According to a brand new survey from Bankrate.com, just 37% of Americans have enough savings to pay for a $500 or $1,000 emergency. And a growing percentage of Americans have no emergency savings whatsoever!

An emergency fund is a financial safety net for future mishaps and unexpected expenses. We need an emergency fund to help us take care of unforeseen circumstances like a health emergency, disability, or job loss, and so on so that they can lead to a lack of revenue.

How Can You Build Your Emergency Fund?

Most financial advisors recommend that we need to save some money aside in a liquid account for the rainy days. And that you can start by saving three to six months of monthly payments for an emergency fund which you can easily access should you have an unforeseen circumstance.

I know you might be wondering how and where can I start saving my emergency fund! Here are a few ideas to help you start building your emergency fund on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. It’s always a good idea to set a goal and then you can come up with the amount that you want to save regularly later.

1. Look For Easy Places To Cut Or Manage Your Expenses – Make sure you understand the concept of needs and wants and apply it to your spending habits. An emergency fund is one of the pillars of building a financial foundation for our families and our future. Our priority would be to spend more on needs and spend less on wants.

2. Set A Timetable For Your Emergency Fund Savings – The goal is to have at least three to six months of your monthly payments, but you can break it down by setting your saving target and then the amount every week or month. Expect that it will take a while to build a large emergency fund savings, but it starts with you being disciplined and consistent.

3. Open A Separate Account For Emergency Fund – It’s often said the first step is always the hardest. If you combined your emergency fund with your regular savings account, you will be tempted to spend it. It’s advisable to open a separate liquid account where you can easily withdraw money during an emergency situation.

4. Automate Your Emergency Fund Savings – In order to ensure that you really stick to your timetable and build your emergency fund, set up a direct deposit so that a set amount of money from your paycheck is sent directly into your emergency fund account by-weekly or every month. That way, you don’t have to remember to move it yourself each time.

5. You Can Save Your Tax Refund And Company Bonus – Many Americans use their company bonus every year to purchase a lot of liabilities instead of assets. Saving your tax refund is an easy way to boost your emergency fund. During tax season we have the option to have our refund deposited directly into your emergency account.

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You Don’t Have To Borrow Money Or Use Your Credit Card For Emergency Fund.

Many Americans borrow money or use their credit cards for emergency funds. If you don’t have money in an emergency fund account when disaster strikes, you’ll need to come up with some funds to take care of emergency circumstances.

This could mean selling some of your assets at a loss during times of economic trouble or loss of a job. Not having an emergency fund can force you to accept high-interest rate loans for car repairs or house renovation. Putting a certain percentage of your pay in a liquid account consistently will help you avoid the above-mentioned situation.

How Much Should I Save For Emergency Fund?

There’s no perfect amount for you to save for emergency funds, but banks and financial advisors recommend that three to six months your monthly payments or monthly expenses are the best goal when you start and you can increase it when your income or cash flow increases.

Remember that every family’s financial situation is not the same, so the right amount will depend on your family’s financial circumstances. Let’s assume you lose your job, for instance, you could use the money to pay for necessities while looking for a new job, or your emergency funds could supplement your unemployment benefits.

Why Do I Need An Emergency Fund?

Emergency funds create a financial buffer that can keep you afloat in a time of need without having to rely on credit cards or take out high-interest loans for expensive home repairs.

It should be used during periods of unemployment, medical emergencies, paying for home repairs due to natural disasters, emergency veterinarian bills, and unforeseen vehicle repairs. Without cash on hand to cover unexpected bills, families often end up opting for costly strategies, such as running up credit card balances.

Unexpected Events Can Occur At Any Time.

With the total death toll from coronavirus in the United States now at over one hundred and ninety- two thousand at the time of my writing and with tens of millions of Americans unemployed, it’s no surprise that many people are facing shortfalls when it comes to purchasing food and necessities for their families during the coronavirus pandemic period.

It’s time to act now and take the advice of banks and financial advisors and start saving money for an emergency fund because every family needs to have it now. We don’t know for sure how long this pandemic is going last or when the next one might come, but if we are better informed and prepared, then we will not face the economic devastation that we are seeing today in our country.

“If you have any feedback about the significance of having an emergency fund that you have tried out or any questions about the ones that I have recommended, please leave your comments below!”

NB: The purpose of this website is to provide a general understanding of personal finance, basic financial concepts, and information. It’s not intended to advise on tax, insurance, investment, or any product and service. Since each of us has our own unique situation, you should have all the appropriate information to understand and make the right decision to fit with your needs and your financial goals. I hope that you will succeed in building your financial future.

When getting ready for retirement, the best people wish to be sure they have the cash to shuttle and revel in life. However, while that’s essential, indulging your hobbies and pleasant your desires is never the most effective thing you should worry about doing together with your retirement backup egg.

In reality, some of your largest charges may additionally turn upright through the hardest years of retirement, and they may additionally no longer be non-compulsory.

What Are The Toughest Retirement Years?

For many individuals, they are the years wherein they commence to journey serious fitness issues. Unfortunately, a new analysis from Edward Jones revealed earlier Americans live an average of years in bad health.

This decade of your lifestyle is probably going to be not just bodily complex, but additionally financially difficult as well. It’s because should you launch to journey health concerns, your consumption of clinical capabilities often raises. You may also accept greater doctor visits, medical institution stays, and decree medication to pay for. And opposite to customary perception, these charges don’t seem to be totally lined by Medicare.

Basically, you should expect co-pays, deductibles, premiums, and out-of-pocket expenses, you may be taking a look at spending six figures on medical functions during the common retirement. It’s always good to plan early for retirement when we have the means.

What Are The Challenges That We Face As We Age?

As if that accomplishment is rarely horrifying adequate, these complicated years commonly make it unimaginable to continue to reside independently. As many as 70% of older Americans require some type of careful affliction, either in a nursing domestic atmosphere or from home healthcare aids, during the route of their retirement.

The prices linked to this can also be astronomical, topping hundreds of dollars a year in some instances. If you journey a typical year of poor fitness and need nursing home care for the majority of that point, the price tag might come close to thousands of dollars none of which is lined through Medicare, in most circumstances. Some people shop for retirement planning financial products while they were still young and actively working in order to have a comfortable stress free retirement.

This post contains affiliate links. Please please read my Disclaimer for more information.

Healthy Life Style Is Beneficial To Our Retirement Years.

Unluckily, if you happen to journey serious fitness issues, you frequently can not effectively select no longer to pay for the clinical care you want — discovering a means to cowl these costs is simple. And activity back to work is essentially certainly not a choice, each on account of your serious fitness considerations and because of the truth they are likely to come up after on your lifestyles afterward, you could have been out of the personnel for a long time.

Our health is the greatest wealth we will ever have. Without our health, our vitality, our best energy, every part of our lives has the opportunity to suffer. When we are young we spend so much time worrying about our careers and money, but we should also spend much time taking care of our health and plan for our retirement.

How Can We Prevent Some Of These Retirement Challenges?

Health is an investment and could be considered as an investment that might affect our retirement. When we are young, we can’t just rely on short-term healthy diets, the number on the scale, good night sleep, a one-week or a two-week vacation, or a day off from work to create a longer, healthier life.

Most Americans don’t think about healthy living while they are young but rather focused on their careers and money. If you are certainly one of them, you could find yourself in acute straits right through a decade of negative fitness as you be concerned about both your clinical considerations and your economic ones when you approach your retirement years. In case you don’t wish to agonize about cash at the same time that your fitness is failing, it would be essential to planning for these difficult retirement years.

In case you haven’t yet larboard the team of workers, which you can try this through because of the seeming charge of medical services back environment retirement reductions desires. If you are eligible to put money into a fitness rate reductions anecdote, accomplishing so can also support you construct a backup-egg appropriate for your approaching scientific needs towards your personal retirement health goals.

How To Adjust To Retirement Life Style.

When you are already retired and never yet in poor fitness, that you would be able to additionally seize steps now to make sure you are in a position if this destiny befalls you sooner or later. Make sure to keep a secure abandonment price so that you will have discount rates to assist you late in your lifestyle. Get standard medical care to try to stay as suit as which you could as long as possible, and explore your assurance alternate options carefully all over Medicare start acceptance to get the appropriate coverage.

Demography these accomplishments may also no longer seem to be enjoyable, and you can achieve that you just grow to be with beneath years when your fitness is poor, but for the reason that a decade of physical difficulties is normal, you superior be prepared for it.

When And How We Should Prepare For Retirement.

I think getting prepared for retirement also depends on when you start planning for it. When preparing for retirement, most people want to make sure they have the money to travel and enjoy life. While that’s important, indulging your hobbies and fulfilling your dreams isn’t the only thing you need to worry about doing with your retirement nest egg. I think thinking in advance and acting on those thoughts is key to being ready when the future becomes the present. The younger you are, the more distant your retirement and the greater your ability to compound your returns over time. The window of time is your greatest advantage. That being said, retirement shouldn’t be the worst period of our lives especially when you have a solid retirement plan.

“If you have any feedback about how prepared are you for retirement? – we will find out that you have tried out or any questions about the ones that I have recommended, please leave your comments below!”

NB: The purpose of this website is to provide a general understanding of personal finance, basic financial concepts, and information. It’s not intended to advise on tax, insurance, investment, or any product and service. Since each of us has our own unique situation, you should have all the appropriate information to understand and make the right decision to fit with your needs and your financial goals. I hope that you will succeed in building your financial future.

Hello there, welcome to my personal finance wellness website. Personal finance has been a passion of mine dating back to my time in China as an international student at Hebei University of Science and Technology and also when I worked as a sales manager for a Chinese pharmaceutical company after graduating from University.

I immigrated to the United States ten years ago to start a new life in one of the greatest countries in the world and the land of opportunities. While in the United States, my fascination with entrepreneurship and finance continues to grow. I started reading books like, Think And Grow Rich, The Richest Man In Babylon, and Rich Dad Poor Dad.

After then, I became more interested in knowing more about money and personal finance and wanted to share the information with my friends, family, and my community to help many people who are working hard but are still struggling financially. I’m a Life and Health licensed Insurance Agent who has been working for World Financial Group and World System Builder for almost three years now. I presently help families and clients in MD, VA, KY, and CT.

My Childhood Story About Personal Finance.

I’m an American who was born in Cameroon to a family of six children, four boys, and two girls. I’m second to the last child. I came from a humble background where my parents were very successful farmers who grew cocoa beans and palm trees as a primary source of income. My parents were living in our little hometown or village in the southwest region of Cameroon.

As a young boy, I didn’t have the opportunity to grow up with my siblings and my biological parents. The reason being that my mother’s younger sister had just one child who happens to be a girl, so she pleaded with my mother to send one of her sons to live with her daughter so that she can have the feeling of having a younger brother. My mother loved her younger sister so much and wanted to please her and help with her dream of having a big happy family.

If you are familiar with African culture, you will realize that Africans like a big family, but my mother’s younger sister wasn’t happy because she had just one child. So parents decided that I was the child that will be given to my mother’s younger sister who was a high school teacher in a big city called Kumba. At three years old I started living with my mother’s younger sister who became my foster mother.

My new foster parents were teachers and God-loving people who were Christians. They came from a generation where their parents weren’t educated, so their parents wanted them to be more educated than them. They were told by their parents that, the only way to be successful in life is to go to school, work hard, and get good grades. When you do that and graduate with your degrees you will be able to have a good-paying job with the government or private companies. My sister and I were told the same thing and we had to do the same thing that my foster mom and her husband were told to do by their parents.

Considering the above mentioned, by now you should have noticed that we didn’t have a typical childhood where you might have your dreams or where your parents will ask you what do you want to be in the future. Questions like that weren’t part of our family discussions, but things like how are your scores in math, history, physics, and the list goes on.

I Was Very Passionate About Science And Technology.

During my primary school years my foster parents found out that I was a kind of hands-on guy and was interested in fixing toys, so they decided that I will go to a technical college for my secondary and high school education. So I went to Government Technical High School where I studied Electrical Technology for seven years. And after my high school graduation, I went to China as an international student where I did my BSc at Hebei University of Science and Technology. It was in China where I started thinking differently from my family values and beliefs.

That’s when I realized that my parents never talked about money, financial education, and entrepreneurship, and these things were not taught in schools either. My parents thought that money was evil and they didn’t like to know more or talk about it. We ended up with a lot of family members who were educated, but broke and couldn’t even make ends meet.

My old ways of thinking changed when I was living overseas as a foreign student. I started learning from the Chinese students how to save money and spend less and when I started working for a Chinese pharmaceutical company as a sales manager, I had the opportunity to travel to other Asia countries like Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore.

The more I travel, the more I got to know more about other cultures and also understood the disparity in every country between the middle class and the top five percent and how much these people know about money, personal finance, and entrepreneurship.

After living in the United States for over ten years, I’ve seen a lot of people struggling with money problems because they don’t understand how money works and lack personal financial literacy, I decided to make a difference in people’s lives. In 2018 I joined a campaign for financial literacy, since then I have been educating middle-class and low-income immigrant families on how to manage their finances. I used to do walk-in workshops in family homes and kitchen tables, but with COVID 19, we have to have our workshops on zoom every weekend.

Making A Difference In People’s Lives.

My story is like the story of many immigrant families all over North America who came from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa and had to start all over in a new environment and sometimes struggled to understand the language, financial concepts, basic finance, and financial products.

As someone who was born in Africa, lived in Asia for over seven years, and experience for the past tens years here I thought it was a good thing for me to create a platform where people can share information and answer questions about basic financial concepts, understanding of some financial products and also do personal finance workshop.

We spend so many years in school learning how to make a living, but we should also invest our time learning the financial basics to save a fortune. I used to live from paycheck to paycheck, but after I learned more about personal finance and basic financial concepts my financial situation has changed and I have helped a lot of families in my community move from financial insecurity to financial independence. I’m very passionate about what I do and I love it.

I love helping people and what I do allows me to meet a lot of people from different communities around this beautiful country. Hopefully, we cross paths in the real world someday and we can make it a better place together.

Be Part Of Personal Finance Wellness.

Wherever you are in your understanding of how money works and personal finance and money journey, I want you to know that you have what it takes to make your financial dreams a reality. And the journey to financial freedom will be the greatest adventure of your life. Please just take the first step and together through this platform we will change people’s lives.

If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.

All the best,

Patrick
Founder of Personal Finance Wellness.

NB: The purpose of this website is to provide a general understanding of personal finance, basic financial concepts, and information. It’s not intended to advise on tax, insurance, investment, or any product and service. Since each of us has our own unique situation, you should have all the appropriate information to understand and make the right decision to fit with your needs and your financial goals. I hope that you will succeed in building your financial future.