When An Emergency Strikes
Immediate action is required. In order for us to take immediate action to address emergencies, planning needs to take place in advance. Most of that planning involves saving money right?
Emergencies can mean losing a job, fixing a leaky roof with the help of a professional roof replacement richmond service or someone of comparable, paying for an emergency room visit, fixing the air conditioning unit in mid-July when temperatures are in the 90s, paying a huge deductible on dental work, and replacing the timing belt and water pump on your car otherwise the engine can drop at any time.
I mention these specifically because I have experienced almost all of them. Fortunately for almost all the ones I experienced, I was able to dip into my emergency fund instead of paying by credit card. Actually, let me take a step back, I did use my credit card for the purpose of earning points but paid it off in full. More on credit cards at a later time and date 🙂
How Much Do Emergencies Really Cost?
Some of the most common emergencies can include the following:
- Losing a job, this can take up to two months to replace. So if your monthly living expenses are for example $3,000, then you may need $6,000 to cover these until you find a replacement job.
- A leaky roof which can cost an average of $650,
- Emergency room visit, which varies quite a bit, but at least per Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, could be $1,233. We live in Maryland and have been to the ER before and when all the bills finally came through, I remember spending over $1,000.
- Air conditioner replacement could be anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000. Actually, I remember many years ago when I was a teenager my dad had to get our air conditioner replaced in our old townhouse and I think it cost about $4,000, however if it breaks, it would be ideal to get it fixed as soon as possible by a service like One Hour Heating & AC.
By the way, a sale on a 4K TV is not an emergency and especially if you already have a TV. There will always be a sale, but there won’t always be a need.
Do I Really Need THAT much?
When it comes to emergency planning and response, it can be a good idea to over-plan it by hiring companies to review the existing safety systems or by keeping some savings aside for emergencies. However, if you keep a large emergency fund, it might lead to opportunity costs or situations in which you may not be able to participate in an investment opportunity because you’ve overplanned for emergencies. Recently I had an epiphany while reading the root of good’s website. Here is an excerpt that opened my eyes:
“Every year we saved more than half of our income. In other words, we saved all of my paycheck every year and then saved part of Mrs. RoG’s paycheck, too. This meant we were immune to financial catastrophe if one of us lost a job. As a result, we never worried about keeping a large emergency fund and instead preferred to invest as much as possible to maximize our long term returns. It worked.”
Source: http://rootofgood.com/zero-to-millionaire-ten-years/
Thanks to the Root of Good, I realized my emergency fund may not need to be as large as I had originally anticipated. Both my wife and I work. If one of us loses our job, we may be able to qualify for unemployment.
Alternatively, in the meantime, I could use my SUV as an Uber to earn some money. Also, the job market is doing alright in our line of work so bouncing back should not be too much of a problem…hopefully 🙂
So as a result I’m in a better position investing the incremental difference between what I originally thought I needed in my emergency fund and what my new estimate is now (difference in a few months of expenses). Now I need to deploy this into the market – let me know if you have any ETFs or index fund recommendations!
How Can We Avoid Emergencies Altogether?
One word: ANTICIPATION. If you read the news or come across emails indicating your organization may be struggling, determine if your specific position is at risk. If so, start looking for a new job or take steps to see if it’s feasible to transfer to another department.
If your roof is coming up at its 20 year mark soon, start getting estimates for replacement and earmarking funds. Maintain your HVAC unit by regularly changing the filter, getting the coils and air ducts cleaned. Regularly cleaning and maintenance of the air filters, especially the air conditioning system, is important to reduce the mold spores and various dust particles in the house. Professionals such as the ones from DUCTZ of North Phoenix and Deer Valley and similar ones could help you out in this situation.
You could also cut down on hard candy and soda for your kids (I’m guilty of this :-)). And finally, refer to the maintenance schedule of your car and see if any major work is due that hasn’t been performed.
Then start to get quotes if you don’t have a trusted mechanic to get the best price and quality work. If you don’t have a manual and have a fairly new car, you may be able to find a PDF version of the manual online. Plus it’s easy to do a search to find the maintenance schedule in an electronic version anyway.
Having said all of that, there will be times when some emergencies are unavoidable and come straight out of nowhere. For example, I used to own a Jeep Patriot and one morning my wife was driving it to work. On the highway, it just slowed down to around 40 miles per hour and was running really heavy. Long-story short, a sensor needed to be replaced and my mechanic (whom I’ve been with since I was 16) said it was typical for this car and I verified online in Jeep Patriot forums. So about $700, a few hours later, and a used up vacation day later, my wife got the Jeep back running just fine.
So do you have an emergency fund? If so, do you think it’s over-funded, under-funded or just right? What is your basis for funding it? Oh, and have you dipped in it for non-emergency type expenses?
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Lol, a sale on a 4K TV is not an emergency, really? Why is everything in bold capital letters when it’s being marketed to us?
I think I have too much emergency cash, but I like to have that in the event the market dips greatly and then I will have more cash to deploy.
GYM recently posted…GYM December 2017 Dividend Income Update
Haha, for some unfortunately it is. Yes, I’ve often pondered hoarding onto extra cash in anticipation of a market dip. It’s just a matter of when and how loud opportunity will knock at the door 🙂
Hi SMM. Happy holidays. I’m conservative by nature, so my emergency cash fund is on the heavy side. It also doubles as the cash allocation for my investment portfolio. Regarding your question on what to do with the extra funds….If I remember correctly, you are a fund investor not a stock picker. So as a valued reader of Dividends Diversify, you might not be surprised that I recommend the Vanguard High Dividend Yield stock ETF (VYM). I plan to write about it in January if you are still considering what to do with the money at that time. Tom
Tom at Dividends Diversify recently posted…Do You Travel Abroad?
Happy Holidays to you too Tom! Yes, I’m moving more towards funds in order to diversify and the with your suggestion the icing on the cake is the high dividend yield. This fund is a strong candidate and I look forward to reading your article in January 🙂
Happy Holidays! I think having a big emergency fund is more for making me sleep like a baby at night. Also in my case it will help me weather the storm when a down turn comes as I am 100% stocks. I am invested in real estate as well but I mean I would hope having large reserves would make me feel confident during a downturn. We can not plan for everything but those who are well capitalized in a down turn can really improve their financial position once we emerge out of the storm on the other side!
If it helps you sleep at night, that’s great! But if it’s a little too excessive, maybe a downturn could actually present a value buying opportunity as well 🙂
Hey SMM!
Man do I hate ER visits; I’ve had bills keep coming for months afterwards 🙁
We do keep an emergency fund, but not separated from the rest of our money. What we do is just pay out our normal bills from a checking account, but monitor it to make sure it doesn’t fall below a certain level. So I’d call it an emergency fund, but it’s not kept in a separate account.
I also kind of consider our taxable investment accounts quasi-emergency funds, since they are easy to liquidate. We mainly use robo-advisers (M1 and Betterment).
The taxable investment account is a good idea. And most, if not all, emergencies can be charged to a credit card. By the time a bill is due, you can liquidate what you need and pay it. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen though 🙂