started…doing SOMETHING is way better than doing nothing at all… P.S. I enjoy your posts.

By: mi toshi

mi toshi — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:23:40 +0000

Emergency funds are easy to put off when money is tight. The money always seems to need to go somewhere else, but it really is worth getting one in place. Life is just a lot less stressful when you know you have that safety net.

Hope the root canal went well. I hate dentists…

By: Deb

Deb — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:01:27 +0000

We do have an emergency fund thanks to bonuses my husband aquired. I, myself, have not contributed to it, but am thankful it’s there. It’s hard to decide…ok, should I start throwing $ into an emergency fund or pay off debt? I say, pay off the credit cards and then start putting $ away….or maybe just a LITTLE bit now.

By: brian

brian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:11:38 +0000

My emergency fund goal is ten thousand which should cover about four months of bills. I currently have less because I jumped at the opportunity to open an IRA and buy cheap stocks when the market started falling.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:56:20 +0000

I had a meeting once with Thrivent Lutheran Brotherhood, and it was suggested that we sit down and figure out all our expenses for 3 months and that would be the total amount of our emergency fund. This does make sense to me, if you break a bone or go on maternity leave you are looking at 6 weeks before you would be able to work. And that is only if there are no complications.

I did not enroll in the Thrivent program, I thought that I could easily save this money myself and not have to pay any fees to them. At this time, I don’t have any money put away in terms of an emergency fund. I do have money that we stuck into CD’s for our kids that we could take if we absolutely needed to.