Saving for Emergencies

My road to happiness began with marriage to a wonderful man over 17 years ago. We married young, still in college, and began our family immediately. In those days, our idea of financial stability rested on whether or not we could get food on the table, pay the rent and pay tuition. I stopped working (for pay) when my oldest son was born, and my husband’s part-time student job was not nearly enough to cover all our expenses. Thanks to prayer, and generous relatives who had learned the value of saving early in their lives, we made it through, both receiving our bachelor’s degrees before the birth of our second child.
But even then we had our dreams. That’s why we worked so hard to graduate. After the birth of our 3rd child, my husband got his first “real” job. We began saving immediately, knowing it was the only way to reach our financial dreams
Things have changed a lot since then, though I still spend my full-time mothering my children, now seven strong, ranging in age from 15 to 2. As each was born, we opened small savings accounts for them to reach their own financial dreams.
Despite our efforts, the road of life has many unexpected twists and turns. We often come across unexpected roadblocks, like last spring when we had hundreds of dollars in auto repairs, and 2 months ago when two of my daughters needed glasses, and last month when the dentist surprised us with 3 cavity-filled kids and mine own 2 cracked molars that needed crowns! Ouch! Or like two days ago when the appliance repairman informed us that we would need to replace not one, but TWO of our major kitchen appliances!
So our savings goal is a simple one. Put away 10% into our ING Orange account every time we receive any money. And don’t touch it – ever – except for emergencies that we can’t pay with our regular budget. As we add to this account, our feeling of security rises. We feel such peace, knowing that when life’s detours arise, we can turn to our ING savings instead of using a credit card. Paying ourselves first each month is propelling us down the road to financial independence at great speed! With this emergency savings, we can be back on the road again in a jiffy, no matter what bumps or detours come our way.

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