I’m sure that you’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating… When you’re getting your financial house in order, the first step should be to build up an emergency fund. The purpose of this fund is to allow you to navigate rough patches in your life without completely derailing your finances. Just be sure that you reserve it for true emergencies.
How large should your emergency fund be?
The ideal size of an emergency fund depends in large part on individual circumstances. Most suggestions range from three to six months of living expenses, although some experts are comfortable with less, whereas others recommend more. Yet others suggest a tiered approach, wherein you initially set aside $1,000 and then build up to 3-6 months of expenses once you eliminate your debts.
Of course, these sorts of recommendations assume that you have a basic idea of your living expenses. Assuming that you do, you just have to set aside the prescribed amount. Easy enough. Right? Well…
How should you go about building up an emergency fund?
Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as dusting off your monthly budget, multiplying by three (or six, or whatever multiple you’re most comfortable with) and then sticking a bunch of money in the bank. In the vast majority of cases, it’ll take some time to come up with the necessary funds.
As with anything, the most important step is to just get started. While it may take longer than you’d like to build up your emergency fund, it’ll never happen if you don’t take that first step. If you can only afford to trim $50-100/month from your budget, that’s fine. Build it into your budget, and start transferring the money to a dedicated account at your favorite bank.
Another great strategy is to direct any windfalls that you receive into your emergency fund until it’s fully funded. Along these lines, perhaps the most timely advice would be to use your tax refund and/or your tax stimulus rebate check as the basis of an emergency fund — tomorrow is Tax Day, after all!
译文:
设立一个应急助基金
我敢肯定你以前就听过这个说法，但是它值得翻来覆去的被提及。在你的金融商行运作正常的时候，你第一步要做的就是建立一个应急基金。这个基金的目的是让你在遇到财政困难的时候不会完全束手无策之时财政完全出轨。但是一定要确保你是在真正紧急的状况下才使用它。
你的应急基金应该有多少钱呢？
理想的应急基金规模很大程度上取决于个人情况。虽然有些专家认为应该少一点，但是大多数的建议是应急基金的规模是你三到六个月的生活开支，也有人建议要更多。不过人们只是给你建议，真正实施的还是你自己，你可以最初拨出$1000然后在还清债务之后以3-6月的生活开支设立一个基金。
当然，这些建议的前提是假定你对于自己的生活开支有一个基本的了解。假定你知道，你就只需要按照说好的数量做就行了。很容易吧。对吗？
不幸的是，设立一个应急基金并不意味着将每个月的预算乘以三个月（或者六个月或者随便你觉得舒服的数字）然后把这一大笔钱存入银行那么简单。绝大多数情况下，要想出适当的基金金额是学要花费一点时间的。
像做所有的事情一样，万事开头难，设立一个应急基金所要花费的时间可能要比你愿以花费的时间要长，但是如果你不着手去做，就永远做不成。如果你每月只能从预算中抽出$50-100，那也可以。把它纳入你的预算中，并将它转账至你最喜爱的银行户头中。
另一个好战略就是将你所有获得的横财都纳入应急基金中直到金额足够多。在所有的这些方法中，最耗时的可能就是用你的退税或者你的所得税退还部分来设立基金——毕竟明日是缴税日。