Up Your Wealth Wednesday is a new personal finance series I am bringing over to Futures every Wednesday. I love writing about personal finance – about making money, saving money and everything in between. I hope you enjoy this series. The series was given its name by my fabulous partner in crime, Sarah.
Many personal finance blogs cover a variety of different topics but one that always crops up is the good old emergency fund – because frankly, you would be silly not to have one.
Yet here I am about to make an admission..my emergency fund has the grand total of nothing in it. You may be asking why, why, why when I’ve literally just said you would be silly not to have one – and yes…it is silly. However you can’t add to a fund when you don’t have the funds to add to it, right?
Why do you need an emergency fund?
An emergency fund is simply that – a fund for emergencies. Whilst we may not have one right now, we have had one in the past and that came in very helpful when our car didn’t pass the MOT and we needed to fork out hundreds of pounds for work. What would you do if you or your partner couldn’t work for a few months or if your car doesn’t pass its MOT and needs a lot of work – or even if one of your appliances such as your freezer breaks and spoils all your food? We all need that buffer and this is precisely why everyone should have one.
So what am I going to do about it?
Well, right now I am focusing heavily on removing debt from our lives. I’m taking on more work than ever before and have even applied for a couple of jobs outside the home to get it paid down a little faster. I also want to *try to* save a minimum of £50 a month into my emergency fund although I know this will be incredibly difficult. Perhaps I may take on an extra job each month where all the funds go straight into the emergency fund or perhaps I will completely blitz the house and sell anything I can that we no longer need – that will add up and I have written about the different ways of making extra income in recent weeks.
What are YOU going to do about it?
It shocked me recently to find out just how few of the people I knew had an emergency fund. Whilst I am not one to talk right now, I am determined to help people get emergency funds for themselves. Whether that is by motivating them to hustle a little harder or sending across work opportunities that are relevant to them, I want to help them help themselves – we all need that little buffer in our life, don’t we?
Do you have an emergency fund?
Your post has really inspired me to start my own emergency fund. Its so important! xxx
I have a seperate account where I save monthly for my car so I can pay off insurance/ mot and have a bit extra and I have savings for holidays and bills and things so there’s always available money when I need it. I’ve started getting in the habit of keeping money in my PPH account online and withdrawing when I need it so I don’t just spend it x
Yes I do kind of but I need to continue topping it up.
I’m trying really hard to boost my savings this year so I can go on a big holiday but still have some left over for security. I tend to earn in little bits and pieces rather than consistently so I need to be careful!
This is great advice. I definitely want to have funds set aside just in case.
I used to be really good at making sure I had an emergency fund. Since I no longer work I’m not so good with that but really need to encourage my partner.
I need to implement an emergency fund because I spend like its tap water but don’t earn enough to curb my habit lol!
Every time I try and start one, I have a financial emergency! One day….. Kaz x
My partner has a savings account for emergency use only. I don’t at the minute as can not afford to put money aside but I am working on it this year to be able to put money aside for emergency x
Great post Rebecca. I have an emergency fund which we had to break into this week. It’s not much but helps in tough weeks and I can only get it if i go to the bank which prevents us just using it whenever. It’s hard to save this at the same time when i’m trying to save for medical costs but when urgent/unexpected costs come, it is useful!
This is something I definitely need to have. It’s one of those things where I never get round to doing it!
Emergency fund is a great idea and we have always had one because you never know when the washing machine will break, or the car will breakdown or an unexpected bill just appears. If I take out of the fund I try and put it back in instalments. Decluttering and selling off unwanted stuff can fetch some much needed money.
I do have an emergency fund and I need to with 6 kids because you can always count on someone needing a new pair of shoes or some item I have a financing book and am very rigid with the incomings and outgoings
This keeps reminding me that I need to save but I keep finding cheap flights…