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Crisis Fund
What would it be like to have a pot of money available when you
have an unexpected expense? I used to think that unexpected
expenses was something that happened very rarely. But it seems
like these days I have as many unexpected expenses as I do
regular bills. One of the vehicles is always needing tires or
repairs, the washing machine needs replaced or buying a new
water heater (like I did just last week). That is where the
Crisis Fund comes in.
If you have a budget in place, most of your regular paycheck is
already allocated for something. Ideally about 10% should be put
aside for savings. It would be a good idea to use about half of
your savings for long term savings and half for your crisis
fund. Your long term savings would be used for large purchases
like a home or money for college for the kids while a crisis
fund would be used smaller purchases.
Your long term savings can be invested in many ways to yield the
best interest rate you can find since the money is intended to
be tied up for years. Your crisis fund needs to be in a savings
account or a checking account that earns interest to make the
money available on short notice.
You may even want to use your crisis fund for bills or
expenses
that you know will be due in the future. A few examples of this
could be school clothes for the kids, insurance payments that
are due every three, six or twelve months or even a balloon
payment on your mortgage.
One of the major reasons to have a crisis fund is to prevent the
use of credit cards. All of the purchases you would make with a
credit card could be made out of your crisis fund. With the
average credit card interest being 18% or more, just having the
cash available could save you hundreds of dollars a year.
If you don't think you have money for a savings of any kind you
might want to think about ways of cutting back on something else
to creat a crisis fund. If money is extremely tight, you will
probably have to put off starting a long term savings.
Even putting $5 or $10 a payday away will help when you need it.
About the Author
Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy
Way http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor
of The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher
web site http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of
experience counseling individuals and families concerning their
personal finances.
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