Let’s talk emergency funds! All the stats tell us less than half of Americans have three months’ worth of expenses in the bank. Other statistics tell us over 50% of people could NOT come up with $1000 if they needed to!
The experts tell us we must have three-six months’ worth of expenses in the bank for emergencies, like losing a job. Let’s say you spend $3000 a month on average for expenses. Expenses are the essentials, like rent or mortgage, insurance, electric bill, groceries… You get it. Not the extras like takeout food, going to the movies…new shoes. 😊 For this example, we are using $3000 per month as your “essential” total, therefore you should have $9000 in a savings account. Yikes! That’s a lot of money!! I know I get it… But you must start with something… Maybe the first goal is half of that and as you build momentum it will get easier… It may take several months to get there, maybe a full year+… but we need to have a starting point… This is a SAVINGS account, NOT a retirement account. So, NO IRAs. Or ROTH IRA’s, 401K’s… a savings account that you can access immediately!
This looks like a HUGE undertaking… I get it… We are NOT lazy; we work hard for our money! BUT are we paying attention to our money??? What if we start to drill down and pay attention a little bit more.
Have you ever actually gone through your bank statements? With online access to most of our accounts you can really drill down and see what you’re paying for. Doing this for two or three months in a row and you start to see some things that pop up that maybe your saying “I didn’t know I was paying for that!”
Maybe it’s just $20.00 here, then $30.00 there… Or even $8.00 there… and before you know it you can probably pull together $100 maybe even $200 a month of expenses; you really do not need or WANT!
Let’s start there… And if you can’t get yourself to do this simple task, it might be worth looking into apps like Rocket Money or Truebill. Both apps help track your spending and can cancel subscriptions for you. Rocket Money also allows you to “automate” some savings as well. Both apps for the basic plans start at $3.00 per, but if it saves you $50+ a month and gives you a clear idea of where you are spending your money… Might be worth looking into! 😊 There are several apps out there so do some homework and put together the best plan for you! The goal is to DO SOMETHING… Once you start and get a handle on your HABITS… You can start to work on NEW Habits… That’s what all this money stuff really comes down to OUR HABITS… The goal here… FREE up some money, move it into your savings account AUTOMATICLY… and you will find a few months down the road you have money in the bank for those two new tires and you do not need to stress! 😊Good Luck! You got this!!!
two chicks talking money. 