Emergency Savings: Do you have a cash reserve?

Was thinking about this last week, and was happy to realize that between the wife and I, we have about $5,000 saved up -- around $1,500 in each of our checking accounts, and another $2,000 in a separate cash reserve fund. Granted, that might only last us a couple months if one of us lost our job, but it's better than a lot of folks.
And that $2,000 has been saved up since the end of January just by putting away $50 or $60 a paycheck ($100-$150 a month). It's tougher to save if you're younger, but it is possible to sock away a decent amount fairly quickly.

 

I figure I have enough to buy a plane ticket home. If I can make a stopover in Hawaii and clean out my old account, that would give me about 4-6 weeks to either find a low-level gig or go back to school.

 

I'm surprised none of us has a sugar momma/daddy.

 

I need to try to put at least $50 back each check, but that's damn near impossible some months.

Don't have any CC debt, but I do have a loan to pay off and car payment, insurance and cell phone each month.

Factor in gas and other things, what little I do make is gone almost immediately.

 

This might depress people, or it might motivate them.

I left the business in 1998 when I could barely pay my student loans.

In 10 years, I am married with two retirement plans (Virginia Retirement System and Social Security). My wife has about $45,000 in stocks put away, and we have our names on three different properties. One I rent, one we live in and one is where her father lives. The combined value of these properties is about one million dollars give or take $100,000. We owe about $500,000 on them.

I put away $100 a month (which I should increase) and my renters pay about $300 to the principal of the townhouse mortgage.

We have about $5,000 cash in savings accounts.

My wife uses flexible spending through her job, and she has her own retirement plan. I think it's a 401K.

We are using Upromise as a start for Lil 93s college, and she already has a bank account at my credit union.

We have no car payments, but four cars (only one is a nice car though). The rest are pretty crappy and functional. We need to sell one, but we are not in a rush.

We live in a very nice, but modest, house with a two-car garage and a fenced-in backyard.

This year was a little tight financially, but most of the that was Lil 93's $900 a month daycare bill.

Two things helped with our financial position.
1. Her mother passed away before we met, and the inheritance helped my wife's net worth (stocks).
2. I got out of the business and earned a master degree. My wife also has a master's degree. We are both employees whose paychecks are funded by tax dollars.

If you can get out, get out. Ten years ago I could not even pay my student loans.

A master's degree is a two-year sacrifice that will pay for itself ten-fold every year for the rest of your life.

 

I have, I think, $2.27 in savings, and that's just the money that BofA puts over there with the 'purchase something and we'll put the change in your savings account' plan.

However, I've paid off two credit cards, and paid on time on all the others, for a couple months. My credit rating has gone up 82 points in a month. So I'm not saving, but I'm helping myself short term. Savings come after I get the credit cards paid down.

 

That's what I was thinking. $100 a paycheck will add up. Fast.

If my wife and I both quit or lost our jobs, we could make it a few months. If only one of us quit or lost our job, we could make it a little longer, maybe seven, eight months. Maybe longer, who knows. I try not to think about that too much.

A sugar daddy I am not, but we do just fine. Thankfully, the COL here is embarrassingly low.

 

Aside from investments I've had roughly a year's salary put away since I was in my late 20s, and even now I continue to add to it as often as possible.

And no, no big settlements or deaths in the family. Just putting away more than I'd like from every paycheck, month after month, and sacrificing some things in the meantime. And that's above and beyond what I take out for my 401K.

It ain't easy, but it's worth it. It's a peace-of-mind thing for me.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what did you get your master's in?

 

I was just going to say. If more of us married for money this would not matter.

 

I tried, but after it ended I had less money than when I started.

 

Same here, KY, right to the cent.

It'd be $427 if not for the lure of a (rather upscale) Podunk strip club a few weeks back.