Do any of you have this problem, too? Save up....then, BAM!

[Jenniflower]

My husband and I have been married for two years and have been trying to build an emergency fund. Well, every time we get about $1500 - $2000 saved up, WHAM!!! An emergency is upon is! - car repair, unexpected travel, dental bills, you know the story...

Our goal is to have $10,000 or more laid aside for emergencies, but life doesn't seem to want us to save that much! Maybe it's something to do with Murphy's Law.

Thankfully, since we have managed to save up some money, we haven't had to go into debt for our emergencies. So it's not too bad, but I just wish that the emergencies could wait until we had enough money saved up!!!

Do you guys have this problem, too?? Are we in the same boat??
I'd love to hear from those who have saved up their emergency fund, also, so I know that it's still within reach for us, too!!
Thanks for listening!

[Broken Arrow]

Oh, most definitely yes. But aren't you glad that you have money saved up so that when these emergency occurred, you were covered? It's certainly much better than getting caught without having anything saved up.

[scfr]

It takes time. Keep working at it. As you said yourself, the important thing is that when the emergencies cropped up, you had the cash to pay for them rather than going in to debt ... That's exactly what an emergency fund is for! If you can squeeze anything out of your budget, you may think about upping your EF contributions.

When my DH and I got married, we had a teensy tiny EF (maybe we should have called it a "minor setbacks fund" since we probably wouldn't have been able to handle a truly major emergency), but 14+ years later we now feel prepared to handle just about anything life throws at us.

You can do it to!

[Coleroo]

DEFINATELY.

my family is cursed by murphy's law. I've always wondered if we were the only ones!

[humandraydel]

Well, it hasn't happened to me yet but lately I've been having this feeling of impending doom!

It's funny...when you have NO money you don't really think about all the bad things that can happen. When you finally have some money you worry you'll lose it! I guess eventually you'll have enough money that you don't have to worry about losing some of it....

[Ima saver]

It took me a long time but I did do it. Since I have joined this forum, I found saving much easier because of the $20 challenge. I try to find some way to save something every day to add to my challenge money and it really adds up. I put away a dollar every day I walk a mile, the braves win, the stock market goes up, I take 20 flights of stairs, or a day when I use no gas. Those dollars really add up.
I save all my change too. Once a month, I put this money into my money market account to earn interest.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

aren't you glad that you have money saved up so that when these emergency occurred, you were covered?

Exactly what I was going to say. Don't be upset that you had to spend your EF. Be thankful that you had an EF to spend.

[Aleta]

It is always like this in the beginning. Before, when an event happened you probably put it on the credit card and now you have the cash - less interest paid for it. Eventually, you can have different categories to allocate money to the categories you mentioned such as travel or vacation, medical, car maintenance, house maintenance, etc. You can fund these monthly and it won't become part of your savings but an expense allocation item. The savings will come, slowly but surely. You just have to be patient. We've all been there.

[boefixepa]

Yes, it happens....grrr...just keep chugging and plugging...you'll get there....remember it is the turtle that wins, not the hare.

[Ima saver]

Aleta is right, we have all been there. You just need to find new ways to save!

[Scanner]

Yes, I think everybody suffers from this - it's called "life."

I guess the problem with this can be if this $1500-2000 was going to go towards investments/the future.

If you find yourself here, I think having your investment money automatically withdrawn to forget about it is the best.

That was my family's biggest problem during our early 30's.

When I was 28 to 31, I had my investments automatically withdrawn - from age 31 to 38, we would sort of send some money in when the emergency fund wasn't touched. I guess as our family grew, it just seemed like we were squeezed more. Some years, we sent nothing or just $1000.

Luckily, I started relatively early on investing and got some compounding on my side but now, I am back to setting up automatic withdrawals.

Life is weird and "as together" we all can sound sometimes, I think we all end up with ironic results. For instance, as risky as I am, I have somehow ended up with the majority of my net worth in my house at this time in my life, for better, for worse.

I always say I don't know how I ended up here but there are far worse places to be in.

I'm glad you've been able to cover the emergencies.

[lgslgs]

Yep, that's why we set up our annual budget to include $1800 per year for car repair, $700 for health care, $1000 for veterinary care, and $1200 for home repair.

We expect "unexpected" expenses as a normal part of life. The only surprise is exactly what form it will take. Last week it was unexpected vet costs when a goat broke his leg.

It's a relief to be able to take these things in stride because the money has already been set aside for it. At the end of the year we almost always see that we're significantly under budget in a category or two and we've always had some of the $4700 left over. It feels better to me to think about this stuff as planned expenses that we sometimes luck out and avoid, than to think of them as out of the blue hits to an emergency fund. It doesn't change the bank account any to think of it one way or the other, but it sure changes my ability to accept surprises and take them in stride.

Lynda

BTW - we also keep a large chunk of change set aside and earmarked for "once in a lifetime" type major medical costs, but that's separate from our annual budget.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by lgslgs

Yep, that's why we set up our annual budget to include $1800 per year for car repair, $700 for health care, $1000 for veterinary care, and $1200 for home repair.

Great point. So many times, the expense that throws someone's finances out of order gets called "unexpected" when it really shouldn't have been unexpected at all. I expect to spend up to a couple thousand each year on car maintenance. Experts say you should allot up to 2-4% of your homes value for maintenance and repairs each year. You should know what your annual maximum out of pocket expenses can be on your health insurance and be prepared to spend that amount. If you have pets, set money aside for vet bills. None of these things are unpredicatable. The specifics may not be known. I didn't know my car's starter would die last week. But I knew my car would cost me money this year, as it does every year.

[Aleta]

There is no set of blue prints for any one person, that's why we say that you have to constantly tweak your spending plan. The expenses of everyone here are different. I had to smile when I read about the goat because most of us don't have a goat, but maybe we have another type of exotic animal.

Mainly, you have to set priorities which are your gross, minus your taxes, and other deductibles (from paycheck), savings, must-haves, and wants. But again, you need to allocate money for expenses that will become due sooner or later. If not, you will be right back on the credit card route again. It's like after paying your car off, you need to start a replacement fund because eventually, you'll be buying another car.

[Saving in So Cal]

This happened a lot to me during my debt elimination phase when I had very little elbow room in my budget. It definitely takes time, planning, and consistency to make headway. Now I am at the stage where I have a decent emergency fund, but it just about kills me to touch it -- even in a bona fide emergency.

[Exile]

Jenniflower, is there any one emergency that keeps recurring? If there's a variety, dig into your records, list these past events, and maybe you'll find a link or at least a common source behind them.

[Jenniflower]

Thank you everyone for your comments!
I really appreciated every one of them. I AM very glad that we DID have enough to cover the expense and now are starting our emergency fund back up again - as soon as we get our paychecks!
Thanks again!
Jennifer