The Emergency Fund

Life is pretty random and no one knows the future. Unemployment and disability insurance pay only a fraction of a regular paycheck. Nobody likes being unemployed. It stinks. In 2009 I had a stroke and had to go on Social Security Disability. My husband and I had just bought our first house together. I ended up in the hospital with tons of bills some of which I am still paying off. This all happened in the middle of the financial meltdown. We had just finished fixing up the house. I would have loved to buy new furniture and stuff for my new place. As it was my husband also lost his job and we were just about getting by. We had a hefty emergency fund, unfortunately, most of it was in the stock market so it got cut in half. Nevertheless it was enough to pay off most of the credit cards. I made deals with the other creditors and paid them off little by little. I closed up most of the cards and just kept a couple. We cut expenses going without TV and got by. Though eventually we had to move out of our dream home to make ends meet. My only regret is that I had the money in the stock market. If I had it in the bank we would have been all right. In the good times we had set aside more than a year's worth of expenses in the emergency fund. It felt good. It felt safe. Now we are working to build up the savings again, but it's hard. I am still not well enough to go back to work and my SSD money is less than half what I used to make a year, though I'm not complaining. My husband's unemployment ran out a long time ago, but we still have bills to pay and gas has to get put in the car, etc. I'm getting better aaand eventually I will go back to work because I miss it so much. My husband has a lot of skills and he will find something soon too. In the meantime he works for himself. We have gone through this before. The problem with doing home improvements is that there is no work in the winter.