Emergency Savings Account

An important component of your budget is to save for emergencies. I am not talking about saving 3 months of income. What I am talking about is socking away $1000.00 to $1500.00 into a separate emergency savings account. This is not a huge goal for you to begin and accomplish. Even if you cannot fund the entire account today, open a savings account anyway with the first $100.00 or whatever you can afford.

Then you are going to want to contribute to this account until you hit your target amount. My advice is to treat this just as you would any other bill. I would also advise you to setup to have this account automatically funded.

If you feel like a kid with the cookie jar to close at hand you might want to set the account up at an institution that is not your local bank. If you click on our affiliate ING link above you can setup an account with them. Currently they are paying a decent 4.5% rate of return and you can automatically fund this account each month from your checking account. There are also no fees or service charges for this service.

Why have an emergency savings account?

If you need a brake job for your car, or your washer crashes and burns having an emergency fund is going to save you a great deal of money than if you have to fund these types of expenses on a credit card.

Some Do's and Dont's

• Don't forget to payback this account after you use it.
• Even once you reach your target, keep funding the account. It never hurts to have a supply of cash on hand.
• Do not think of this account as a long term investment. It is for short term emergencies.
• Do not use this account to fund the purchase of non emergency items. (For instance, the super bowl is 2 weeks away and you would like that big screen flat panel TV).
• Set a limit on the minimum amount that you will withdraw. (For example, you forgot that the pet licenses are due and are going to cost you $50.00. You can most likely absorb this expense in you budget). In other words, do not nickel and dime this account.