It’s An Emergency
The pipe bursts, the car breaks down, the kids need a new laptop for school, the orthodontist bill is late. There are thousands of things that can and do go wrong in our lives in our 50’s while we’re balancing kids, our parents and keeping a roof over everyone. Let’s take a step back for a minute and think about being proactive rather than reactive about our emergencies.
We know in the back of our minds, what is due when, that the car is making a weird noise, that the tap you changed the washer on is still leaking. We try as hard as we can to ignore these problems, because we don’t have either the money to fix it right now, or the mental capacity to really take a look at what might actually be going on. We’re too busy ferrying kids around, visiting parents, helping with homework, and by the time the day is over you’re supposed to cook a decent meal as well? No chance take away it is.
We are so busy just dealing with everything, not to mention our jobs and careers, that we can’t get ahead and actually plan for an emergency. But you and I both know, that it’s time to do some serious planning to help get us out of our mess. So here goes.
A lot of balancing and personal finance bloggers will tell you to do this step and I don’t know how valuable it is really but here goes. Write down all your bills, the ones that are due weekly, monthly or quarterly and then work out how much each of them is going to cost you per week.
The answer you’ll find is that you can’t afford to live. No-one can. Don’t feel bad, just write it all down.
Now do a list of all the things that could break or are showing symptoms of near death, the kids commitments, are there formals coming up, graduations, birthdays. No you can’t afford any of it, don’t worry just write it all down.
An emergency is the washing machine breaking but using a laundromat was what I had to for a while rather than take on more debt to replace it. We’re spoiled. We think we can have all the things but we can’t, not really. It’s a lovely dream that they have sold us and we have managed so far with our minimum payments on everything but the reality is, we, and not many people, can actually afford all the things. We’re tricked into believing we can. Everybody else does so if we don’t, our kids will be ridiculed. This fact sucks big time, sorry, but it’s true. I know the thought of writing down a budget makes you hyperventilate and reach for some alcohol, because you already know the answer. You know you can’t afford your life but are hoping that putting bandaids on everything will get you through. It does for a time, but we’re in our 50’s now. There’s not much more room to keep going like this, and no your superannuation will not pay for this stuff.
It’s possible to just start. You are not going to cure it and magically find the financial answer to all these problems. It’s too huge right now and you have responsibilities. So just start. $5.00 at a time. I know you have probably already cut out your takeaway coffee everyday but there will be another $5.00 sitting around in change somewhere in your house or in a bank account that you won’t miss. Find it and put it in an account, or a jar. Just keep doing this. Don’t touch it for anything. It’s the invisible money that you are now putting to work for you to start covering your emergency.
You will have an emergency just when you start this and it won’t come anywhere near covering the cost of it and you will go “Well fuck, this is pointless, I’ll never get ahead.” Don’t worry keep doing it. Any maybe, just maybe, when the next emergency hits, you will have something to put towards it.
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