Friday, July 07, 2006

1 Step forward 2 Steps backward....

This is what I feel is happening right now. One of my short term goal is to save $1,000 as a start to my emergency fund. Things were going great, I almost got to the half way mark. Here comes an 'emergency' to put me back almost to zero. I consolidated my student loans and in the midst of that lost the grace period. I knew this was going to happen, however I did not plan properly (I know, I know, this means it is not a real emergency). The payment is due before next pay day so I had to use my small starter emergency fund.

The lesson I learned here is a small emergency fund is better than none. I need to plan properly for expenses going forward.
I took one extra step today and signed up for direct deposit to an ING account I have that has been lying empty. The plan here is to deposit a certain period every paycheck and then transfer it to HSBC. I used the ING for direct deposit because it was easier to figure that out than to try and deposit to HSBC.

Am playing the money psychology game here. By having the direct deposit to ING, I can only pay bills from the money that is deposited into my checking account. This will enable me to bill my emergency fund faster than without direct deposit.

My target goal remains the same to save $1,000. However, the deadline for this has been moved to the end of September.

Stay tuned....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean. Everytime I save money I end up with emergencies.

bleck.

Eat. Sleep. Knit. Repeat. said...

I know it's tough when 'Sod's Law' finds a way of using the money you just saved, but look at the silver lining and think about how stressed you would be if you didn't have that amount set aside.

So many people get stuck in vicious cycles of credit card advances and payday loans, and you're doing great by not getting trapped yourself.

Tired of being broke said...

Leighann the emergencies seem to be never ending.


Miserly I thought the same thing to myself, what if I did not have that cash set aside. I would be so screwed.

Sarah said...

I know what you mean, as well. We had $1000, then the car needed $500 repairs, and my tax refund STILL hasn't come back which is $500. Never depend on money that is supposed to come in on time! It never happens!