I ended up in the ER this weekend for 10 hours. It was embarrassing and painful, and I barely avoided surgery. In the end, the fall-out is: 2 days off work & $200 co-pay. No big deal.
But it could have been worse. If I had been off work for a month, we would be screwed. After a month, I'm not even sure I would still have a job. We could probably make it on fiance's self-employed cash flow, but it's so unpredictable...
If fiance had been out of work a month, the cash flow would be no big deal. But his health insurance requires a $5,000 deductible. We don't have $5,000 to make sure he gets the care he needs.
This crisis has opened my eyes to our cash-poor position. It doesn't feel like it matters when you have big DINK salaries coming in regularly, but in reality we're really close to the edge if something serious happened. I don't ever want to borrow money from family or hold credit card balances again. I'm making that $5,000 in cash a priority.
4 comments:
Actually as DINKS you need more salary than most. Because you are used to having such a high salary.
Glad that you are doing well.
Actually, it's not how much salary you have coming in, it's how much of your salary you're spending. You should have about 8 months of expenses in an emergency fund according to some financial experts.
I'm sorry you had to go through that experience at the emergency room, but happy to hear you're okay. These kind of events always have a way of putting many things in perspective.
Barb1954
Happy to hear you're alright!
In response to the above.. 8 months of emergency expenses sounds like a bit much to leave "sitting around". I mean that's easily $10k. I think a month's worth of expenses in a money market/savings and the remainder (if you must) in some kind of low risk account - perhaps a CD (although rates are crap) or mutual fund.
Justin, so if you lose your job or have a major emergency (car or furnace dies, etc.) you don't mind paying the penalty to cash you a CD before its maturity date? The point of an emergency fund is to have liquid cash.
Barb1954
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