Growing up, you might have heard your parents tell you multiple times how important establishing an emergency fund is; however, you may have largely ignored this advice. Now, as an adult yourself, you are beginning to realize how imperative placing an emphasis on financial matters is; recognizing why you need an emergency fund and how to build one is a start.
Car repairs
A major reason why people need to dip into their emergency funds is to pay for unexpected car repairs. Putting these types of repairs to the side for later is challenging because you may very well need your car to get to work and school. Also, the need for car repairs can seemingly arise from virtually nowhere. In other words, your car might be running smoothly one day and then fail to start the next, or another driver may hit your car on the street and fail to leave contact information.
Medical concerns
With the presence of health insurance, you may think that medical concerns could never cause you financial stress. However, plenty of individuals need to spend a significant amount of money on their health. You may go to the doctor and learn that you need to have a particular procedure or start to take certain medications due to serious illness or condition. You may also need to find a way to pay for at-home medical care for an elderly relative. An emergency fund in medical scenarios could help you to sustain life.
Home repairs
Some updates to houses are entirely aesthetic. In other words, you could wait an extended period of time before getting this work done. In other cases, you must have the work taken care of as soon as possible. For example, if your home has serious electrical issues, you must schedule the repairs so that you and your loved ones can be at a reduced risk of electrocution or of a fire breaking out in the home. When it comes to home repairs, you don’t always get advanced notice. While you may know that you want to renovate the upstairs bathroom in the next few years, the plumbing could go before that time.
Set up automatic transfers to savings
One way to start building an emergency fund is to choose a savings account that provides you with a nice amount of interest and to start regularly putting money into that account. Relying on yourself to transfer money into the account on a regular basis might not work out too well. However, setting up automatic transfers can force you to save money. What you can do is set up an automatic transfer of a set sum into your savings account from your checking account on the day that your direct deposit hits each month. You should also select a savings account that does not allow you to make constant withdrawals. For example, the account might allow only four withdrawals per month. Using these methods together can help you to get the money into your account before you can spend and assist in keeping the funds there.
Save a little too
When it comes to saving money, you might think that you should transfer funds into the savings account only when you have a decent amount to move in there. However, you should make saving a part of your daily life. In the event that you go to the grocery store and the bill comes in underneath your allocated budget, you should take that extra money and put it into your savings account. If you have a special coffee shop that you like to visit each day, challenge yourself to cut your trips down to four times per week and to save the money from the other days.
Know where to turn
Sometimes, an emergency situation will come into fruition, and you simply will not have the money available in your savings to cover it. Instead of allowing yourself to ignore unexpected but necessary repairs or sudden emergency medical expenses, you can turn to online loans for assistance. These types of loans can get you the money that you need in a pinch, and, by choosing payday loans, you may be able to get the money you need, when you need it. Until you have amassed enough money, you have other options to pursue.
