[ren]

I'm with Aleta -- there was a significant psychological element to having an EF when I was digging myself out of the hole (credit cards and car loan). Sure, I could have paid off the debt sooner if I hadn't had $1000 in the bank -- yes, I know that was an itty bitty baby EF, shush, it was a big EF for someone making what I made at the time.

There were two times when I ran into the need for more than I made in a given month while I was paying everything off; the first time (medical -- uninsured pneumonia) went on a credit card, the second (car -- replaced bald tires) came out of the EF I'd scrounged up since the first time. The second time was much easier on me, as I didn't have that helpless/hopeless feeling that I was still just digging myself in deeper and would never escape. Part of that may have been that I wasn't miserably sick and still working, part of it may have been the fact that balances were much lower the second time, but mostly it was nice not to see the last couple months of payments wiped out when the car needed new tires. I felt more in control of the situation, which actually led me to be even more disciplined about paying everything off, esp. once I moved to CA and got a better paying job and could do a lot more damage to the balances every month.