Search results for emergency fund
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Posted
Dec 03 2008, 07:43 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
An old friend recently got a job after being first underemployed and then unemployed. One day at noon her new boss noticed she hadn't left her desk. "Aren't you going to have any lunch?" he asked.
Well, no, she wasn't. There'd been barely enough in the house to make brown-bag lunches for her kids. My friend lied brightly about wanting to work through her lunch hour so she could finish on time for once.
It's bad enough to be on the financial edge. It really stinks to be put on the spot, too.
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Posted
Oct 12 2007, 07:27 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Hidden in my apartment is a slowly growing collection of small bills. I’ve been setting aside ones and fives toward the goal of having cash on hand for emergencies.
Some Smart Spending message board readers do this, too. Whether they call it pin money, bail money, “gittin’ out of town” money or just a collection of presidential quarters, having a little ready cash makes them feel, well, ready.
The U.S. government wants us to be ready. One of the Department of Homeland Security’s Web sites, www.ready.gov, recommends keeping some folding green on hand, right alongside the food, water and bucket toilet.
After all, some emergencies mean power failures -- bye-bye, ATMs.
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Posted
Nov 11 2008, 01:34 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The ugly economy came home to roost on Kyle's head in the form of a pink slip, so we read with great interest his post at Amateur Asset Allocator called "11 things to do immediately when you get laid off."
Our favorites on that list? Take a vacation, and find a girlfriend/boyfriend. Until now you probably haven't had time for either one.
This post is tongue-in-cheek and fun (bonus tip for the unemployed: Maintain a sense of humor) and it contains lots of wisdom. We'll also review the steps Kyle really took once he was let go from his software company job.
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Posted
Nov 14 2007, 11:01 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A month ago today, I became debt-free – made the last payment to a relative who had lent me some money. This loan had allowed me to throw a big chunk of cash against credit card debt accrued during divorce proceedings. (Lawyers bill by the hour, you know.) Once the credit card was paid in full, I started repaying the family loan. As money came in through diligence or chance, I’d let it build to $300 and then write a check. I'm not sure why $300 became the magic number; it just sounded good. Now I'm debt-free: no student loans (I'm blessed with a scholarship), no car payment (please let it last another six or seven years), no credit card debt (and there won't be any more). It feels about how you'd think it would: pretty darned great. 'A perpetual grin' This relative wasn’t dunning me. But it bothered me to owe money. Some people count sheep; at night I would lie in bed counting ways to stretch available funds to reach the next $300. Reading some postings from a Smart Spending message board
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Posted
Apr 16 2008, 09:04 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I have 29 cans of tuna, thanks to a really good sale at Albertsons. Last week's ad had a coupon for Chicken of the Sea tuna at three cans for 99 cents, limit six.
The fine print said "one coupon per transaction," not "one coupon per customer." Some of my neighbors toss the grocery ads unread into the lobby recycle bin, so I wound up with a handful of coupons.
Guess which destination walk I chose a bunch of times in the past week. And guess what I had for lunch on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.
It had been almost a year since I bought tuna. I'd gotten irritated when the price went up as high as $1.09 a can -- and not even for albacore, just for the chunk light. "When it goes on sale, I'll stock up," I kept telling myself.
Did I ever. It's part of my ongoing maintenance of what MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston calls "the emergency fund you can eat."
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Posted
Apr 21 2009, 11:45 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
He's 68, has $280,000 or so in retirement savings, no debt, and wants to take his wife of 40 years on a $30,000 trip around the world. Denied, said Suze Orman. He can't go because he doesn't have an eight-month emergency fund.
We'll have to take the word of "Moneymonk" and one of her readers on this because we didn't see Suze's show. But the scenario she recalls and Suze's advice didn't sit well with Moneymonk.
"Suze, retirement is supposed to be enjoyed. This is their time. Let them have it," Moneymonk wrote. "Suze, whatever happened to PEOPLE FIRST?"
What's really taken personal-finance bloggers by surprise is Suze's about-face on paying off credit card debt, which until recently was her top priority. She used to say: "Your first step is you have to get out of credit card debt. After you're out of credit card debt, you need an eight-month emergency fund."
She now says people should pay only the minimum due each month on their cards until they have that emergency fund in place.
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Posted
Dec 04 2008, 10:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Martin H. Bosworth at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. If there's one thing Kristen King knows, it's how to use a credit card smartly. The Richmond, Va.-based communications consultant uses her American Express Open Blue card to finance purchases for her self-owned business, including supplies, travel costs and regular expenses. "I made every payment early and amounts well over the minimum due -- and by 'well over' I mean several hundred dollars more than the minimum," King said. "I never exceeded my limit." Thus it came as a shock when she received a notice via e-mail that American Express was cutting her credit line, effective immediately, with no advance warning.
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Posted
Oct 08 2008, 01:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Many of you are wondering when the huge wave of economic woes will come crashing down on your head. For some of you, it already has.
I crossed a financial minefield of my own in recent years -- sudden unemployment followed by working for near minimum wage -- and I'm prepared to do it again if I have to. Hopefully what I learned about getting by in difficult times can help you too.
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Posted
Apr 02 2008, 04:24 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We'll give you the happy ending first: A funny noise in his pickup was the reality check -- he calls it a "gift from heaven" -- that kept blogger "JB" of Get Rich Or Die Trying from buying a house he couldn't afford. The rationalizations he had used up to that point -- spend the emergency fund, the wedding fund and the tax rebate, and stop contributing to the 401(k) -- to make him think he should buy it may seem sickeningly familiar to many struggling to hang on to their homes or facing foreclosure. It also started when JB and his fiancee found the house of their dreams.
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Posted
Oct 29 2008, 05:21 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Lisa Wade McCormick at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com: Leanne Potts can't shake the painful image. A distressed pet owner told Potts she'd lost her home and business and could no longer afford to take care of her beloved dog. The Chattanooga woman then asked Potts' organization to take her 8-year-old basset hound. The story is one her animal-rescue group in Tennessee is encountering often during these tough economic times.
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