One of the most secure ways you can feel
taken care of when it comes to your money is having an emergency fund.
So listen, emergencies are gonna happen
and here's a way to bullet proof your emergency fund.
Emergency funds
are wonderful!
If you haven't been around this vlog
for very long, I always teach people to get a thousand dollar emergency fund.
First and foremost, the very first thing you ever do.
Get out of debt, everything but your house and then bump up
that starter emergency fund to three to six months of expenses.
And listen, I don't know if it's just the ladies out there,
maybe some of you guys feel this way, but as a woman, I can tell you.
Having an emergency fund is like a breath of fresh air
Like once Winston and I got that in place, I was like,
"Okay!" You know, if something were to happen and everything, you know,
just goes down the drain, we have six months saved
that is here and we're gonna be okay.
It's huge to be able to get this. But you wanna make sure that you actually
keep your emergency fund.
So here are ways to make sure
that your emergency fund is bullet proof.
The first is, don't keep this just in your checking
or savings account.
Here's the deal.
If this is an account, or a bank that you primarily use,
and you keep pulling it up everyday to
like look at transactions, that kind of thing,
it may be tempting for you to be like,
"You know, we'll just, we'll just take some of that
emergency fund and we'll just use it here."
Or if its sitting in your checking, oh Good Lord!
It's gonna get spent. Let's just be honest!
Really, taking it out and putting it somewhere different
I'm even, to the extreme case,
'coz this is what Winston and I do,
we have it with like a completely different bank.
Because I'm like, I don't even want the temptation
of being able to easily get to it.
And that's the key is.
You wanna be able to get to it so you want your emergency fund
accessible but not so accessible that
it's easily dipped out of. So, for me it's good
just to have them completely separate.
Number 2,
Emotionally unplug from it.
Okay, as a spender,
this is something I've had to do.
Winston and I, at the beginning of
our whole like, journey as we get married and stuff
I'd be like, "Okay, how much money do we have in savings?"
And he would always say
the amount 'coz he would look it up on his phone
and he would count the emergency fund in our savings.
And I'm like, "Oh my gosh! We're rich!"
Not really. But like, dang!
We could do so much stuff.
He's like, "Well, no, such and such is part
of our emergency fund."
I'm like, "Oh man! Okay."
And so for me, I honestly, like, I'm like
I just want it completely separate.
So when we talk about our savings that we have,
we don't even talk about the emergency fund like it's in its own little item.
And we don't even say it like, we act like it's not even there.
And so emotionally unplugging from it as a spender
is great for me.
Because I can look forward to see things
that we are saving up for. But again,
that it's not too emotionally unplugged. 'Coz if an emergency happens,
use your emergency fund. That's what it's there for.
But, I act like we don't even have one. But I know we do.
So I can sleep well at night.
Another way to bulletproof your emergency fund
is to actually know what an emergency is.
Okay? So one day if your like,
"Ah! Oh my gosh! We can airbnb our house,
And then just go to Hawaii that week instead.
We'll just take it out of the emergency fund
and when we get the funds for airbnb we'll just fund it back."
No, no, no, no, no!
That's not an emergency. Don't touch it!
Or, "We really wanna upgrade our house.
Okay, we have some money saved.
But when we take our emergency fund then we can really get a great down payment."
No, no, no, no, no!
That's not an emergency.
An emergency fund is when things come up
that you cannot afford to pay for
(if things are just not) if extra funds aren't just in your checking account.
This is for stuff, big stuff usually, that come up.
Car trouble, heating and air goes out.
All these types of things that happen and you're like,
"Oh my gosh! What are we gonna do?"
Well, the emergency fund, that's what it is there for.
Only for emergencies.
Occasion is not an emergency.
Down payment on a house,
not an emergency.
E-MER-GEN-CY
(Like I can go back to my like, cheerleading days but we won't.)
And last but not the least,
for those of you that maybe are working towards
the emergency fund,
is I want you to stay intent
and focused through the step.
'Coz a lot of people,
They're willing to sacrifice lifestyle and do things like
getting an extra job as they are getting out of debt.
But then once they're debt free they're like, "we're done!".
Listen, I want that same intensity through the next step
which is 3 to 6 months of expenses saved in a bank.
Your fully-funded emergency fund.
So stay intense and stay focused.
And it's helpful to look at your expenses and say,
"Okay, per month, this is what we need to live on."
And then multiply that by 3 or by 5, 6,
whatever you decide between 3 and 6 months
and have an actual dollar amount
that you are shooting for.
Having that goal in mind is huge
'Coz you can back your way out of it.
Stay intense and actually when it's hit you're like, "Okay, we did it!"
And so I want you to be able to get to that point
to move on to baby steps 4, 5, and 6.
And if some of you out there are like, "Wow, I need an emergency fund."
And you need some cash to kind of get this kickstarted,
check out my 14-Day Money Finder.
You can click the link below.
People are finding up to $2,000 a year.
So it's just a really easy way, kind of a challenge,
to look at your life and be like, "Hey where can we save money?"
So make sure to check that out.
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