Author Topic: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!  (Read 2528 times)

ducky19

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Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« on: March 16, 2017, 07:22:02 PM »
So I've been churning credit cards for the past 4-5 years and have around $300K in available credit. Until recently, I was using this plus around $3-5K in savings as an emergency fund knowing I could take up to $20K in cash at 0% for 12-18 months with anywhere from a 1-4% transaction fee. I promised DW that we would grow our cash savings to $20K this year while still paying cash to finish off two rooms in our basement. As of March's paycheck, we have $10,687.51 in the savings account! I just bought the drywall to do the bedroom at Menards for around $100. Trying to buy materials as they are on sale even though we won't be starting the rooms until late spring/early summer. Will need to drop a couple grand on an egress window soon. The bedroom won't take much, but the other room is a bathroom building from scratch so there will be some expense there. We are firm believers in the ReStore from Habitat for Humanity though, so will keep expenses as low as possible. The number one factor in making this possible finally is my commitment to paying myself first. Each month, $2K goes into savings right off of the top. This is in addition to $450 that I put into another savings account to cover medical expenses and quarterly/biannual payments. So far, it's working well! I will update each month with progress made.

katsiki

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2017, 07:44:08 PM »
Congratulations!  That is awesome.

tarheeldan

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2017, 07:55:35 PM »
Congratulations! Also, wow that is a lot of available credit lol

ducky19

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2017, 08:45:53 PM »
Thanks guys!

Slee_stack

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2017, 10:10:55 AM »
Congrats on the accumulation!

Now get that money working for you somewhere.

I actually prefer your CC cash advance emergency fund method.  Why let your own dollars sit idle?

katsiki

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2017, 11:24:30 AM »
Agreed.  You could always put in a Roth.

ducky19

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2017, 12:16:58 PM »
I may do that, I just got done funding the Roth for 2016. My wife doesn't have one, so I could potentially still fund one for her for 2016, then both of us for 2017 making another $16,500. The main reason for letting it sit in cash is my wife's comfort level. I am going to try to work on her some more though and convince her that this would be a better use of the money. I am comfortable with around $3,000 in cash myself, plus we have another account with a minimum of $3,000 in it for the rental. Combined with the credit cards, there's plenty of buffer there if we needed to pull some money out of the Roths.

katsiki

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Re: Cleared $10K in the emergency fund!
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2017, 12:27:17 PM »
I may do that, I just got done funding the Roth for 2016. My wife doesn't have one, so I could potentially still fund one for her for 2016, then both of us for 2017 making another $16,500. The main reason for letting it sit in cash is my wife's comfort level. I am going to try to work on her some more though and convince her that this would be a better use of the money. I am comfortable with around $3,000 in cash myself, plus we have another account with a minimum of $3,000 in it for the rental. Combined with the credit cards, there's plenty of buffer there if we needed to pull some money out of the Roths.

I'm with you.  I am just starting to move emergency fund money to a roth myself.  I will probably let it sit uninvested until I build some "extra" EF $$$.  I was able to do this pretty easily with my credit union.  As I build up the extra EF, I will probably move the Roth monies to Vanguard or Fidelity.