Hey guys! You didn't think my last post about buying a car would be the end of our Dave Ramsey journey? I wouldn't leave you guys hanging like that. So I decided to do a follow up post so you wouldn't feel alone out there with your financial struggles or even financial successes. Having people in it with you, and supporting you is so important. As I have posted before 2020 was insane to say the least. I know everyone has had their different financial situations. Which is why I wanted to dedicate a specific post to the importance in having an Emergency fund. I think everyone can either say "I wish I had had an emergency savings." Or "I'm so glad we had an emergency fund." After this last year kicking us right in the butt. Parents being forced to work from home and basically home school their kids. People losing their jobs and their businesses. It amazes me on what is still standing and it saddens me the local businesses we lost. Thankfully we fell under the category of "I'm so glad that we had an emergency fund." Not because of loss of a job. But for two important reasons.
Reason 1:
The world did not stop moving we still had financial emergencies come up in 2020. We have now lived with no credit cards for about a year and a half. Any major or minor emergency is going to be coming out of that emergency fund. That way we are not still owing someone after our financial emergency like we would if we would've on a credit card.
It felt like a lot of emergencies too. Annoying as they were we still made it work and we just go back to rebuilding it afterward. We PAY OURSELVES BACK not a bank, or credit card.
2020 financial emergencies
April: Car Maintenance $636.74
May: Locksmith $184
{freak incident where the lock mechanism broke on a bedroom door and wouldn't open}
June: Plane tickets for a funeral. $473.92
Washer broke got a new set. $1423.96
Dec: Transmission $4909.67
{Ended the year with a new transmission}
TOTAL= $7628.29
In just emergencies alone. I couldn't imagine having to deal with loss of job, unemployment, etc.
Even now that I totaled it all out seems so insane that we managed to do all that without using a credit card.
Reason 2:
With our financial freedom we were able to help and give to others. Tithing to our home church not only helped pay the staff but was used to help others in the community who were having financial hardships. We supported local businesses in the area. Supported friends small businesses financially by buying their product etc. I also had a new years goal last year to give everyone a birthday and Christmas present for 2020 and I did that successfully. {I'm big on birthdays}
Emergency fund should be $1000 at the minimum and 3-6 months expenses (i.e electric, water, groceries bills etc.
Ways to earn extra money to fund your Emergency fund
We didn't just rely on my husbands income from his main job. We also did a lot of side hustles.
These are the ones we have used and we always finding more.
DoorDash driver
{A great way to earn money by delivering groceries, food etc}
Shopkick {Scanning, shopping}:
{I've been using this one for a few years now and it has helped fund a lot of things}
USE CODE: EARN642480
MyPoints {Surveys and shopping}
https://www.mypoints.com?rb=71146176
Fetch {Shopping/scan receipts}:
USE CODE: DJ69T
