Emergency cash reserves?

About 4 or 5 years ago I have a nice emergency fund.

But, over time with the rising cost of living and salary not keeping pace with inflation it has since withered away to ZERO :(
 
Fark all :(

If I had a better paying job, I could easily the difference between my current salary and the future salary...
 
Gone from about 6 months reserves down to pretty much sweet fek all...

Gotta love doing renovations.... biggest bloody cash sink ever.
 
grantza said:
i mentioned here before, that i had a bit of a problem changing the old R200 notes for new ones at the reserve bank.

i had about R40k

the point of keeping the cash, is when i drop dead, there is still cash available for whoever it may be, to deal with things while my bank accounts are frozen until the executor of my estate completes his job

if you have a wife & kids, consider it an obligation to have cash available for your family if you suddenly drop dead.
1st thing that happens are bank accounts being locked down - that does not help your wife trying to continue supporting your family while the estate is being wound up.
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That is why my life insurance pays out 100k within 24 hours to my wife in the event that I die while the executor is wounding up the estate.

Keeping that amount of money in your house is not the greatest of ideas (especially give that you have to tell your wife about hit :D )

edit: to answer the question, I have absolutely f0kkerol stashed away for a rainy day :(
 
Bugger all. I would have about 20% of my salary free but just bought Fiance a ring and car is on its last legs. Pump atleast 10% of my salary into a dying car every month. New this, new that

Oh and student loan is just sitting.

So to answer the question, zero. Nothing. Nothing at all
 
Spent a fortune on Holiday in April with killed my cash reserves..

Currently 2 months but I would have to cut back A LOT.
 
I have one month in reserve as I pumped everything into my car which was finally paid of last month.
 
I tend to keep 1-4 months worth of my income after tax in my access bond. Never go lower than 1 month savings if I'm buying something cash, thats my rule.
 
Several years for me. Low burn rate FTW!
 
Well with preparations for my wife going on maternity leave I'm working very hard towards getting our cash balance on 4 x her salary at the very least.

All that considered I figure 4 x house hold salary is a very safe bet. But a safer bet would just be income protection insurance which I also have in place.
 
For me its about the same...~3 months to zero. I've also realized since that this stuff doesn't scale at all - I earn significantly more now than when I posted this thread initial...and haven't made an inch of progress in terms of the "months" measure - perhaps half a step back.

cguy said:
Several years for me. Low burn rate FTW!
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Damn...even with a low burn rate that has to be a decent bit of coin.

SauRoNZA said:
a safer bet would just be income protection insurance which I also have in place.
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How so? I've always been inherently skeptical of those plans tbh...no particular reason aside from generic mistrust of salesmen bearing [-]gifts[/-] policies rarely ending well.
 
Well obviously you pay a small amount up front to cover your risk and do so continuously.

You could however build the capital while going about this and then stop the insurance cover when you can meet the payout conditions yourself.

There's no scam about it. It's like any other insurance.

Like you said yourself you have made any headway in this regard. However you get a policy and be covered from tomorrow for a small contribution.


You'd be much less at risk as opposed to having no savings at all. But then it depends how seriously you expect a problem to occur. Apparently not very much since you haven't planned for it, so why worry?
 
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have +-3 months worth saved in chq account, although I actually think I need to move it somewhere where I can get some interest on it. have about 1 month saved on my credit card

I am pretty sure though that I can stretch this 4 months to more, with cutting back
 
SauRoNZA said:
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I'm guessing they won't let me take one out on a fixed term contract? :D

But good info anyway - should get a perma contract after this so then I'll look at it.

SauRoNZA said:
But then it depends how seriously you expect a problem to occur. Apparently not very much since you haven't planned for it, so why worry?
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No wife & child so I can absorb a bit more risk.

wizdumb said:
I am pretty sure though that I can stretch this 4 months to more, with cutting back
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Same...if not more. I guess it depends on how drastic & immediate the cuts are. I'm pretty much *only* committed to a 24 month cell contract so theoretically the cuts could be drastic but saying & doing is two different things. Would have to give up my beloved ADSL for example for a "drastic" cut. (Edit: Plus committed to a fkin gym membership)
 
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Permanent contract might actually be covered. Non permanent not so much.
 
If I lost my job tomorrow I could go 2 years no problem. The trick is to not fall into the trap of thinking the latest toys and an expensive lifestyle are the same thing as happiness. There are always people living fairly comfortably off a lot less than you. Keep your expenses bellow your income and you will be fine. If you need practical advice on how read a book called the Millionaire next door. If my current trajectory keeps going I will be able to comfortably retire at age 55 where most South African's are never able to retire comfortably mainly due to what cars they choose to drive and where they choose to live.
 
Cius said:
If I lost my job tomorrow I could go 2 years no problem. The trick is to not fall into the trap of thinking the latest toys and an expensive lifestyle are the same thing as happiness. There are always people living fairly comfortably off a lot less than you. Keep your expenses bellow your income and you will be fine. If you need practical advice on how read a book called the Millionaire next door. If my current trajectory keeps going I will be able to comfortably retire at age 55 where most South African's are never able to retire comfortably mainly due to what cars they choose to drive and where they choose to live.
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Yeah. There is a lot of "keeping up with the Joneses'" mentality, where the reality is that the Joneses have no retirement plan, and are secretly living paycheck to paycheck. Also, "going big" early on your car or house, means that you become a proud life-time supporter of your bank.

Personally, my wife and I have no car, a 2010 cell phone, one laptop between us, and a 2009 PC at home, no jewelry (just wedding rings), super-expensive clothing or other extraneous luxuries. This stuff just isn't important to us - we prefer to have several properties paid off, and earning income, which we do have. There are still luxuries that we do indulge in, but we choose the ones that actually benefit us, rather than trying to impress random strangers, or rub our friend's noses in our success. Trying to wipe out our current bond right now (should be less than 2 years since taking it out).
 
cguy said:
Yeah. There is a lot of "keeping up with the Joneses'" mentality.....
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Guess we all know people like that. My one friend has 3 cars in his garage, one of which is a 'Merc'. I know for a fact that he is more than 3 months [about 4 months now] behind on his bond. At least he can stay in one of his cars should he lose his house.

Personally, have enough saved to last me a pretty long time.
 
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