I have always found it really difficult to sustain a savings account with more than a few grand in it for too long. The problem is that, while you’re trying to build it up, emergencies pop up along the way. Two steps forward, three steps back. I suppose it’s all how you define emergencies, but an unexpected car repair or vet bill can really set you back.
Hi Amy, you are so right, life always throwing financial emergencies or unexpected costs of various sizes all the time. I know it can be deflating having to access the funds as you build it up--I have certainly been there. It might be cold comfort, but a way to reframe it would be to think about how you would have paid for each emergency with out your savings? In that way, the emergency fund is doing it's job, helping you weather the financial storms. I hope you get a stretch where you get to build those savings up to where you'd like soon.
A fellow Canuck! Another thing I’ve found to help considerably with mental health (from a financial perspective) are index funds. I’m even a believer in individual stock picking over the long-term being successful but it’s definitely stressful and time-consuming. Index funds can be just as successful and take all the stress away.
Hey Logan, that is a great point. It's hard to calculate the amount of stress, effort and time that index investing saves us. That definitely has me thinking I should look for some research that might have tried to quantify the impact on indexing on well-being. Might be a future article topic.
I have always found it really difficult to sustain a savings account with more than a few grand in it for too long. The problem is that, while you’re trying to build it up, emergencies pop up along the way. Two steps forward, three steps back. I suppose it’s all how you define emergencies, but an unexpected car repair or vet bill can really set you back.
Hi Amy, you are so right, life always throwing financial emergencies or unexpected costs of various sizes all the time. I know it can be deflating having to access the funds as you build it up--I have certainly been there. It might be cold comfort, but a way to reframe it would be to think about how you would have paid for each emergency with out your savings? In that way, the emergency fund is doing it's job, helping you weather the financial storms. I hope you get a stretch where you get to build those savings up to where you'd like soon.
A fellow Canuck! Another thing I’ve found to help considerably with mental health (from a financial perspective) are index funds. I’m even a believer in individual stock picking over the long-term being successful but it’s definitely stressful and time-consuming. Index funds can be just as successful and take all the stress away.
Hey Logan, that is a great point. It's hard to calculate the amount of stress, effort and time that index investing saves us. That definitely has me thinking I should look for some research that might have tried to quantify the impact on indexing on well-being. Might be a future article topic.
It would also be interesting to know how the returns for retail investors changed due to index investing.