Emergency Funds Prevent Emergencies

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“When you have an emergency fund, you tend to stop having emergencies,” says Dave Ramsey, as part of his Financial Peace University (FPU) course. He’s probably right.

Emergencies happen all the time: roofs leak, cars break down, the A/C breaks when it’s 95 degrees outside. Unplanned expenses can throw a family in crisis and add unnecessary stress. It’s exactly the reason that families need to get their finances in order. Now.

My husband and I are taking Ramsey’s FPU course this fall in order to better understand each other and how we deal with finances. We’ve been through a financial planning course before, and really benefited from it, so we’re hopeful this new course will deepen our understanding and desire to be debt free for life. Who doesn’t want that?

Ramsey tells people to start with getting $1,000 in the bank for emergencies. Once you have that, you can move toward other steps that will eventually, over time, get you to be at peace with your finances. He teaches that you need to “learn to manage your money instead of it managing you.” Amen.