How important is it to have emergency savings to you?

What would you go without to have the peace of mind that "having something for a rainy day" brings?

We consider it a given and would sacrifice quite a bit to maintain our savings if necessary. In 2006 we had unexpected, large, expenses every few weeks. If I went into detail, you probably wouldn't believe me. It got to the point where if a few days had passed uneventfully then we started looking around...shifty eyed...wondering what was going to go wrong next. Then to top it all off, on December 23rd, the powers that be decided to give us one more surprise to send the year off with a bang...my engine blew in my Explorer!

Thank God, we were able to absorb every dime into our monthly income or savings. If we hadn't have had it, they would have been the kind of expenses that would cause extreme financial stress and worry as well as put us into serious debt.

It's definitely worth it for us to sacrifice a little here and there to have that peace of mind and not have to worry what will happen if something goes wrong.

Extremely important! It has gotten to the point where I'm very loathe to dip into the emergency reserves. Little alarms go off in my head when we have to use our savings for anything.

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Our savings are all earmarked. I do have some "end of life as we know it" assets. I have some retirement stuff. I have some medical unknowns funds. I have some next vehicle money, current vehicle maintenance, xmas, on and on and on. It gives me great peace of mind and I don't go without to have it. I prioritize and those things get priority. True, I don't have new clothes, or maybe other things, but it is because it isn't as important to me. When a paycheck comes in, I automatically set aside, 4 dollars here and 2 dollars there and 10 dollars whereever. I know what I will need when the insurance or taxes are due. The cash is there when the bill comes in. If it was difficult or painful to do, then I know that I am stretching too much in my lifestyle. Scale back, don't be tempted by new cars or steak from the store.

Cathleen

I would love to have an emergency fund but there just isn't any extra money to go around right now. Hopefully soon !

I also think its very important, but I do not call it an "emergency fund", I call it a "cushion". The reason for this is, I read that if you call it an "emergency fund", you'll always find yourself in the midst of an emergency, and thus you'll always find yourself spending this money. Things did begin to change for me once I started referring to it as our "cushion".

I fund my cushion by saving our change (this amounts to about $500 a year), adding small refunds to it, through dh's medical reimbursement fund at work, and by stockpiling food, toiletries and wood for the fireplace. We also save for retirement and build the equity in our home.

Ideally (and we are getting close to), six months in our money market of funds to pay ALL expenses if BOTH OF US suddenly weren't drawing our pay. That includes house payment too. I think that is the ultimate peace of mind.

House payment will likely be be paid off in a couple of years or so.

Once that is accomplished, I intend to finish paying off my daughter's Scion and purchase myself a new truck with around $7,000 or so down.

I'm older than a lot of you girls though (41).

Yes I think it is important. Things do come up.
2006 was bad for us
Jan - Totaled car
Feb - Bought new
March - did taxes and learned we made just enough to bump us into a higher tax bracket and that we owed the IRS $2000
April - Brought home our Baby Girl
May - New insulation that we order in December finally arrives ($1000)
On top of all that I decided not to go back to work.

Sometimes when it rains it pours, I wish we would have saved more in the past.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

This has been that year for us! You name it, it happened -- maybe I shouldn't tempt fate here! But a lot happened and our savings has dipped and we've used our credit cards. That said my car has died again and I've removed most of it's insurance off and it is taking a 30 day breather, requirement of our insurance when you put it on hold! I'm not paying to have it fixed, I'm tired of dumping money in this thing. This leaves me without a car and only with my husband's car - which isn't much. Anyway, I'm without a car, which isn't as bad as it seems and we're taking our time to figure out the right thing to do with that car.

I guess it is not that important to me. It would be nice, but I am 43 and have yet to manage to have an emergency fund. So far we have managed somehow to muddle through. If I can ever find a decent full time job, I will be putting the earnings from my pt job into savings. But who knows when that will happen. Until then we will continue to get by like we always have.

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I wonder if it has to do with the type of personality a person has?

Are you a worrier by nature? Do you generally stress over the unknown and "what ifs"?

My DH is a worry wart and I am pretty sure he would be on his way to a breakdown if we didn't have something to fall back on. I just don't think he has it in him to "manage" if something happens. He never had to do it as a child and I don't think he knows how...It's not that he wouldn't try, but he would worry himself to death the whole time.

I deal well with the unexpected but, honestly, my husband's stress would drive me crazy so I would do almost anything to maintain the peace of mind that having these funds means to him.