Let’s Talk About Emergency Funds (honestly)

The truth is, $1,000 is no longer enough for most people. That number hasn’t kept up with how much things actually cost today. One car repair, one medical bill, or one unexpected trip, and that entire amount can disappear quickly. But at the same time, when people hear that they should have three to six months of expenses saved, it can feel so overwhelming that they don’t even know where to begin.

That’s why I teach about emergency funds a little differently.

Instead of thinking about your emergency fund as one big, intimidating number, I want you to start looking at it in stages.

The very first step is building what I call a Kickoff Emergency Fund.

This is not a huge number. This is not meant to cover everything. This is simply something you can realistically save within the first one to two months. For most people, that looks like $500 to $1,500.

This is your starting point. This is what helps you handle smaller, unexpected expenses without immediately turning to debt. Even having a few hundred dollars set aside can change how you respond when something goes wrong.

Once you have that in place, your next goal is to build more breathing room.

The next goal is what I call creating breathing room. This is the point where you’re no longer feeling like every unexpected expense is going to completely throw you off track. For most people right now, that looks like somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000. That range can actually cover real-life situations like car repairs, higher grocery bills, or an unexpected expense without immediately turning to debt. This is where you start to feel a shift, not because everything is covered, but because you have a cushion.

From there, you build into your next level of stability, which is covering your essential expenses. This does not mean your full lifestyle. It means the basics that keep your life running, like housing, utilities, food, insurance, and transportation. Once you know that number, you can decide how many months of those expenses you want to protect.

If your income is steady and predictable, three months may feel like enough. If your income fluctuates, you’re self-employed, or you simply want more security, you may feel better aiming for six months or more. There isn’t a single number that works for everyone, and that’s important to understand.

What most people don’t talk about is that an emergency fund isn’t just about the math. It’s about creating stability in your life. And stability looks different depending on your situation. If you’re the only source of income, if you have dependents, or if you don’t have a support system to fall back on, you may need a larger cushion. If you have dual income or more flexibility, your number might look different.

Personally, for my emergency fund, I wanted to be able to cover all of my monthly expenses (not just my essentials) for 6 months. Since I am the main provider for my family, that is around $50,000. BUT I didn’t start there. That is something that I saved over many years. Its savings that I slowly built over time.

If you’re feeling behind, I want you to know that you’re not. You’re adjusting to a reality where the cost of living has changed, and that requires a different approach than what worked years ago. Start with building that initial breathing room, and then continue to build from there over time. That’s how you create real financial stability that actually supports your life.

I struggled with Easter this year more than I expected to.

Before I even set a budget, I felt conflicted. Not because I don’t enjoy doing things for my kids, but because I kept coming back to this question in the back of my mind, what am I actually teaching them?

I don’t want every holiday to turn into something where they expect to “get” something. I don’t want the focus to be on what’s inside a basket. And if I’m being honest, seeing all the over-the-top Easter baskets on social media this year didn’t help. The themed baskets, the amount of stuff, how perfectly everything is put together, it just made the whole thing feel a little icky to me.

Not wrong. Not bad. Just not aligned with what I want for my family.

And at the same time, I still wanted to celebrate. I still wanted to do something special for them. That’s where I felt stuck for a minute.

Because it’s not always as simple as opting out.

So I gave myself a boundary.

I set a $100 total budget. I spent less than $50 per basket. We’re doing a small egg hunt at home for Dante, and I’m making chili and cornbread for my family.

That’s it.

And once I decided that, everything felt a lot clearer.

When I zoomed out, it made sense why I felt that tension in the first place. Easter has quietly become a massive spending holiday. In recent years, total spending has been around $24 to $25 billion in the U.S., with people spending close to $200 on average. And a lot of that isn’t just candy anymore. It’s gifts, baskets, and all the extras that have slowly become part of what people think Easter is supposed to look like.

And I think that’s where the disconnect happens.

Because the meaning of the holiday hasn’t changed. But the expectations around it have.

I’m not against spending money. I’m not against doing Easter baskets. I did them. But I also don’t want to feel like I’m just following along with something that doesn’t fully sit right with me.

So this year, I made it smaller. More intentional. More aligned with what actually matters to me.

And maybe that’s the balance.

Not cutting it out completely. Not going all out just because that’s what we’re seeing everywhere.

But choosing it.

Choosing what it looks like. Choosing how much we spend. Choosing what we want our kids to remember.

Because that matters more than anything I could put in a basket.

Most people don’t struggle with one bad spending decision, they struggle with patterns they don’t realize they’re repeating. What feels like “just this once” is often the exact habit quietly holding you back.

In this video, I give a look into what closing out my budget looks like and give an update on my spending!

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A few gems from the past to check out:

Here’s your April money checklist to help you stay focused on what actually matters this month. Since April is Financial Literacy Month, it’s the perfect time to not just go through the motions, but really understand what’s happening with your money.

Until next time,