Since graduating college, I pivoted to learning more about personal finance. I read a lot of blogs and books like Millennial Money. I listen to podcasts like The Stacking Benjamins Show. I even work with a financial advisor since I am by no means an expert.
One of the very first things these sources of information say I should do is build an emergency fund (some people call this an e-fund or rainy day fund). Emergency funds are very important but sometimes I struggle to see the importance of it… until I needed the funds to pay for my dogs surgery.
What is an Emergency Fund?
An emergency fund is a stash of money put away in case surprise expenses come up. If I were to lose my job, have medical bills, surprise home repairs, or other unforeseen expenses, I would have this stash of money to fall back on. Now, these financial resources don’t have a consensus per se on how much you should have in this fund, but Nerd Wallet suggests 3 to 6 months worth of expenses. It also depends on how risk averse I am. I tend to be pretty risk averse, so I err on the side of 5 to 6 months of expenses.
Why do I just let this money sit there untouched?
There are a million things my wife and I could spend this money on. We could do home improvements or take vacations. But we don’t because we never know when something unexpected might come up. It may seem silly but things do come up and I recently experienced a few.
The First Emergency – My Dogs Ate the Chair
Yes, my dogs ate the armrest of a chair in our living room. Through the wood and all. People don’t believe me until I show them the damage. Check it out.
Now, our dogs have chewed things up and passed them, so we weren’t too concerned. We threw the chair away and moved on with our merry lives. We were 2 weeks away from a trip to Denver and life was good.
Until Annie began perpetually vomiting all over our home. We took her to the vet that evening for x-rays and other tests and brought her home. By the time we got home, it was 10:00pm and I decided to stay up late and keep an eye on her. 1:00am rolls around and my phone begins to ring. It’s the vet and she is saying Annie needs to be brought in immediately for emergency surgery. Fabric and wood chips were blocking up her intestines.
Without hesitation, we brought her in for the surgery that night. Two days later, she’s all sewn up and ready to come home. $4,500 later, she was discharged from the clinic. Here she is finally back home.
We ended up cancelling our trip to care for her through her recovery (our trip was just a couple days away at this point). If it weren’t for having that emergency fund available, we either would’ve had to take out a loan or not been able to do the surgery. Luckily we pulled the trigger to get her fixed up because we had the funds available. She was as good as new within a few weeks. Look at her with her brother
The Second Emergency – Merry Christmas!
Now after her first surgery, we took several precautions. We crate the pups when we are not home now. Several items are now out of reach. And we generally keep a better eye on the two of them. Tearing up furniture was a first in the few years we’ve had Chief and Annie. It is now Christmas time. We were preparing to board the dogs to travel and spend a few days with our families over the holidays. But Annie struck again. She destroyed the blanket that has been in her crate since the day we adopted her. We watched her for several days while she passed bits and pieces.
At first we were relieved, but Annie began getting violently sick again. We rushed her to the vet. And sure enough she was blocked up again. Three days before Christmas she had her second surgery. Two surgeries in less than 3 months. Fortunately again, we had that emergency fund to fall back on because the second surgery was another $3,500. It definitely hurt the emergency fund the second time around but the fund saved Annie’s life. Christmas day came around and we picked her up for her discharge. Annie received the gift of life yet again.
The Lessons Learned
We learned many things through these experiences, but here are the most impactful.
Lesson 1: Not everything can be full proof. We thought we had everything figured out after Annie’s first surgery but we didn’t think anything of the blanket that’s always been in her crate. Now, she has a military-grade kuranda bed in her crate. I pray she never eats that thing.
Lesson 2: Get pet insurance before it’s too late. We didn’t have pet insurance for neither Chief nor Annie. After the surgery, we looked into it. Post-surgery (paired with her age), her rates and premiums were outrageously expensive. We should’ve gotten pet insurance day 1.
Lesson 3: Never doubt the emergency fund. Not only did it save our finance’s butt twice, it kept our Sweet Annie alive. You will never know when you need it.
