Many of us in the Money and Emotions thread said that having money helps us feel safe and secure.

What would it take for you to feel secure financially?

A certain amount in an emergency fund?
A certain amount of retirement savings?
A pension?
Anything else?

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Kathryn, this is an awesome run of threads you have started!

For me, I feel secure knowing we have money in the bank extra in an emergency fund, a plan for the future, implementation of the plan, and a backup plan should the unforeseen happen.

That is what works for us. So, I guess I need all of it.

I think I will feel financially secure when my credit card debt is gone. Once that is gone, I will take 1/2 of our current payment that we put on our credit card and put that on my student loan. For some reason my student loan is not an insecurity to me. Nothing like the credit card bill.
Our emergency fund is established as it should be, with more and we continue to fund that each week.
I'm just watching every penny we spend and looking at ways to stay on top of things for fear of the ongoing rising costs.

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You've had some great thought-provoking threads. Bravo!

For us, it is the whole pacakge: retirement, savings, emergency fund, etc. We started in our early 20s to fund our retirement and now that we are in our 30s we are on track to be able to achieve our goals. Having an emergency fund has made a big difference in our financial peace of mind too. Now if the washer/dryer/furnace breaks or something else happens we're covered. Plus, having savings to put towards the "extras" such as kids' education and other miscellaneous opportunities that arise. In FTJ I talk about dreams, and I like knowing that if some opportunity comes along where I could do something I've always wanted to do, I could afford it.

It has taken many years of living below our means to achieve this, but it's been well worth it. I can't imagine living any other way.

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For me security is more than money. It is a combination of hard assets, money and intangibles like marriage, support groups.

We actually sat down and made a list of what would make me feel secure about two years ago. One reason I was feeling insecure was because while we had accounts with balances, I saw economic indications that there was the possibility that our accounts would not hold their value in the long run. And something that I couldn't measure was the feeling that things like Katrina and war made me question whether stability could be counted on.

We ended up doing a number of things:
Paid off all debt and haven't taken on more
Put 6 months of living expenses into gold and silver(have made a killing on that one!)
Enhanced personal protection by buying guns and getting trained
Rebalanced remaining investments
Bought land (building this year)
Built up emergency supplies and food stockpile
Organized friends and family into a cohesive support group committed to each other

I may be uneasy about these times, but I sleep better and know that I have given it my best.

Cathleen

I would feel much more secure if we had all our credit card debt paid off. I am not worried about our retirement acct, we have been working on that for years. Also, knowing that we have very good life insurance really helps. Being as we are already mid 40's and have NEVER had any kind of savings (except retirement) I cannot even imagine haveing all that some people need to feel secure. It does not take much to make me feel secure

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~Happiness is a large family~

Does it ever end? If we pay off all of our debt and have XX.XX amount of dollars in the bank would I feel secure? Or would I need more? I don't know!