Few days before January 2013 ended, my desktop went crazy. I was doing some
photo editing task for a client from London but by the time I was going to save the heavy images, I could not save it straight to my computer although I wanted to save it on my Drive D with more spaces. It's just that my Drive C was very full. To think I only have 80 GB Hard Disk since five years ago. Being a freelancer, an 80 GB Hard Disk is not enough for me. I realized that it was a time for me to upgrade my equipment. The full story is in my personal blog,
Two Brand New Laptops in Two Days.
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| Used my emergency fund for this! |
I had no choice and used my
emergency fund. A laptop is very expensive. I even asked help from someone to back-up my expense in case my emergency fund is not enough. Indeed, I was right. As of this writing, I am in debt right now worth few thousands of pesos. This is an investment and I need a faster machine to do all my
online tasks. Good thing, the lender understood my situation and I am surely confident to pay it afterwards.
In few days, I am waiting for the ROI or Return of Investment. Of course, through my earnings from being a
freelancer. I am happy to say that before December 2012 ended, my freelance gig brought into life after I had my vacation from Manila with no work.
I need to re-grow my
emergency fund and will also set aside money just for having fun.
What are your other techniques to create an
emergency fund?
Well, it's a real emergency. It would have been worse to keep the emergency fund and eliminate your income stream.
ReplyDeleteI'd advise paying yourself first to regrow your emergency fund. It works best, I've recently found out first-hand.
In case that's not possible, a picky piggy bank might help. Just save every 1, 5 or 10 peso coin you get every day. Or save the new, crisp bills you get if that isn't too much from your daily budget.
You could try crafting a budget and allocating a certain amount for the emergency fund. It's similar to paying yourself first but may not as effective because it's sort of after the fact - you're already allocating from your entire income. And we usually have a lot of expenses to spend money on.
Or, since it's lent, give something up that you used to eat or buy:D and then save the money.
Wow, thanks for your great advice. Yes I have my uhm, well, not a piggy bank but a bear bank and I put my coins there. I am starting to regrow my emergency fund since I have received my income after I bought the laptop.
ReplyDeleteso my focus is to pay back my lender and pay myself first since I really don't spend that much. :D
Awesome! Keep it up!
ReplyDelete