Comments on: An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend

By: 109th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance | Cash Money Life

109th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance | Cash Money Life — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:08:10 +0000

[...] Living Behind the Curve – An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend. [...]

By: Living Behind The Curve » $500 Bucks Was Apparently Optimistic

Living Behind The Curve » $500 Bucks Was Apparently Optimistic — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:05:37 +0000

[...] Thursday is simplicity day, I’ve got a real simple post for you. Remember the door we were supposed to buy? We didn’t buy it yet. We got an $800 dollar estimate from Lowes, and after several weeks and [...]

By: Living Behind The Curve » What Goes “Squeak, Squeak, Snap”?

Living Behind The Curve » What Goes “Squeak, Squeak, Snap”? — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:05:24 +0000

[...] As you may recall, we’re dealing with a mouse problem. It’s one of those situations that seems like it should be peppered with (ahem) cheesy jokes, but really, all we have in the American lexicon is the mental image of the stockings’n’pearls 50’s housewife squealing from atop the kitchen table while a cartoon cat attempts to catch the mouse and only succeeds in bumbling towards his certain doom. [...]

By: Living Behind The Curve » Fire Up Your Browser, It’s Carnival Time Again!

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:09:40 +0000

[...] mania hit a new and final high, there’s Frugality, Morality & Harry Potter. We threw An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend into the [...]

By: Family Finance Blog » Blog Archive » The 109th Carnival of Personal Finance

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:37:33 +0000

[...] Is a mouse an emergency? If it is going to eat up (or spoil) hundreds of dollars of stored foods it is. Living behind the curve talks about their $500 weekend on emergency money. [...]

By: 70 Tidbits and Tips on Personal Finance - The 109th Carnival of Personal Finance - “First Post” Edition »

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:01:51 +0000

[...] An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend from Living Behind the Curve. Dani shares a real-life story on why emergency funds are important. Dani’s first post: 5/20/2007. [...]

By: Dani

Dani — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:20:07 +0000

@NCN -

I think I see – you’re using separate accounting for savings and emergency fund, rather than separate physical accounts. I think that’s what I was hung up on.

By: NCN

NCN — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:02:09 +0000

No prob… just to clarify…
I keep my “emergency funds” (6 to 12 months worth of expenses) in the same “account” that I keep my general savings.. and, I can use the interest (plus additional deposits) to buy the car… I should have clarified, but I’m sure you see the point… I want a “base” amount of 20K (no matter what) and will build the actual “account” balance as i save for the auto… NCN

By: Dani

Dani — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:45:25 +0000

@NCN: Thank you for your feedback! I did read your original post, and based my conculsions, in part, on the following section: "For the 24 month period from January 2008 until December 2009, I will deposit a total of $7800 ($325 X 24). Adding that to the amount of interest that I will make during that same period of time (about $2200) and I will arrive at my grand total of $10,000. So, in two years, I could purchase a $10,000 automobile after making $7800 in "payments" to myself. Notes: The above calculations assume that I will NOT have to use my emergency fund funds for any other purchases, that the interest rate in my ING account will not dip below 4.5%, and does not include tax that I will pay on interest earned." The second paragraph references the first, and therefore it appears that all of this money will be deposited in your ING emergency fund, and is cash you already planned to put there. My observation was that in the situation described, you would use the $7800 in deposits plus the $2200 in interest to buy the car (whereas on interest alone, you would be purchasing a $10,000 car for $2200). You also state that these calculations assume that you will not have to use your emergency fund for anything else during this two-year time frame, which is a long time to bet on nothing going wrong. When I began researching links for this article, I performed a cursory search on a number of different PF sites for the term "emergency fund"; My goal was to see the results that a random visitor would get upon searching for that term. Once I read your comments, I returned to your site and drillled down further through that same search term. I did find this post from December 2006 five pages in. I apologize for the omission, but as a blogger yourself I'm sure you understand that it is not always possible to read every post. I did enjoy your original post (I find studies of interest paid vs. interest earned fascinating), and I appreciate your taking the time to comment here. Thanks for visiting!

By: NCN

NCN — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:52:43 +0000

If you read my post… You’ll see that I am using the INTEREST from my emergency fund to help purchase the car… and NOT the Emergency Fund itself… If you read my story, you’ll see that I used my emergency fund, several times, while getting out of debt.. NCN