start a six-month emergency savings fund

I put $117 into savings yesterday, it was half of the prize money I won yesterday at Commerce Bank for driving up to the lobby with a red car!

I have read some advice about this goal, and it is recommended that whenever you get unexpected money you should put it directly into your emergency fund. Well, half is better than none. I used some of the other half to splurge on a couple of movies and snacks and I plan to give the rest to a relative.

I’ve got about 3 months in savings now. I hope I can keep it saved over the summer, but I don’t get paid again until August. Going to be difficult.

Ideally I would have $9000 in savings. But today I started with 4$90.

this one has just begun! $100 a month… The Total Money Makeover

This has been a goal of mine for a while. It’s a bit tricky when you’re a grad student living on peanuts, but I think it can be done. The tricky part is what to do over the summer when I don’t get paid (and can’t have a job because I’m doing research). I put 10% of each paycheck into savings, but I don’t have a six-month fund yet.

I’ve designated one of my savings accounts with ING Direct as my emergency fund, and have set up automatic withdrawal from my my checking account. I hope this helps me achieve this goal!

Well I did it!! I took the first step and set up an account for automatic withdrawl every month from my checkings account! Words can’t describe how good it feels to know i have money an in case of emergency!

:)

I bought a house and that pulled a good chunk o’ change out of the kitty. So it needs to be filled back up.

It’s not always easy to see teh value in taking half a year’s salary, sticking it in the bank and saying you’re not going to touch it. Try getting laid off. Suddenly your perspective changes a bit.

Best way to start is to get into an automatic investment plan (AIP) with the mutual fund of your choice, ideally something conservative like an index fund. Just tell them to take $x out of our bank account every month, and then promptly forget about it. Before you know it (depending on big $x is) you’ll have yourself a little nest egg.

Once you have some money built up (say, 3 months) switch it over to a money market fund or something that is no risk. I’m sure that the financial planners out there had heart failure when I said to keep your emergency money in mutual funds, but that’s only to build it up a little bit. After all if you’re doing this thing then you don’t have a fund right now anyway, so it’s not like you’re going to lose everything.