Never reaching my emergency fund goal

11 January 2009

Never reaching my emergency fund goal

I've had an emergency fund goal of £1k for as long as I've been blogging and yet I've never, ever achieved it. The reason I've never achieved it, is that whenever I have any money sitting in my e-saver I have a compulsion to pay it off my debt.

A lot of experts recommend saving an emergency fund first and then paying down your debt, which I can totally understand, however the 'total focus on debt' way of doing it works for me!

I've sneaked in a £56 snowflake from my extra money earned to my No 1 loan taking the debt outstanding to£12,207.

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5 comments:

Mike @ TheThriftyLifeJan 11, 2009 03:51 PM
It's probably worked well up until now because you haven't had an emergency. What if you have an emergency? A car dies, someone gets really sick or injured, an appliance breaks, what will you do then? You would be forced to rely on your credit and build that debt back up again.

It may seem like you have better use for you money than putting it in an emergency fund, but you've got to plan for an emergency.

You mentioned snowflaking - so why not snowflake yourself an emergency fund?! Build that up with those little deposits and your debt won't suffer because it's extra "found" money.
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Sharon RoseJan 12, 2009 12:41 AM
Hi there-Mikes idea is good to use your snowflake money for an emergency fund. I nearly used mine for debts in a mad moment last week, but was pleased I didn't in the end! Good luck with reaching a plan that works for you!
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Miss MJan 12, 2009 06:24 AM
I actually went 50-50 with my debts, so by the time I paid off $20,000 in debt I also had $20,000 in savings. I don't know the right way, it worked for me and I'm a big proponent of doing what works. But I do think you need at least a minimum EF, Mike's idea is great.
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notesfromthefrugaltrenches.comJan 14, 2009 12:12 PM
I was sure I commented here but I can't find it. I was like that too when I was paying off debt, then I started to want the emerg fund to have 3 months expenses, so I did a more 50/50 route. Well done re the snowflake!
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http://eliminate-my-debt.blogspot.com/Jan 15, 2009 10:28 PM
I'm the same, I have put $1000 aside for Emergency Funds several times but I just end up paying it off debt. It just seems a waste sitting there, I probably 'should' have an EF, given we've had a few, but I desperately want the debt gone ASAP.
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