Emergencies can happen to anyone and they can happen without warning. You never know what day you’re going to wake up and be fully immersed in a situation beyond your control. You don’t know if there’ll be a natural disaster later in the day or if you’ll get into a car accident. Life is unpredictable and we don’t like to talk about it.
It’s usually these unplanned expenses that can turn into maxing out your credit cards or they need to take out a loan to pay for it. For example, if you needed to take your dog to the vet and had an $800 vet bill, that’s a major unplanned expense. You’re more likely to put that on your credit card and without paying it off immediately, you get charged with interest.
While the safest route is to save as much as six months’ worth of income in the event of an emergency, even having $1000 is a great way to protect yourself. You never know when you’ll need that extra thousand dollars. According to recent surveys, most Americans don’t even have $400 to their name something bad happens.
Let’s take a look at several ways in which you can build up your emergency savings quickly:
1) Sell Some Stuff for Your Emergency Fund!
Outside of saving the money you earn, the best way to make up for emergency cash is to sell stuff that you have that you don’t use. You can easily find a few hundred dollars’ worth of stuff in your attic, garage, storage shed, or basement. Maybe you have a bunch of close or your kids have a lot of toys that they’ve outgrown. Have a garage sale and put 100% of the proceeds into your savings account. There’s also Craigslist and the Facebook marketplace. Whichever option you choose, it’s good to get rid of some stuff and declutter your life.
2) Fast from Spending
Cutting your spending doesn’t have to be a tragedy. There are certainly plenty of things that you spend your money on that you don’t really need. Can you cut back on getting Starbucks for a few months? Can you cut down your cable package if you’re not really using it so much? Don’t be afraid to sit down with your budget and look through everything you’re spending your money on. There has to be something in there that you can cut and put that money into your savings.
3) Open a Bank Account
There are a lot of banks that will pay you to open up a bank account. They might offer $300 or so for opening an account with them. Maybe you want to keep your savings account separate from your main bank account. It would be a good way to get a good jump on your saving.
