battling emergencies when trying to pay off debt

[wincrasher]

You have to reduce chaos in your life to achieve financial stability. It's very difficult to describe how to do this.

Part of it comes from reducing your risks. Spending money periodically to have the car checked out - preventative maintenance, watching your gas mileage, listening for "sounds" that are unusual. Not blowing your EF or going in debt to keep a pet alive. Pets don't care if they live or die - humans do.

Some people just claim that they have bad luck. I don't buy that at all. Choices we make today have long, long chains of consequences. You have to remain calm and centered and think about what you are doing before you do it.

[creditcardfree]

Some people just claim that they have bad luck. I don't buy that at all. Choices we make today have long, long chains of consequences. You have to remain calm and centered and think about what you are doing before you do it.

I tend to agree. It is a good idea to try to take the emotion out of decisions that lead to dipping into an emergency fund. Although, I rely on fear to keep me out of mine!!

My friend has operated with out an emergency fund her entire adult life. They took out large student loans to cover tuition and living expenses for her husband. All emergencies have resulted in debt. The debt has had to move to home equity loans, and now a 401K loan just to be able to make payments. She has bats in her house and car repairs, put on a new credit card, that she has no ablility to make payments on. What happens when the next emergency arises? At this point, it is going to take a lot of work to break the chains of consequences she is about to endure. And these people make just over $100K per year.

[wincrasher]

Bats and car repairs.

Is suppose that is better than bears and a broken furnace.

[jIM_Ohio]

I find myself still in my debt as emergencies keep coming up which wipe out my $1,000 emergency fund. How do I cope with building up my EF only for something to come up that cleans me out? Maybe there is no answer to this problem only to dust myself off and save again so I guess I'm just venting. Does anyone else experience this?

To what level do you spend less than you earn?

We save 25% and spend 75% of gross.

We get emergencies all the time, and our EF is nowhere near as high as I want it to be.

However, of that 25% we save, much of it is liquid, and we don't send money to IRAs until the end of the month, and our earnings this month pay off next months bills.

So when a $2600 tax bill came this year, turn off the IRAs for 2 months and we have the $2600 (we send $1000/mo to IRAs). Last year a $7000 medical bill hit us in Q1, we solved the problem the same way.

You need to build this into budget- the funeral should be covered with life insurance if funeral was for an adult. If it was for someone else (a parent) which did not have LI, let that be a lesson and make sure you have funeral expenses for yourself and spouse covered now (with LI).

Spend less than you earn, that is #1 key to financial success.
If you are not seeing success, spend less.

[disneysteve]

the funeral should be covered with life insurance if funeral was for an adult.

Jim, OP didn't have to pay for a funeral. She had to pay to travel to attend a funeral.

[jIM_Ohio]

Jim, OP didn't have to pay for a funeral. She had to pay to travel to attend a funeral.

My mistake, thanks for correction

[coach2wealth]

From what I've read, it appears you need to learn the secret word to financial success. Without it you are not going to make progress.

[cicy33]

From what I've read, it appears you need to learn the secret word to financial success. Without it you are not going to make progress.

I am going to take a guess here and it is "no?"

I think that everyone has issues. everyone has emergencies. Unfortunately sometimes they happen all at once. I think that most important thing to do when this happens and your EF is destroyed just try again. I do know just what you mean. I think that sometimes people forget that not everyone has 1000's of dollars set aside for emergencies. or even that it is available to set it aside. It sounds to me like everything you mentioned is a valid emergency. I disagree with some that say family is not a good excuse for an emergency. depends on the situation. if my daughter had a problem financially one month and couldn't pay her light bill I would pay it. I have grandkids in that house. (she doesn't by the way) good luck

[chuckhughes]

emergencies

is always good to save money on a cd account or stock in case that things get bad. you will have some money to rely on it.

[snafu]

I too find unexpected expenses come in three's. We found by being mindful of our spending each and every day, we have the ability to cover unexpected costs. 'Watch the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves' is an old saying that works in practice.

[maat55]

I also have this problem. I am just an unlucky person. In the span of a week a few years ago my car which was only 3 years old at the time, completely died and the warranty had just expired. Then my basement got flooded and I lost a large chunk of my ebay stuff (=lost revenue), my nana passed away (= travel expenses for me) and my favorite place to visit in the entire world permanently closed it's doors for business, and then the guy I'd been dating for 3 years at the time left me for his former flame. The latter 2 had no impact on my finances but just added insult to injury. Then, that same week, my 2 year old dog ate a string and required 2 extensive, expensive surgeries. Then he died because of complications of the second one. That week cost me almost 25K, most of it debt that I am still paying off. The dog surgery and car were the bulk of it. Oh, then I got sick as well and had a huge medical co-pay/deductible for the tests.

I've bounced back my EF/cash savings since then, but I still have $12K in debt. I now have dental work that needs to be done and my car needs new tires and some other work done and insurance doesn't cover most of it. My entire EF will be drained again. But at least I likely won't have any debt this time.

I get kind of annoyed when people preach about this because I have to wonder if they have ever had 4 or 5 serious financial emergencies come up in the span of a week or two before? I don't care who you are or how good you are with money: when your new-ish car dies, your nana passes away, your puppy requires surgery, you require medical testing and on top of that other sad things drain your engery within the span of a week you are going to either wipe out most of your savings or go into debt.

Unless you are rich. Which I am not. Not everyone brings home $6000 a month. Not everyone can put aside $100 a month for car repair. I honestly don't know a single person in real life who can afford that on top of normal savings. With just over $2K a month income in a HCOLA that would be virtually impossible.

Your mentality is one that keeps you going from emergency to emergency. You are living too close to the edge if emergencies pop up frequently.

You may have too much house, car, food budget etc. I don't bring home 6k either, but I dedicate 20% of my income to savings and investments. If I were to buy a bigger house or take on a car payment, I would emergencies frequently as well.