Need a good reason for an Emergency Fund?

[singleguymoney]

I put this post up on my blog today. After you read the post, you will see why you need to have an Emergency Fund in place.

http://www.singleguymoney.com/2008/0...ency-fund.html

[AlmostFrugal]

Nice post! That's a scary situation that your friend is in, both that he is about to lose his job (potentially), but also that he can not live within his means at 100k a year.

[SouthShoreGirl]

Wow, sucks to be him. This is such a lesson on why to never spend beyond one's means!!!!

[The Zoo]

I feel badly for him but the situation he is in is his own darn fault.

[SouthShoreGirl]

I know a couple in similar circumstances. Everything is constantly "oh whoa is me", however, THEY CHOOSE to eat out at expensive restaurants regularly,had a $40K wedding and $7K honeymoon, bought a "starter" home in a neighborhood most people aspire to move to down the road when and if they can actually afford it, they go on shopping sprees for designer duds at least once a week, and also continue to rack up thousands of dollars in credit card debt, yet, have to beg, borrow and steal to pay their expensive mortgage. I just don't get it.........

[purplefdu]

I've kind of got to agree with SouthShoreGirl. If I am making 100k+ a year and overspend I'm stupid and deserve to be in a pickle when the gravy train dries up. If however I am on disability and working part time with barely $20 after expenses I can't help but get there if I lose the part time job. Living at 150% of your income is a financial nightmare waiting to happen but we all learned early in math that if you only have $5 to spend you only really have $5 to spend. Yes as adults we have credit cards, loans and other things to make the $5 into $7 but we still only actually have $5 and have to make up the rest from the next $5 we get.

[ALICIA21]

Make sure you read through the terms and conditions before hand

[financepro]

There is another post related to emergency fund. That is all about creating emergency fund. Read the full post here at http://personalfinanceadvice.wordpre...mergency-fund/

[starshard0]

6 months living expenses seems like an awful lot to try and save up in a short time. How long should it generally take to save up that much?

[Xin Lu]

Originally Posted by starshard0

6 months living expenses seems like an awful lot to try and save up in a short time. How long should it generally take to save up that much?

That's simple math. If you live on 50% of your take home, you can save 6 months' living expenses in 6 months. If you live on 20% of your take home income, you can save 6 month's living expenses in 1.5 months. If you live on 1/7th of your take home income, you can save 6 month's living expenses in 1 month.