Give Me Back My Five Bucks

I love my Emergency Fund, and I'm a firm believer that everybody, whether they're into personal finance or not, should have some sort of EF to fall back on.

We are all adults, and we have to rely on ourselves when things get tough, or when unexpected emergencies come up. We can't rely on our family for money, or our friends, or even the government to bail us out of a hard situation. It's kind of a harsh reality, but the only person you should truly rely on is yourself. At least in my opinion, anyway.

Most of you were with me when I was unemployed during the holiday season, and without my fully funded Emergency Fund, I wouldn't have been able to pay for rent, groceries, my cell phone, or travel costs to go to job interviews. I was supposed to get EI while I was unemployed, and I filed my paperwork on November 19, 2007. I didn't get paid out for my EI until February 11th, 2008 ... and by then, I had already found a full-time job. Without my EF in place, I would have had to live off of my line of credit, or my credit cards! But what if I was still trying to get out of debt, and I didn't have any room on my LOC or credit cards? Just the thought of that really scares me.

My Emergency Fund goal is currently at $3k (I'm sitting at 57.5% achieved), but once I hit that goal, I'll move it up to $5k ... with no set eventual target. Ideally, I'd like to just keep on saving and saving, but who knows what will happen down the road. I would feel very comfortable with $10-15k saved.

• So readers, do you have an eventual EF target?
• How much do you have right now?
• Do you think there comes a point where you can have too much in an Emergency Fund?
• Do you use a Line of Credit or a credit card as your EF? Why?

OMG, I just checked Employment Services online, and I'M GETTING PAID OUT FOR MY EI!!! I can't believe it! Finally, 10.5 weeks later, I'm getting a grand total of $2,681 deposited into my bank account on Monday. That's amazing.

I have some charges to pay off on my credit card from the past few weeks due to the move to Vancouver, but the rest of it is going straight back into the EF. I would imagine I'd be back around the $2k mark with the EF after it's all said and done. Right now I'm down to around $200 (which is pretty darn scary to know that I've basically used up my entire EF) b/c I had to pay a $300 deposit & $600 for my 1st month of rent.

I know, I should really update the sidebars. I just haven't had time to sit down for a few hours and really dig through my finances and get them up-to-date. This weekend is a no-go because J and I are going back to the island. I'm thinking next week I'll be able to get it done. I'll have to block off a few hours after work one evening, and get my hands dirty. I really need to get this done, because I'm starting to hide from my finances again.

U-Haul. What can I say about them? I just got a call from them, saying they found 3 damage spots on the vehicle that I didn't report when I did my walk-around. They said I would be fully liable for all of the costs, because I didn't opt for the insurance. The woman on the phone was pretty straight-forward, but was nice enough and said that I should fight the charges because that bitchy customer service rep didn't do a walk around of the vehicle with me when I first went to get it, and legally she HAS to. She said the back end looked like I had just plowed into a building (we were never even close to a building!), and also noted there was a puncture wound on the top of the vehicle and on one of the sides (and did you know that even if you opt for the insurance, that still doesn't cover the top of the vehicle!?). She also noted that it was going to be pretty darn expensive to repair. WHAT!

I was so angry and at work and on the verge of tears after I hung up with her, so I immediately called J. Not really sure why, since there was nothing either of us could do about it while we were both at work.

About 10 minutes later, the U-Haul woman called back and said that she called the head office in Phoenix, and explained my situation with them. She said that they ruled that since that CSR didn't do a walk around with me, I couldn't be held liable for any of the damage. I was SO relieved! There was no way I could have paid that bill without going into debt. Especially with my depleted and pathetic EF dwindling down to under $1,000.

My EF is what's saved me over the past 2.5 months. Since I clearly couldn't have relied on the government for EI benefits, I would have been completely screwed without that $3k I had saved. It's so incredible to me, that personal finance and saving money actually works. I'm still in awe of it all, and it's insane that just one year ago, I had not one dollar to my name, and a whole whack of debt to get out of. And even though things didn't exactly go my way this past year, I'm in a much more stable position now - freshly out of 2.5 months of unemployment - than I ever was with a full-time job.

It's such a simple concept: save money. Why didn't I get it for so many years?

When I started the EF, I honestly never thought I'd use it - I just thought it'd be a little chunk of money that just sat in a savings account for the rest of my life. Who would have thought that, as soon as I fully funded the EF, I would have had to use almost all of it up.

I haven't checked Quicken in a few days, but as it last stands, I have about $1k left in the EF. I'll update the sidebar sometime this week. Once I get my EI payments (provided I do actually get it), I will fully fund the EF back up to $3k, and then bump up my EF savings goal to $5k for the rest of 2008. I think that's a realistic goal to have.

With my tax refund, I still hope to get around $4,500 back ... and with that money, what I really should do is stick the entire thing back into my RRSPs. That would mean I'd only need to save another $2k all year to reach my 2008 goal of having a $22k portfolio. And provided I pass my probation at the FT job, I would also have to count my RPP plan into the mix ... so when it's all said and done, I could have a bigger portfolio at the end of 2008 than I had originally anticipated.

Along with my termination letter, I received my last pay cheque for 3 days of work and my vacation payout. It was for $842.71 after taxes. I immediately put $400 of that into my EF, and the rest I put onto my Visa card. I had to put a deposit down for the performance parts on my scooter so they could order them in ... and then I'll pay the remaining balance once the work is finished.

As of this point, I have about 4 months worth of living expenses in my EF. I don't have a lot of fixed expenses, just rent, cell phone, groceries (and that can be trimmed if necessary), and gas for my scooter. I have almost $3,000 in my down payment fund, so if for some reason I'm jobless for a really long time, I can draw from that. Fingers crossed it doesn't come down to that! I also have $16k in my RRSPs that was going to go towards my down payment, but I refuse to touch any of that money.

With my part-time job, I can easily go back to working full-time hours, and I think I'll have another 5 pay periods with them ... 4 at the very least. So that's at minimum, $5,000 coming in before that contract ends, plus I have my arena job. Although that job will probably only bring in $300-400/month.

I can already feel myself going back into super saving mode.

Well, over a month later, I finally got my bill from the dentist for the work she did on my front teeth. I originally thought it would cost close to $1,500 to get the work done (porcelain crown and a veneer), but a month ago I was quoted $1,230 ... and my invoice was only $868.20!!!

While that's still an expensive bill, I think that's pretty cheap for a crown and veneer. The EF is going to take a hit, but I'm okay with that.

Is it just me, or has there been a complete lack of PPP opportunities lately? Maybe my blog isn't popular enough, and I'm just not qualifying for any ... but only a few days ago, I had 9 or 10 things to write about ... now there are zero. ZILCH. None. And I see other PF blogs writing about opportunities I've never seen before.

I guess it's time to figure out how to bring more people to my blog.

In other news, I am depositing the $200 reimbursement cheque from health care today, so I updated the sidebar to reflect the new EF amount. My big dental surgery is on Tuesday, and I'm so nervous!! Then I have to go for a follow-up fitting appointment two weeks later.

The refund for the $200 I spent on my prescription sunglasses got deposited into the BF's bank account today, so next week on my day off I'm going to deposit it into my EF, to bring the balance up to $1,200! The refund came much quicker than anticipated, so I'm happy about that.

It's too bad I managed to scratch up the frame and lenses the day after I bought them when they fell off the seat of my scooter and onto the cement. :( At least it's not too noticeable.

Well, I just called the dentist and made my appointment to get my teeth fixed for June 5th, and then a follow-up fitting for June 21st. I was originally thinking it would cost over $1,500 to get everything done (my medical only covered like $600 of it), but I was quoted around $1,230. It's still expensive, but it's my smile we're talking about here. I know it'll be worth it.

I'm hoping to get my medical claim back on my sunglasses by then, so I'll have almost $800 in my Emergency Fund I can use towards the dentist bill. I'm pretty sure by June 5th I can come up with the extra $400+. I have 2 pay cheques until then, so it will be fine. I think.

Bye bye, EF. It was nice knowing you.

I just found out that a good friend of mine got fired yesterday from basically her dream job. I don't really know the details, but we both graduated from the same program together last year, and she's an amazing graphic designer (a million times better than me).

Anyway, it got me to thinking: if I lost my job right now, today, I'd be fvcked. Royally. I have less than $400 in my emergency fund, and debts still looming over my head. I need to pick it up, because I know I've been slacking at work the past month or so. It's not that I'm being lazy about it, it's just that I think I'm still in a little over my head, know what I mean? I've found it really overwhelming to be SO busy all the time, with 5 or 6 coordinators pulling at me, all wanting different things, managing a huge budget ... I got hired because of my graphic design skill, and nothing else (even though my design skills are mediocre at best) ... and to try and learn all these new skills on the job, well, it's been an eye-opening experience to say the least! But I'm so grateful to have gotten this opportunity, and I'm going to take the most out of these next 8 months.

Also, this morning I checked my mutual funds online, and because of the lovely Chinese stock market, my porfolio fell over 2%! I checked the TSX this morning when I got to work, and to my horror, it was already down 300 points! But I just checked it now, and it's still down, but only by 45 points. What sucks is I have both my registered RSP and non-registered MF accounts in the same fund. They're still higher than they were at the beginning of 2007, but it's still a huge jolt to have them drop so much in one day.

I've been wondering if I'm making sound choices with my investments. I want the most "bang for my buck," but with limited investment knowledge, it's hard for me to grasp exactly what I should be doing.

My emergency fund is currently in a PC Financial Interest First account that's earning 3% interest. Once I have over $1000, I will transfer the balance into the Interest Plus account, which will earn me 4%, plus an anniversary bonus each year I keep a minimum of $1000 in the account. The reason why I chose this account is because it's highly liquid. I'll have access to my funds in 24 hours, and as high interest savings accounts go, PC Financial beats practically everyone.

My mortgage down payment fund is being held in a non-registered mutual fund with TD Canada Trust. This is where I don't think I'm making the right move. The MER on this MF is quite high (I believe it was at 2.39%). I want to earn more than a 4% return, but since I plan on spending the money within 2 years, I don't really know where to park it. I'm getting a 7.5% return right now, which is practically nothing. I'd like to be earning at least 10% ... but how?

My RRSP is being held in a registered Balance Growth mutual fund with TD Canada Trust. It's the same fund that my mortgage down payment fund is in, with the difference being this one is tax sheltered. This is earning 7.5%, and I'm okay with that for now. Once I've gotten more investment knowledge, I'd like to try TD's eFunds, and manage my own financial portfolio (goodbye, ridiculously high MER!).