Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of your business for those on the outside is its appearance. Not only do you want your business to run smoothly, but you also want it’s appearance to be top notch. The following contributed post is entitled, Ways to Enhance Your Business’s Premises.
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If your business’s premises are looking a little lackluster and it’s time to make some changes, we’ve got some ideas for where you should start. The place where you’re based and your team does its work needs to meet the right standards if you’re going to achieve lasting success. Here are some changes, big and small, that’ll help improve your premises and ensure your business has the foundations for success firmly in place.
Get Rid of the Clutter
First of all, you should work at getting rid of the clutter in your workplace. When you have a workplace that’s filled with junk and clutter, it stops your team from making the most of the space. It can even have an impact on the psychological side of how your employees work. Feeling overwhelmed and surrounded by clutter isn’t conducive to good work.
Create Private Spaces
Your business needs to have a range of different spaces for different kinds of work. Private spaces allow small teams to work together away from the rest of the group. Try to create an environment that can incorporate and facilitate different kinds of work. Many workplaces are simply open plan today, but that can become a problem if there aren’t private spaces too.
Get the Branding Right
Branding the workplace correctly is something that you’ll need to work on and get right. This is important if you’re regularly meeting with clients in your office because you’ll want to create a professional space that creates the right impressions. Those touches of professionalism make a difference so don’t overlook them when decorating your office and bringing it all together. It can also create a better environment for team working too.
Safety and long-term durability are massively important when you’re making changes two your business’s premises. You might want to explore the options offered by metal roof manufacturers and see if you can improve the structure of your premises. Of course, it’ll depend on what kind of business you run and what kind of internal space you currently operate. Ensure it offers quality and lasting durability and have it installed by professionals who know what they’re doing.
Improve Security Measures
Finally, you should start looking at ways in which you can improve the overall security measures present in your workplace. Premises that aren’t secure are always going to be seen as easy targets by burglars and criminals, so it’s important to ensure yours isn’t seen that way. Improve security and ensure it’s impenetrable at all times of day and night in order to prevent any security breaches.
As you can see, there are plenty of great ways to enhance your business’s premises. It doesn’t have to be hard work, so make the most of the tips and ideas that have been outlined above. Doing so will help you get more from your place of work and allow you to create a headquarters you can be proud of.
A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. An important concept for everyone to understand is that of passive income. It’s a principle that is not well understood though it is a powerful one. Passive incomes can in fact take multiple forms. The following contributed post is entitled, Are Passive Income Streams What They Seem?
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What is a passive income? A passive income is money going into your account that you don’t have to work for. Instead, the money works for you in the background of your typical life routine. At least, that’s what people expect, but is this really what a passive income is? Is there anything in life where you can earn money without doing anything, literally nothing? Short of winning the lottery, we’re not so sure and even then you have to buy the ticket. Let’s dive a little deeper into this conundrum.
There are numerous examples of incomes that people tend to describe as passive. For instance, you might invest in stocks. Many people often refer to this as a passive income because you buy the stock and then wait for them to hopefully rise in value. So, you’re not really doing much and still earning money. However, you can’t be completely passive here because if you are, you’ll miss out on the right time to sell.
What about the property? This is another option people suggest can be a passive income but is it really? After all, to invest in property, you need to make the purchase. You then need to decide whether you are going to let or sell. If you let, you take on all the responsibilities of a landlord and while you own it you have a lot of commitments. For instance, you’ll need to pay a rental tax. Luckily, there are companies such as https://nzrentaltax.co.nz/ that will be able to help you out here. This is one of the ways that you can keep an income passive. You can pass off the duties and responsibilities to another person or business and they will handle it for you. However, that will only be possible if your investment budget allows for this.
A real example of a passive income would be something like a savings account. While it’s true that you will earn additional money through interest on a savings account, it won’t be enough to make a massive difference to your earnings. It’s just a nice added bonus of choosing the right bank.
Or you could be more dramatic and suggest blogging is a passive income. But it’s not really because you need to put the time and effort into making the blog a success. If you treat a blog like a hobby rather than a business, you’re never going to earn the money that you want. You can learn more about running a successful blog on http://stuff.co.nz.
Despite not being truly passive it is still worth looking for one of these possibilities. Essentially, what we’re talking about here is a side hustle or a secondary income that supports your primary one. You may have to put some effort in and potentially even spend money in places but experts agree everyone should have at least two incomes. It puts you in a far more secure place when dealing with future financial challenges.
Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and STEM. Agriculture is a huge business and an industry and a key component of the economy of any nation. If you’re going to launch in this business, it’s important to understand the keys to succeeding and the causes of failure. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Succeed In Agriculture.
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Whenever you are looking for an industry to get involved in, you are always going to look for one that you know will probably be profitable far into the future. With something like agriculture, that is what you are always going to get. No matter what, this is the kind of business that is likely always going to help you become richer and it is therefore worth looking into. In this post, we are going to discuss how you might be able to succeed in the world of agriculture, and what it might take to do so more easily.
First of all, you need to look into the current economic conditions and think about whether it is the right time to be starting an agricultural business, if you don’t already have one under your belt that you already look after. There is no easy right or wrong answer here: it is mostly a matter of your own consideration and looking into whether or not you are going to be able to make it profitable right now. Research what other people in the industry are doing, and you should find that this helps to give you some idea about what to do yourself.
Sourcing Supplies & Equipment
If you have decided that you can do well enough with agriculture and you are going to try and start a business, then you need to look into how and where you are going to source your supplies and equipment from. There are a lot of options you have here, but one of the most obvious and beneficial is to look into suppliers like https://pomi.dk/en/ whom you know you can trust, and whom you are going to find offering good prices for agricultural machinery of all kinds.
There are many costs that you might want to look into reducing too if you want to make sure that you are running your agricultural business just right. One of the most important and simplest measures that a lot of farmers end up taking, especially during times of drought, is to reduce their water usage. Not only is that beneficial for everyone and the planet, it is also an important step in making sure that you are not overspending your cash, and that is essential for running a business in a healthy and strong way. See more on this at https://bizconnect.standardbank.co.za.
Dealing With Uncertainty
Frankly, it is a fairly uncertain time for agriculture, so you need to make sure that you are thinking about what you can do to make it better. You need to look ahead and predict as well as you can, but you should also think about what you can do to bolster your business against the worst. At the moment, you need to think about covid and the possibility of a second wave, which could make things very difficult indeed. The more you think about it, the more chance you have of surviving as a business.
Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Home/Property Discussions. A key consideration for your living space is decorating it. Decorating your home to your satisfaction will be critical to your quality of life and generally how you feel in your dwelling. The following contributed post is entitled, Superb Ideas For Tricky-To-Decorate Spaces.
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Most modern homes maximise the volume of interior space by making sure that everything is square. Older homes have more hidden nooks and crannies. Even so, homeowners of both types often find themselves in situations where they have to decorate tricky spaces. Either they’re too small, hard to reach, or a weird shape.
The good news, though, is that a lot of keen home DIY enthusiasts have come before you. And they’ve figured out myriad ways to get the job done, even in the tightest of spots! Here are some solutions:
Some homes have weird windows with architectural features that get in the way. You would think that something as simple as treating a window frame would be easy. But that’s not the case at all. You wind up with bits and pieces of the window design jutting into your room or getting in the way of your tiling work.
Whatever the case, the best approach is to leave the feature alone and then just work around it. With paint, this is easy. With wallpaper, it’s more complicated. And with tiles, it’s the hardest of all. Sticking with a period feature and working around it neatly, however, often creates a beautiful visual effect. In fact, it looks so good, you don’t envy those with simpler setups.
There’s nothing more annoying than trying to repaint a ceiling with a dormer window. The angles are just impossible, even if you have a great ladder.
For some people with double-height ceilings, the problem is even worse. Not only do you have to twist and turn at some weird angles, but you also risk falling to your doom.
The best solution here, according to Access One Scaffolding to build an aluminium frame below the area in which you’re working. The idea is to create a temporary walk surface – like a second floor -to make it easier to get to those tricky areas. If you still can’t reach, you just add extras to the frame until you’re in the perfect position to start painting.
Random Spaces Behind Doors
It’s always hard to know what to do with spaces lurking behind doors. You can’t put an antique table there. And you certainly can’t place pottery there. So what the heck are you supposed to do with it?
One idea is to buy a piece of artwork that just so happens to fit the available space. It won’t get in the way of the door opening, but it’ll also provide visual interest.
Another idea is to install a wall lamp. Again, it shouldn’t get in the way but will also provide a bit of extra beauty.
A Gap Under Your Stairs
The most obvious option here is to create a cupboard for your vacuum cleaner. But what if you have cantilever stairs? Your best bet here is to insert some plants and hope for the best. What you’ll find is that large indoor shrubs look natural and cosy in the nook, thanks to their foliage. You can also try adding lanterns and even attractive bins if it still looks sparse.
A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. Most of us will experience a major negative financial event at some point in our lives. The key though is preparing for the recovery, and then recovering. The following contributed post is entitled, Recovering Financially From A Unique Set Of Circumstances.
The vast majority of people are conditioned to react to the word “debt” as though it’s a toxic, inextricable state of affairs. For sure, none of us wants to be subject to a financial burden that pushes down on us for an extended period, but it is worth developing a more sophisticated understanding of how debt works. Not only in terms of how it can be maintained safely, but also how it can sometimes be simply inevitable.
Let’s take the current situation as an example. Although different areas have opened up after the initial pandemic lockdown, to a greater or lesser extent, we are far from a “normal” situation. People have lost out on paydays, which means they have had less money to spend. This means that businesses have seen their takings reduced, and some businesses will not survive. Which means that other people lose out on paydays. Sound financial management – which is always worth practising – will not, on its own, prevent a lot of us from serious debt burdens.
So what do we do about this?
Usually, when negative circumstances arise, the smart advice is to tighten one’s belt and look for alternative income streams until it all blows over. As second waves of the pandemic develop in those countries fortunate enough to have managed the first wave, no-one knows when this will all “blow over”, but you wouldn’t bet on it being this side of 2021. That’s a long time to be in a financial holding pattern.
It is hoped, broadly, that some top-down plans will arrive at some stage to assist those of us worst affected, but again, it’s a waiting game. For some of us, the best bet may be to go on the offensive: looking for payment holidays from creditors; finding out about refunds we may be entitled to; reading a DTSS U.S. review or two to see where you might benefit from getting more proactive.
Working on future financial independence
Perhaps the most important element of recovering from this unforeseen public health crisis is being ready for it to happen again. This is a set of circumstances to which most of us have never been exposed, and it’s reasonable to imagine it wouldn’t happen again in our lifetimes. We shouldn’t count on that being the case – recent history shows us things can always get worse. So being ready to not rely on a single income stream is essential. Diversifying your revenue is a priority.
Right now, it may be tricky to find a way to ensure continued income; as we’ve said, all but the richest are experiencing anxious times right now. However, now is the time to think about how we can build back from this, work out how and where to invest money so that – if this all happens again sooner than expected – we can be confident that there will still be money arriving in our accounts every month. It may seem like a pessimistic way to look at things, but we’ll be grateful for some level of preparedness if we have to weather another storm.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The saying says, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This rule is absolutely true for you customers as a good first impression will increase the likelihood of them coming back. The following sponsored post is entitled, 3 Ways to Make a Good First Impression With Customers.
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Shoppes often make assumptions about a store and the products inside from the first impressions they get from the property and store exterior. It takes about a tenth of a second for people to form an opinion, leaving you little room for error with your store’s appearance. You need to snag consumer attention fast. Here are some ways to make sure you a creating a positive first impression with customers.
Pay Attention to Exterior Visual Appeal
The minute a car pulls up to your parking lot, the clock starts ticking. Debris and garbage laying around in parking spaces or giant cracks and potholes on the surface send a message the no one cares. Have parking lot maintenance on your priority list, whether it by hiring an emulsion sealer Frederick MD company or by having a parking lot task item added to the end of day routine. Signage should be well-lit and up-to-date. Don’t have peeling paint, missing letters, or a special that was running six months ago.
Create a Pleasant Environment
When a customer walks into your store, there should be an immediate greeting that is friendly and welcoming. Train employees to avoid sounding fake or forced and have them make eye contact whenever possible with an incoming customer. Keep your aisles clear and spacious, and avoid having too many signs or displays out at one time. Use colors that pair well and have good strong lighting.
Establish a Customer-Centric Culture
The way someone talks to a customer is another way to make a good first impression. Your whole brand could be evaluated by one snippy or rude comment. Make sure your staff are courteous and accommodating at all times. Have a dress code that is professional and attitudes that match. Good communication goes a long way in making a good impression.
These three areas can help your store create a favorable first impression with consumers. The better an experience for a customer, the more likely you are to get recommended to others.
Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Organizational and Management Discussions. When you’re a business owner, one of the things you have to consider is keeping your business’ office intact. Keeping everything safe and secure will ensure its operations. The following contributed post is entitled, Keeping Your Business’ Office Intact.
If you have a business to run, its office is always going to be one of the most important things that you need to keep an eye on. As long as the office is running smoothly and being looked after, you can be sure that the business itself is going to be moving in the right direction, so that is something that you are going to want to think about. But what do you need to do in order to ensure that you are keeping your business’ office intact? In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the essentials that you will need to consider on that front.
Health & Safety Rules
For one thing, if you have health and safety rules in place, you are going to find that this leads to safer behaviour from everyone, and that means that the people are safer – but also that the office itself is less likely to become damaged at all. That’s great news for the future of your office and your business, so it’s something to think about. Make those rules as clear as possible and ensure that you are actually enforcing them in order to make sure that people follow them as well as possible. If you do that, you are going to find that your office is in a much better state at all times.
Fix Problems As They Arise
There are always going to be all sorts of problems that arise when you are running an office. Many of these are unavoidable, such as issues with electrics and heating and so on. The important thing here is that you are fixing these problems as they arise, rather than letting them continue for a long time first. The first port of call should be somewhere like Top Craft Market, to find a tradesperson or craftsman who can help you to get things back in order. Then you can ensure the longevity of your office much more easily, and that is going to be beneficial for the business and the people who work for you too.
Clean Regularly
Cleaning is not just vital for the sake of keeping people healthy and safe, it also actually makes a difference to the office itself. The maintenance of your office relies on its being as clean as possible – even something like an excess of dust can cause damage in the long run. Then you have other issues that can arise such as mold and other damp problems, and that can be a real issue for the structure of the building too if you are not careful. So call in someone to clean the office regularly, and make sure that you keep this up no matter what. It really is essential for the future of the office.
If you can do all that, your office is going to be in a much better position, so it’s something that you are going to have to think about.
Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A major part of your business is protecting it. Threats can come from all directions and it’s critical to understand how to protect your operations. The following contributed post is entitled, Protecting Your Business Has Never Been So Important.
Your business has a lot of vulnerabilities that you probably never even thought of. It’s important then that you are taking all of the precautions that you can to ensure the safety of your company as a whole. If something does happen and you haven’t done everything you could to prevent it, then you are going to be partially to blame for whatever negative consequences come your way. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the ways to protect your business and what you’ve got to protect it from. Keep reading to find out more.
Cyber Attacks
Cyber attacks are on the rise, and there’s not much that can be done about this other than to protect what’s yours. If you don’t want to allow hackers the chance to get to what is yours, then you’ve got to ensure you’re taking all the necessary precautions. It might be the case that you are not well versed in how to protect your business online, which means that you’ve got to hire someone who is. Look into hiring an IT Consultant or a company that specializes in cyber security to ensure that everything is being done to keep your business safe online.
If you hire a professional, at least you know your company is well taken care of. A lot of firms offer an option where they watch your business servers, and get alerts if anything isn’t quite right out of hours. 24/7 surveillance might be the only thing that helps prevent an attack on your company.
Real Life Threats
There are also real-life threats that you’ve got to consider such as people breaking into your office when you are closed. You’ve got to make sure that you have security solutions in place so that something can be done about this, and at the very least, you may be able to see who did it. If you look into a solution like https://www.watchmenkc.com/commercial-security-service-in-kansas-city/ or something similar, you know that you are going to be protected from people who would see your business harmed.
A lot of the time, security measures act as a deterrent that stop people from trying something. Of course, this isn’t always the case, and there are people who will still try to get to your company if they really want to, but for the most part, nobody should.
Data Breach From Employees
Finally, if your employees accidentally or willingly give over any confidential information from your business, it could be devastating. Or, even if they just share something with your competition that gives them the edge over you, your business could be in jeopardy. That’s why you should always have your employees sign NDA’s. If you want to know more about this, check out a site like https://www.everynda.com/blog/4-reasons-sign-nda-employees/.
We hope that you have found this article helpful and now understand some of the things that you need to protect your business from and why this is so important. Put this advice into practice, and be reassured that your business is as safe as it possibly could be. Good luck.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re running a business, you always want to think about ways to help you business function at the highest level possible. Doing so will assure your business’s survival and may even mean stifling your competition. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Important Ideas to Help Your Business Function at the Top Level.
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You have plenty to think about as a modern business owner, and it is important for you to do as much as possible to work on this moving forward. Try to come up with some of the best ways of being able to make the most of this right now, and there are a lot of elements that play a role here. Try to think about what it takes to make the most of this right now, and there are a lot of ways of being able to improve this right now.
Make sure you are focused on doing as much as possible to come up with great ways of helping your business function at the top level as much as possible. There are a lot of things to keep in mind when it comes to improving this right now. Think about using these 4 points to try to help you with this, and get the best possible outcome for your business right now.
1. Rebrand
Rebranding is one of the most important things you can do as a business these days, and this is why you need to make sure you focus on rebranding the company in the right kind of way. It is essential for the brand to stay relevant and up to date as much as possible, and this is something that you can achieve by rebranding more effectively. So do as much as possible to come up with ideas that are going to help you here.
2. Make Your Business More Secure
Trying to make your business more secure is one of the key things that you should be looking to accomplish if you are hoping to take things to the next level. There are so many factors that play a part in helping to make your company as secure as possible, and this is something you are going to have to work on as much as possible, and there are a lot of elements that can play a role in this as much as possible.
3. Use the Right Software
There are a lot of things that play a part in helping you with this, and it is something that you need to play a role in right now. Try to consider the best ways of being able to use the perfect software in order to improve the functionality and productivity of the business. This is why it is important to make sure you use software like Aspera to help you improve things as much as possible when you are trying to run a business.
4. Improve Your Marketing
Make sure you have a strong and diverse marketing strategy that you can use to continue attracting interest in your business, as well as boosting your marketing right now. There are a lot of options to consider here, and it is important that you do what you can to make the most of this right now, and you need to experiment with different types of business marketing right now.
Keeping your company functioning at the top level as often as possible is so important for developing the best possible future for your business. This is something you need to look into right now, and there are a lot of things you can do to try to accomplish this.
“I personally recommend having a year’s worth of savings in the bank!”
Note. Like my Net Worth piece, the subject matter of this blog post is not new. It has been known for years by those who’ve learned about it in their families, learned about its concepts in business school, or have discovered it on their own. It’s a discussion from my personal perspective which I think is worth visiting. Also, while this is a ‘money’ topic, I’m discussing it from a ‘scholarly’ perspective. I’m not rendering financial advice where I’m telling readers what they should do. In the spirit of the first principle of my blog, Creating Ecosystems of Success, I’m simply introducing a concept and discussing why it’s important for the lay person; so they can make their own life choices.
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Reflecting on my youth, both of my parents were savers and they showed that in their own unique ways. As described in my piece regarding budgeting, my Auntie Adele was quite the budgeter and she was always outspoken (and vigilant) about that. All of the pieces were there in my mental periphery, though it wouldn’t be until my adult years that I’d figure out how every piece in terms of one’s personal finances ‘fit together’ as I’ll describe later. I’ve learned that you can hear about something, but it’s not until doing it yourself that you actually understand it. This is why Rich Dad Poor Dad author, Robert Kiyosaki, frequently referenced the “Cone of Learning” in his books.
Though I intuitively knew what ‘emergency funds’ were before taking Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University (FPU)“, I got a much clearer picture of what they were and why they’re important. I’ve covered many other important aspects of personal finance here on my blogging platform, but after a potential collaborator emailed me recently about linking their online resources to some of my content, I realized that I never covered emergency funds. It’s a topic that is timeless in terms of importance and is especially relevant with my recently purchasing a new car. As such, I think I’ll use that a jumping off point for this piece.
If you don’t know, I’m a YouTube content creator now and have four channels. My original Big Discussions76 channel now covers several topics, financial literacy/money being chief among them. I recently shot a video discussing my decision to acquire a vehicle after going without one for eight years. You can watch that video in the link below. If you do, please kindly give a like, share it in your network and subscribe to my channel.
I also wrote two pieces discussing why I decided to go without car ownership. In those pieces and in my YouTube video, I communicate that one of the checked boxes for rejoining the car ownership club was having a fully funded emergency fund. In FPU, Dave Ramsey describes a fully funded emergency fund as one that contains three to six months of savings based upon the critical items on your personal budget. That’s actually a little more on the liberal side. Some people, like one of my mentors, are more conservative and believe that one (or a couple) should have a year’s worth of savings in the bank! If your personal finances are highly leveraged credit-wise and you’re living paycheck to paycheck, this may all sound like a gargantuan task, but from personal experience, I can assure you that it can be done.
I can’t lie though, in that it does take a great deal of determination, grit, and delayed gratification to create a fully funded emergency fund. Spiritual folks would also say that it takes a great deal prayer. In either case, you must know what your ‘why’ is, or your motivation. That will help keep you going even when things feel lonely or even get hard. What was my motivation for creating an emergency fund? Let us go back to car ownership.
“Cars are built to breakdown,” said Mr. Cholley Gray of the former Gray’s Auto in my hometown of Buffalo, NY. In my trips back to Buffalo from Charlotte, NC, Mr. Gray performed most of the repairs on my first car, a white 1990 Subaru Legacy which was passed down from my mother to my brother, and then to me. Having been through seven long years of Buffalo winters, I inherited the car right around the time when rust started taking hold of many of its parts and wear and tear had set in. I went through numerous transaxles when I owned that car. Each was $150-$200 each time.
The biggest and probably the costliest repair was the “rack and pinion” which went out on me down in Charlotte, NC. For those unfamiliar with the inner workings of automobiles, the rack and pinion is a part of the power steering system. When the piping rusted out that fateful day, the car became extremely difficult to steer and it made what I would call a howling or a screeching sound like a saw cutting through wood. One of my professors and I investigated the systems of the car in his driveway and saw that it was literally bleeding the pink power steering fluid. It was a fixable repair, which came at a price of $850. As an undergraduate I was mortified by the price in addition to the sound the car was making. Fortunately, my father was there to send me the money, just as he was there to purchase the car for me from my brother and pay for my insurance.
My burgundy 1996 Saturn SL2, which I purchased in Ann Arbor, Michigan while in graduate school, had two costly repairs within the final six months of grad school. This led me to bow out of the car ownership club in the summer of 2012. One night near my job, one of the front wheels rusted out completely. That is the entire support stabilizing the wheel needed to be replaced. That costed $1,200 at Meineke which was my entire federal income tax return that year. Only months later, the cable attached to the manual transmission broke while I was driving. Fortunately, I wasn’t on the expressway and was able to pull off onto a side street without being harmed. That repair also came out at $1,200 which was the final straw for me. Mentally, I’d already prepared for getting rid of the car, like a loved one on life support.
Probably the most painful repair though, was around 2010 when the radiator cracked in the scorching Northern Virginia summer heat. Not only was that repair $500, but the mechanic, an Asian guy named Steve, bitched at me and jeered me about getting a new car when I picked it up. The nerve of that guy, right? After all, I paid him for his service. My girlfriend at that time pretty much agreed with him on the spot, making a bitter afternoon more bitter. At that time, I was temporarily living with her while closing on my condo unit. I planned to give her something for that month towards the rent, but because of the transmission going out, I couldn’t pay her, which she secretly held against me and sprung it on me during one of our many future arguments.
If it sounds petty for me to tell this side story about my ex, rest assured knowing that there’s a grander purpose. Sometimes in life we set out with good intentions and unexpected things happen affecting the entire mosaic. If we’re not prepared, domino effects can result making situations exponentially worse. I’m saying all of this to say that life is so much better when you have an emergency fund, a stash of money saved just in case something goes bad. It literally gives you peace of mind. Everything is just different because you’re not constantly worrying about something going wrong or breaking. When something does break, wears out, or needs to be replaced, you’re not scrambling for money or to take out loans. It’s truly a different way of living. “Murphy leaves you alone,” as Dave Ramsey jokingly says.
Having an emergency fund also allows you to potentially help those around you. Going back to the girlfriend described above, there was another instance where she needed to get new tires on her car to pass the state inspection. By the way, she was educated and had a career of her own. That said, I was still expected to take care of her in certain ways. This is a prevalent expectation and I’m not disputing it as I understand the psychology of it more now. It’s just something for some men reading this to be cognizant of. There is more I could say about it, but that’s a separate discussion.
At that time, I didn’t have a fully funded emergency fund and was unable to safely pull the $300-$400 out of my savings to pay for her new tires. I’ve often wondered if she would have been more ‘human’ to me throughout that relationship if I could have done more for her financially. Based upon what I know now, the answer is yes.
Going back to when I discussed ‘safely’ pulling the money out of my savings, let me unpack that a little bit more. A decision you must make when someone comes to you for help, or announces that they’re in distress, is whether or not you can afford to help them. Put another way, will you potentially later need the money said person is asking you for? If so, you may not be able to help them because if you do, you may be stuck asking someone else for help later on yourself, another domino effect.
The other thing is that after being both the lender and lendee, I agree wholeheartedly with Dave Ramsey in terms of loaning money. I don’t believe in loaning money anymore. If someone comes to me these days for help, I assess whether or not I have the money to give. If I can’t give the full amount, I give what I can and don’t expect anything back, as loans put a mutual strain on personal relationships. From a spiritual standpoint, Proverbs 22:7 reads, “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.” It’s something for everyone to ponder, especially with friends and relatives.
I’m going to close with two more points. The first of which is that while I discussed emergency funds in the context of automobile ownership in this piece, it reaches into many other areas. In the last five years, I’ve lost a cell phone, I’ve had to replace my refrigerator, and the toilet in my home.
I’ve also refinanced my mortgage a couple of times. While not an emergency per se, these have involved me using some of my savings to help the transactions go through. Speaking of savings and mortgages, if you can’t purchase your home outright with cash, one of the key things lenders will be looking for when deciding to qualify you for a mortgage, is your history of saving money. Likewise, the more you have saved, the better the loan terms you’ll get if you qualify. I’ll also jokingly state here that me and the ex-girlfriend discussed above got into a standoff over this point one night. My father and I had also talked about this before. I was factually right, but sometimes being right in relationships just causes more drama and resentment.
My final point involves retirements savings. Some individuals have started saving in their retirement accounts which is absolutely the right thing to do as employees. Unfortunately, when adverse events occur, some people must use credit cards, loans or raid their retirement savings because they don’t have any other ‘liquid’ cash available. Raiding your retirement savings involves a tax penalty and unplugs the money from ‘compounding’. An emergency fund thus provides a layer of protection for your retirement nest egg, and that’s an important though not widely understood reality about retirement savings.
With all of this being said, a fully funded emergency fund, while an important piece of your financial health, isn’t an ultimate layer of protection. There may be bigger adverse financial events looming and that’s what your insurances are for (health, car, homeowner, renters, etc.). That’s a separate topic all in itself, but one that everyone should also consider.
• They improve your overall peace of mind, health and quality of life just by relieving financial stress. • They allow you to absorb and recover from negative financial events (but also remember that insurances are important). • They protect your other savings and investments and allow you to easily navigate transactions like home purchases and refinances. • They allow you help those around you (if you can afford to).
In closing, keep in mind that your emergency fund is not meant to be the investment of the century, just a layer of protection against life, and it acts as insurance in a way. Though it may be sitting in a savings account not making much interest, you want to be able to get to it quickly in case of an emergency (not for frivolous spending). There are savings accounts that can earn more money for you such as a money market account, but again that is not the main point of all this. The point is to protect you and your investments.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. As of now I’ve written several financial pieces on my blogging platform and many of them are listed on the bottom of the Big Word Blog Site’s home page. I’ve also published numerous shorter money and business-related pieces with guests and contributing writers. You can find those by simply searching my categories menu on the home page or by typing “money”, “finance” or “business” into the search box at the bottom of the home page. If you read something you like, please leave a comment and share in your network via email or in your preferred social media space.
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