Build An Emergency Fund In Just A Few Months By Being More Financially Aggressive

There will undoubtedly come a time in your when you’ll need an emergency fund: a stash of cash to fall back on when times get tough. But with income so stagnant and the price of everything going up all the time, emergency funds can be hard to build. What it requires is a little “aggression” on your part to make it work. It’s not something you can just do without any effort. It takes commitment and a willingness to sacrifice, as well as some prudent financial planning.

Around 50 percent of people couldn’t write a $500 check tomorrow, even if they had to. So here are some ideas about how to build up an emergency fund.

Eat The Same Meals Every Day

The best thing to cut from your monthly budget is dining out. It adds nothing to your life except extra pounds around your waist. A much better idea is to start making yourself the same balanced meals every day for breakfast and for work.

Start off the day with something wholesome, like oatmeal or muesli with some chopped fruit. Then for lunch, cook up a big bean and veg stew on Sunday night and take it to work in a lunchbox for the rest of the week.

The average person spends more than $80 on food in the course of a typical week. But if you live simply, you can cut that bill in half, saving yourself over $160 a month.

Take Advantage Of Your Situation

Being in a financial emergency is not a lot of fun. But it is something that happens with surprising regularity. You could be out of action for all sorts of reasons, but the main reasons often aren’t your fault, especially if you’ve been injured. Talk to a personal injury lawyer. If they’re good, they’ll be able to help you claim back the money you’ve lost, boosting your finances in the process. The average settlement for people who have been injured at work is around $25,000.

Take The Exponential Approach

Cristin Jordan is a mom from Jacksonville in Florida. Not having any emergency savings used to keep her up at night. As a result, she began trying out the so-called “exponential savings approach.” The idea behind the approach was simple. In the first week, she saved $1. In the second, she saved $2. In the third, she saved $3 and so on. As she kept adding a dollar to her total savings each week, she found that her money was going up and up. By the end of the year, she had more than $1,100 in the bank, more than enough to pay for an emergency out of pocket.

Drop Your Bad Spending Habits

Sometimes many people spend money out of habit, not because they have to. For instance, some people take regular trips to the grocery store on a Saturday, just because that’s what they’ve always done, even if they don’t actually need any food. Be honest with yourself about whether you need to blow $100 on groceries or whether you can live off the food you’ve already got.