Saving For Your Emergency Fund

I honestly feel that many people aren't saving for an Emergency Fund because many has never heard of it before. If you're one of the many, not to fear!

In my opinion, I feel that many people don't prepare for the unexpected. Let me give you an example.

Let's say you're working full time, paying rent, maybe have kids, or other mouths to feed. Don't forget all the bills you need to pay too. All of these aspects, important aspects in your life, depends on that one paycheck you get around every other week. THEN POW! Maybe you hurt yourself, OR maybe you lost your job, OR maybe you have a big leak in your place, OR maybe something else has been damaged. How are you going to support yourself then? 

What I'm trying to say is, we ALL need to have some savings on the side incase this happens (and I hope it doesn't). Believe me, this isn't being pessimistic, this is being smart.

It is VERY, VERY, VERY important to have an E M E R G E N C Y  F U N D saved up for yourself. You want to be prepared so that if anything happened, you will have less to worry about. Plus, if nothing ever does happen, at least you'll be feeling safe.

HOW MUCH DO YOU SAVE IN YOUR EMERGENCY FUND?

Ok, this part gets tricky. Before I tell you the common estimate of how much to have in your emergency fund, I want you to know that this shouldn't restrict you to only save in that range. If you feel it's not enough to cover yourself in any situation, then why not save up for more?

I'm sure there are a lot of different ranges provided out there, but I feel that a very stable amount to have in your emergency fund is 3 to 6 months of your paychecks worth after taxes (post-tax income). I've learned this from a very helpful article that I read on Mint, which you can reference to as well by clicking here.

PLEASE don't be intimidated by the amount that you need to be saving. You need to remember that this is the amount that you are SAVING, not SPENDING. There is no time span that you need to complete this by, and if you feel that you don't have as much as you would want in your emergency fund, just remember that anything is better than nothing. Even if it was just $100, wouldn't you feel better to know you have that $100 instead of nothing when that time comes?


Don't hold off this plan and tell yourself that you will do it next year, after Christmas, or when you get promoted. START NOW! Even if you're in a pinch with money at the time, even saving $10 here and there will really add up in the future.


I really do hope this not only teaches you something new, but that it also motivates you to start saving for an emergency fund.

Setting Your Financial Goals

As I start to budget my money better, I need to organize my financial goals. For those of us who may not know what your financial goals really are, let me give a very brief explanation.

Your financial goals is basically your wants or needs that you plan to obtain in a certain time frame.
Some examples of financial goals would be saving for a vacation, an emergency fund, paying of your credit card, buying a house/car, etc.

The time span of each goal is listed below (this will give you an idea of where to put each goal):
Short Term: Within 2 years
Mid Term: 2-5 years
Long Term: After 5 years

I had created a nice and simple personal financial goal that we all can scribble on!

Before we get started with this, I do want to inform you of a few things:

This may seem like a no-brainer but I feel that I must note:
Keep your goals realistic and obtainable!
You want to make your goals challenging, but you do not want them to be completely out of reach.

Also, don't be afraid to revise your goals. Revising your goals doesn't mean you  have failed to complete your plan. It just means that you have re-arranged your priorities & you've found something better to invest your money in.

We can do this friends! 

-Rennie

We're Starting This Organization Mission TOGETHER!

Before I start my mission to living a more organized life, I figured I should give a short introduction of myself to any curious readers that may come across this. My name is Rennie (hello, nice to meet you reader). I am 23 years old; 24 in February 2014, and I am completely DIS-ORGANIZED. My room, my eating habits, my financial habits, e v e r y t h i n g is just screaming dis-organized in my life. Although I had recently graduated with my Bachelors in Finance, let me tell you, this does not make you a more financially organized person. Just because someone is a Doctor, doesn't mean they will be healthy themselves. This goes for every other career out there.

Long story short, I realized that it takes more than just going to college learning about Finance. You really need to build better habits for yourself if you want to control your money better AND to be more organized with it.

Then it hit me that I don't want to just organize my personal financial patterns, I want to organize myself in LIFE! And you all are joining the ride with me.

So here we go, one small step at a time, one blog post at a time.

We will give each other useful tips and pointers that we have created ourselves, this will be a big melting pot of useful information to becoming PROS at organization!

Thank you to whoever decides to join me, and this will be a venture that we will enjoy & conquer!



-Rennie