Start Your Emergency Fund – Part 2
It Takes Forever to Save up $1000
It seems like it takes forever to fill an emergency account and accumulate $1,000 in savings. As soon as I feel like I have a decent start at building my savings, something will happen, and I have to drain it and then start all over again. It is frustrating, and I always feel like it takes forever. This is one of the reasons why we encourage our clients to complete this necessary financial step QUICKLY. Get the money in the account and get it there fast. We provided three tips last week to help with this process and here are three more:
Rent out your home: Do you have an extra bedroom and wouldn’t mind renting it out for the weekend or the summer? Maybe you live in a college town and you could rent out a room for the school year or you may live near a vacation hot spot and could rent out a room for a weekend. Check out Airbnb and see if you could make an extra hundred (or thousand!) utilizing unused space in your home for concerts, sporting events or conventions.
Sell your old DVDs or CDs for cash: I did this one a few months back and I didn’t make a fortune, but I was able to clear out literally hundreds of old CDs and a few old DVDs too. There is a Used Bookstore in our town and I noticed a sign in their front window that they would pay cash for them. I boxed them all up and took them in – right before Christmas – and made a few extra bucks. It also cleared out a few shelves and boxes in my Family Room and gave us some extra storage space. Like I said, I didn’t make a ton of money but it was easy and put a few extra dollars in the account.
Scrapping: I recently was asked to help clear out an old building and help liquidate some of the furniture. I had a customer walking through with me and he asked me what I was going to do with all the old wiring. I had no plans for it until he told me that I could get it all rounded up and I could take it to a recycling center for extra money. As we walked through the building, there were tons of old computer cabling, old extension cords and communication cabling. The building is going to be torn down soon so we are now going to go through and pull as much of this out as we can and get some money for the scraps. Again, I don’t think it is going to be huge money but it is better in my pocket than just letting it go into a landfill with the remnants of the building after demolition!
Saving money isn’t easy and it certainly is not fun. But the peace of mind that you will gain from having a funded Emergency Fund is amazing. AND, the first time that you must use it, you will fully understand how nice it is to rely upon your Savings Account instead of a Credit Card to cover those expenses.
If this makes sense to you but it just seems impossible or overwhelming to you, give us a call and schedule an appointment. We are experts at it and will be happy to offer you some basic direction and advice. It is what we do at Hollander & Associates.
Contact Us