3 Crazy Surefire Ways To Quickly Get Your Emergency Fund

Update: July, 2020 - Well, it looks like the recession has arrived suddenly! With the Coronavirus/COVID19 pandemic currently sweeping the world, I put together a FREE Financial Crisis Survival Guide (blog post with available printable PDF) to help those of you either preparing for or responding to a cut in hours, layoff or termination.

Here's the blog post for the guide: Financial Crisis Survival Guide (Version: COVID19) Blog Post Version

Here's the free downloadable PDF version of the guide: Financial Crisis Survival Guide (Version: COVID19) Downloadable PDF version 

Unlike many of my posts, this one is actually going to be really short and to the point. :)

When you’re in the process of building your emergency fund, whether it be your initial $1000 “starter fund” or your 3-6 months of saved expenses (the one you build after you’ve completed your debt snowball), there are 3 main ways that you can get that fund filled quickly. 

And by the way, this is an excellent strategy for any time you need to quickly build a pile of cash for a sinking fund like: car replacement, furniture replacement, down payment for a house, home repair, vacation. You get the idea. It’s a great mindset to try and find money so that you don’t have to just automatically spend what you have.

1. Make Some Trims And/Or Cuts From The Budget 

If you’ve engaged in our “8 Steps To Erase Debt” material, then you’re already well entrenched in putting together and constantly refining your monthly budget. 

You’re saving receipts, writing down your expenses and rewriting your budget every month. This practice helps you to stay super close to every penny coming in and every penny going out.

If you are just starting out in this whole debt elimination process or have stalled out and are trying to restart, I highly recommend you download our “8 Steps To Erase Debt”, which will also subscribe you to our weekly "self-coaching" newsletter.

You will also get free access to our budgeting forms, debt snowball forms and much more.

Additionally, here are some related posts that will help you to solidify your budgeting:

8 Steps To Erase Debt

The Forgotten Budgeting Step (aka "Budget Insurance")

How To Start Budgeting When You're Terrible At It

4 Not-So-Obvious Reasons To Rewrite Your Budget Every Month

How To Budget For Irregular Expenses

You Have Full Permission To Be A Colossal Budgeting Nerd 

2. Sell Some Stuff

Emergency funds tend to start small. The important thing is to start.

There’s nothing like getting to the point of being completely disgusted with your debt and finding a way out to ignite the “anti-hoarder” gene in us all. 

All of a sudden, stuff that’s been “laying around” the house, garage, attic, storage unit starts to look like dollars.

That’s when you want to crank up your LetGo, Craigslist, FaceBook Marketplace and even Amazon accounts to start to exchange this unused stuff into real dollars you can use to build up that emergency fund fast.

By the way, you can and should use this "sell some stuff" to help put a dent in your debt snowball as well.

3. Get Some Extra Work/Side Hustle

An excellent source of both short and long-term side hustles.

Whether it’s overtime at your regular job/gig or finding a side hustle or two (or three), extra work is a key to adding dollars into your emergency fund pile of money.

I have students who:

1. Take as much overtime and as many extra shifts in their regular job that they can get.
2. Drive for Lyft and Uber.
3. Deliver food through Uber Eats.
4. Work retail on the weekends
5. Do lawn jobs on the sided
6. Walk dogs using that app...Can't remember the name...
7. Enlist their various creative abilities (writing, photography, graphic design, illustration, coaching, voice over, social media, translation,) through the Fiverr marketplace.
8. Clean houses and/or businesses.

There’s no limit to the number of possibilities for extra work there is to do in this economy.

Is it tough? Of course it is. But I promise you, it's worth it.

You might have complications like your commute or having to juggle kids’ and spouse’s schedules, but I can promise you that, when you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired enough, your willingness to find extra work will likely become insatiable.

From a longer-term perspective, your side hustle may ultimately turn into something that you can jump into as a career.

Blogging is an example of this. While it does take tame to get it all going, long-term it can actually be a highly profitable endeavor.

Nick Loper’s “Side Hustle Nation” podcast is one of the best resources out there to get your side hustle ideas flowing.

He literally has hundreds of interviews of all different types of side hustlers. I highly recommend you check out is content, no matter where you are in your journey.

You Can Do This!

Whether you've not started yet or you've started and stalled out. You can do this!

If you're having trouble, don't hesitate to reach out to us directly. Plus, here are some related articles that will help you get the ball moving down the field toward debt freedom.

Let me know what's working for you in the comments section below!

Now that we've addressed how to get your first $1000, let's talk about plugging you into a proven personal finance/debt-elimination system.

The 8 Steps To Obliterate Your Debt

 

This is the blog post that outlines the 8 steps I followed to eliminated $43,000 in debt in 2.5 years.

 

 

And whether this is your first or thousandth time on the blog, I want to make sure you have this “8 Steps” framework that ALL of our content is centered around. 

 

These are the steps I personally followed to obliterate $43,000+ of debt in 2.5 years. 

 

Maybe your number is bigger, maybe it’s smaller. Either way the principles are the same and I want you to have them.

 

0. Stop All Retirement Investing (Until Step 4)

1. Build A Budget

2. Starter Emergency Fund of $1000

3. Eliminate Debts Smallest To Largest (a.k.a The Debt Snowball)

4. Full Emergency Fund of 3-6+ Months’ Expenses

5. Invest A Minimum of 15% Income Into Retirement Accounts (and increase savings rate to 50%+ if possible)

6. College Funding (if applicable)

7. Pay Off The Home Mortgage

8. Build Wealth, Serve, Be Ridiculously Generous And Go FI (Financial Independence)!

 

I’ve created a simple, easy to follow guide that you can use as your foundation as you navigate the absolute annihilation of your debt forever.

  

 

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When You Need More Help

And again, if you’re looking for some resources to get started, you can download our free budgeting forms. Also, if you’re in a place where you’re ready to kick your debt in the teeth, here's the link to our free “8 Steps To Erase Debt” guide for you to use as your foundation.

 

To your freedom,

 

Brad

[email protected]

 

 

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