By Trent Hamm
I often talk about emergency funds and how useful they are here on The Simple Dollar. Here’s a quick summary of them, for people new to the site.
An emergency fund is a pool of money you can easily access to take care of short-term problems in your life, such as a car repair or paying bills during a short unemployment period. A good emergency fund is one that’s liquid (meaning you can easily withdraw the cash when you need it) and doesn’t put the balance at risk, while returns on that money aren’t as important. Thus, a savings account is a great place for an emergency fund. Everyone should have an emergency fund of $1,000 in place, and that should be the top financial priority if you don’t have one. If you don’t have any outstanding high interest... More...
