Why You Need an Emergency Fund and How to Get One

BY MARY HUNT

Four weeks before Christmas, Mitch and Jenn had a string of bad luck. Mitch broke his leg in a skiing accident. Jenn’s car broke down, requiring major repairs. And the aged roof of their home decided to fail right in the midst of a major storm.

The financial and emotional toll these events took on them was huge but nothing like it might have been if they hadn’t been diligently building a contingency fund, more commonly known as an emergency fund.

Mitch’s health insurance is covering most of the costs of his surgery and follow-up therapy. Still, they had to come up with more than $2,400 to cover his deductible, copays and prescriptions. The car repairs were just shy of $2,700.

It was the roof that really threw them for a loop. The estimate to repair it -- with no assurance that said repairs would last for longer than a few months

-- was $750. A new roof estimate came in at $12,000.

Suddenly, their healthy $18,000 contingency fund didn’t look quite as massive.

Mitch and Jenn are crash saving so that when they replace the roof this summer, the cost will not deplete their fund. And they’re committed to continue saving like that to restore it back to $18,000 by year’s end.

I know what many readers are thinking: Sure, Mitch and Jenn are wealthy, so of course they have money to save. They’re lucky because they have two incomes, and we have only one. Must be nice, but what about those of us who are unemployed, unhealthy, deeply in debt or (insert excuse of choice here)?

As long as you see building your contingency fund as optional, there will always be something more pressing that takes priority.

Need specific reasons to grow your

CF? Here they are. Learn them well, and then believe with all your heart that something on this list is coming your way.

Chronic illness. When you or someone in your family is really sick or involved in an accident or contracts a horrible disease, you need to be prepared. Insurance only goes so far these days.

The dreaded pink slip. Getting a pink slip is never fun, and when it comes out of the blue with no notice, it will be shocking. You need a way to pay your bills until you get another job.

A distant job. Your next job may be four states away. Moving will not be cheap.

Serious breakdown. If you think car maintenance is expensive, wait until you see the cost of repairs.

Disaster. A broken furnace, leaking roof, natural disaster -- who knows what form this type of emergency will take?

Final call. Who wants to plan ahead for mourning? Not me. But knowing I have money stashed in my CF for when bereavement requires travel means that I don’t have to think about it now. I’m

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Crossword Answers

BY CLAIRE LYNCH

My cousin, Elaina, and I were talking about kids today and we had a few compliments for them. They pick up new technology so easily and many times we’re envious. They attach photos on their smart phones and send them as quickly as can be and they google this and that. It all seems to make them look so smart.

We’ve seen kids say the darnest things as the TV show says and they do the darnest things and I’m always amazed at what advances have been made in technology.

What still lingers is the generation gap, this cultural divide between those under 40 and those of us who are 50+. While conversing it’s not unusual for us to get blank stares when we blurt out something about people we grew up with on TV.

My niece, Shannon looks at me blankly when I mention Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. “Who?” she will ask quizzically unless she happened to catch some old reruns on the movie channel.

She’s heard of Presidents John Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower but that’s from reading about them in history books. She wasn’t alive when they were and the skills they had and the magic they possessed is clear when a teacher describes their accomplishments or shows media clips.

At first Shannon and I denied there was a generation gap because we want to be congenial - we don’t want anything to come between us since we get along great. But there’s no denying the fact that what she grew up with and what my friends, siblings and I grew up with, were exposed to and experienced are two very different things.

As I was talking with Shannon, I