Saving for the rainy days: why it's important to constantly fund our emergency wallets

Imagine credit: CANVA

Money is scarce, and wants are limited. We live in a society where wants constantly poke us in the face and needs do come up, both when planned and occasionally when unplanned.

It is fairly easy to have our wants postponed or disregarded but needs are difficult to overlook as they may present as emergencies when we least are prepared for them.

When emergencies present to us, they often destabilize us morally and physically and sometimes, causing us to empty our savings or looking for loans to sort the emergencies.

Emergencies can come in as health challenges, need to pay fees, need to make some purchases, need to travel, and even at other times the needs of others become our emergencies, etc.

We may not be able to run away from energencies as much as we may be able to find an escape out of meeting the demands of wants.

We live in a society where wants constantly choke us and we are usually in a haste to satisfy those wants. Many do lack the discipline to say NO to those wants or are unable to draw a line between what is essential for living and what can be overlooked.

An elderly man once gave me an advice saying, "NOT EVERYTHING THAT PASSES BY THE EYES IS FOR GRABS." And I have held onto that statement to inform my decision on meeting and of life's demands.

Since money is a limited resource, the need for its management comes into play.

Have you had some large amount of money that you had no intention for and the money remained same after a week or two? Likely NO. You may have spent the funds on things you could not account for or that you could do away without. The same applies to people who have access to significant money without expecting or working for it, the expenditure of that money may lose its utmost significance.

Having a percent distribution of monies that we earn or that come our way helps us to be disciplined and have some money set aside for emergency funds.

This emergency fund should be kept in a separate account and withdrawn ONLY when emergency needs arise. We must be able to differentiate between emergency needs and wants. Emergency funds can save us from a whole lot of embarrassments and having to run helter skelter in search of funds.

We must cultivate the habit of consistently funding our emergency funds account for the rainy days no matter how little while ensuring other sections / percentages of our monies such as savings, investments, running capital etc. are alloted workable funds without bias.