I would genuienly suggest that you set up and maintain a 3 or 6 month emergency fund… literally as a psychological means of being able to actually feel ok about spending you can afford to spend, as much as for the actual finance sense.
Like basically, look at your budget, set an amount that always goes into that fund each month.
Once you hit the 3 or 6 month target?
If you have money left over after accounting for all other significant spending… it is actually ok to spend that money as fun money.
Then after that fills over, consider something like high yield savings account. Still pretty liquid, not very risky, but, it is still withdrawable, but but, you have the emergency fund now as a buffer.
I appreciate the advice. I could get fired tomorrow and be mostly ok for the rest of the year. But I don’t think I’ll ever shake the, “are you really spending $20 for a single meal? That won’t even give you leftovers?” mentality.
… sounds pretty rough, not fun.
But, you did make it through it.
I would genuienly suggest that you set up and maintain a 3 or 6 month emergency fund… literally as a psychological means of being able to actually feel ok about spending you can afford to spend, as much as for the actual finance sense.
Like basically, look at your budget, set an amount that always goes into that fund each month.
Once you hit the 3 or 6 month target?
If you have money left over after accounting for all other significant spending… it is actually ok to spend that money as fun money.
Then after that fills over, consider something like high yield savings account. Still pretty liquid, not very risky, but, it is still withdrawable, but but, you have the emergency fund now as a buffer.
I appreciate the advice. I could get fired tomorrow and be mostly ok for the rest of the year. But I don’t think I’ll ever shake the, “are you really spending $20 for a single meal? That won’t even give you leftovers?” mentality.