Financial Hurdles

It's been a while since I actually was worried about money. Generally my e-fund can absorb any problems I encounter. But with the fire sale going on in the stock market, my savings account is pretty barren lately.

So it came as a bit of a shock when my GF told me that her tuition was due next month. I remember her telling me about it months ago, and I knew that I'd need to save up for it. But, I kept putting it off.

Where does that leave me? It leaves me $771.22 short because I didn't set aside money along the way. Now, I could tap the e-fund and cover the cost, sure. But right now, that happens to be a significant percentage of that account. And I could split the payments up using her university's payment plan, but we'd have to pay some additional fees.

No, it looks like I'm gonna just have to suck it up and pull some contracting hours to cover this. I don't think I can quite pull off the hours to cover all of it, but I can get close enough that the rest will only cause a small impact on my paycheck.

I guess I'm fortunate that I had work available to me when this hurdle presented itself. But that won't always be the case. So I'm gonna take this as an opportunity to remind myself (and you!) why an e-fund is so important and why we should plan ahead for hefty bills we know are coming up. Putting $50 aside every paycheck could have solved this problem before it became one.

Next time, I'll be better prepared. Hopefully you will too :)