Canadian Personal Finance Blog

… and make a Stash! These are lyrics from Money by Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon).

What does this have to do with this Blog? What are you part of the Topic Police? Lighten up, I can take poetic license when I feel like it!

Now what was I ranting about, a yes, a Stash (no not that kind of stash either, you can go look at the NORML web site for that). I mean an Emergency Money stash, and not just a “rainy day” or a “if I get laid off” stash, this is a real EMERGENCY do not use until glass is broken type fund.

Now why would you need that?

• If you are married and your spouse suddenly dies, ALL your joint accounts are then frozen and you have NO money access. Whoops, didn’t think of that did you? Well, neither did I, but a loved one pointed it out to me (I never said I was smart, but I do know a good point when I hear it).
• Someone steals your spouses identity or worse still YOUR identity and wipes you out? If you can get your money back, it isn’t going to come back quickly, you are going to need an emergency fund somewhere!
• You are in a part of your life where you think you might need to ESCAPE (e.g. abusive relationship).

There are numerous other reasons, but these are the ones that I could think of.

OK, I have convinced you to create the stash? Good! Where do you put it? A bank? Well it isn’t going to really get a lot of interest there, and in there it is EXPOSED. I am thinking of putting some cash away somewhere safe, like say, your SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX (I love it when I can get my stories to intermingle like this).

Remember this money is not a “I want to buy a nice fur coat” fund, it is a “HOLY COW, my life just took a real BAD turn!” fund, so guard it and only use it as a last resort.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst! –C8j