Early this year, Johnson got a promotion to a class teacher position in one of the leading secondary schools in the country, the promotion was well deserved because he had over 90% of his students get distinctions in the 2 past years’ national exams.
The good news of the promotion came in at time when his wife was 4 months pregnant and he was so excited to transfer the same news to his dear wife that same day.
Just like any other partner, she was very happy for him upon hearing this and, in her words, she said “At least our soon to be daughter will be received in a better hospital”.
It wasn’t that very long that we got into another lock down that later came with an email from his employer that the school was not going to pay any more salaries until the situation would get back to normal.
Johnson nearly collapsed upon reading this email because he nearly had nothing on his account yet his wife was weeks away to her due date.
As a coach, I get to hear many stories similar to that of Johnson and I believe there are still many people struggling with the aspect of saving for emergencies (Emergency fund)
To those that are wondering what an emergency fund is, It is money set a side for your protection against life’s unexpected events, and each of us are have a lot of them throughout our lifetime.
In Johnsons’ case, the emergency wasn’t his wife giving birth because this could be predetermined at the start, what the unexpected event was the stop to receiving a salary.
There those things that will happen to us without our consent or plan and it may be loss of a job, accident that you can no longer be employed or sickness of you or your dependents which may require you to meet huge hospital bills.
Given that we may not easily tell how big the emergency may be, it is encouraged that you focus to build an emergency fund that can meet 6 months of your expenses.
I know this might sound hard to many but it is possible if you just commit yourself to put a side something small amount monthly to an account that you have limited access to.
If you are married, agree with your spouse about how much each of you or one of you should contribute to this account and make sure you are committed to contributing to it as well as not making withdraws from these accounts unless an emergency arises.
Even if it is 2% of your pay, set something aside for the uncertainties. Like I always say, If your Salary is so small to even save 1% of it, consider reducing some of your expenses and if this is still hard, look out for a side hustle that you can do in the evenings or weekends to boost your monthly Income.
You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.
Yours in Service .
Coach Samuel Ibanda.
Thank you Samuel. Am walking this journey with u.
Thank you Agela and I am glad you are following