How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

lexi1890 Posted: Feb 25, 2009 09:29 PM

How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

How much do you and DH have in an emergency/savings fund, especially if you own a house or plan on owning a house in the near future?

I am afraid we don't have enough in savings to take a big step like buying a house....it makes me nervous.

kimNanthony Posted: Feb 25, 2009 09:31 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

You don't have zero as an option so I can't vote

lizzie217 Posted: Feb 25, 2009 09:35 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

Voted

lexi1890 Posted: Feb 25, 2009 09:37 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

Posted by kimNanthony

You don't have zero as an option so I can't vote

oh shoot i should have put that.....

MikeandJess Posted: Feb 25, 2009 09:37 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

you don't have my option in there. For a really long time I've been putting $20 a week into an ING account so I earn some interest. I have a lot in that account now and I don't even miss the $20 a week, it's great. That's our security fund but it's also doubles as our down payment for a house fund.

futuremrsfab Posted: Feb 25, 2009 10:20 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

we have three months worth of mortgage/maintenance payments

but unfortunately if either of us lost our jobs, it would probably take longer to get a new job- scary

shoegal68 Posted: Feb 25, 2009 10:45 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

we have our joint MM acct as an emergency fund. also, i have an account in my name only that has some. not a whole hell of alot. i watch Suze Orman & she gives great advice. she says every woman should have something in her name alone and contribute towards the family acct also.

we are just about to buy a house & still have to sell my co-op. i got a good tax refund that should cover a couple of months in case we can't sell it right away. i put a good down payment down when i bought my co-op. so my monthly mortgage is only $600.00

jgl Posted: Feb 25, 2009 11:16 PM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

ive heard you should have 3-6 months expenses

Kimbalina Posted: Feb 26, 2009 07:11 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

We have $ in a savings account which we want to use for purchasing a condo.. and that $ is really not much at all right now.

nifheim Posted: Feb 26, 2009 08:34 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

I just realize we have savings but it would all go to a dp for a house, i have savings for retirement only (IRA) after that we have $500. So we are now saving for that 'buffer' which probably will be only 3-5K at first when we move. Certain towns if you meet the requirements will match your dp up to 20k which we will be doing so we will have more of a dp then our lousy one currently but we have to wait until funding comes in.

Then also remember you can get up to 8k in a tax credit for buying your first home as long as it is in 2009. This is a tax credit that you will not have to pay back you might need to declare it the following year on your taxes (unsure) and that credit will go as our buffer.

So now we are pushing on searching for a home until late summer/early fall this way we move late fall/winter and then tax time and we get credit. I keep forgetting that the house prices normally drop in the winter months so it might favor for us.

I plan on only spending the credit on EMERGENCY stuff, like if we needed new windows or something otherwise it gets stashed away never to be touched furnishing the house is when we save up and get the money to do so - i am more then happy with my barely used stuff I got passed down to me

Autumn08 Posted: Feb 26, 2009 08:39 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

We have on savings account. We save predominently for the DP but it also acts as our emergency fund for now.

TommysWife08 Posted: Feb 26, 2009 08:46 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

we have a little over $2k... i wish it was more tho... but glad we have something!

MnM182008 Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:05 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

We saved so much money for the wedding, we lived for basically two years broke because we put everything towards our wedding. Since we got married we've been spending. We have to get back into the saving mode. We have a small amount in our savings, and opened iras (which I am happy we did).
Even a little something is better than nothing =)

Future Mulligan Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:15 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

i don't want to say but i will vote.....we had a few thousand left in our savings the day of the wedding (thank god!!!) we were worried we might have to use it all up but thankfully we did not.....then we added our wedding gifts to that minus spending money for the HM......and still saving as we speak......its for our house downpayment and hopefully we'll still have a chunk left over for anything we want to upgrade in the house and for an emergency

Mici n KC Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:41 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

Posted by jgl

ive heard you should have 3-6 months expenses

It's actually 9 months.

Mici n KC Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:42 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

We have enough for 3 months, which really isn't very long. We're trying to build up more than that though. It's hard because my second job isn't giving me any hours because of the economy.

Jenn04 Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:44 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

DH is a really good saver and we are saving so I dont have to work when we have kids or if god forbid we/he both lost our jobs - we could make it awhile. I have to thank him though because I was never good at it before.

teenigrrl Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:53 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

we were very lucky that when DH sold his condo, there was a really good profit. we were able to pay off all of our debts, and still have enough to renovate our house and have 6 months worth of expenses in savings. we definitely spent too much while living rent free w/ the ILs, but it was the holidays, and we know that now we won't be able to spend much at all, so we enjoyed our last hurrah!

KarinAmanda Posted: Feb 26, 2009 09:55 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

we have about 20k but I am NOT comfortable with that amount. we have talked about having children but I feel like we need 2-3 times that in an emergency account/savings before we can start.

it is soooo hard to save

wo0shply Posted: Feb 26, 2009 10:21 AM

Re: How much do you have in a savings/emergency fund?

Definately not enough... DH is the only one working full time and I'm working part time and going to school... hopefully I will get a full time job soon