The $1,000 Emergency Cash Stash

My best friend, Natasha, has seen me at my lowest valleys and my highest peaks, and no matter what I'm going through, I know I can count on her emotional and intellectual support. She was my hand-holder when I was so broke that I was eating corn right out of a can, and she was my cheerleader a few years ago when I scored a 20% increase in salary and did away with a 2 hour commute (one way!) to a job that I despised. That's why I consider her to be my best friend. And I do the same for her.


So when she mentioned a new documentary, MaxedOut, I was intrigued and impressed. Natasha knows my beliefs about money and abundance and I know she has had a rough few years financially. With a solid gig in the works for her, we both took sighs of relief that maybe the worst was behind her. The documentary was not only a source of education for her, advocating for people to create a $1,000 cash cushion, but it was a flashback to the past for me.


Dave Ramsey's book, Financial Peace, was the first personal finance book I ever read. That was over a decade ago. It was life-altering at the time as I was going through the thick of my financial woes. I remember checking it out of the library while I was still living in Baltimore, paying off a mound of credit card debt and an IRS tax bill, all while balancing a daily commute to northern Virginia. And yes, most nights, I was eating corn out of a can.

I revered Dave Ramsey. After reading his book, I created my personal financial plan. I worked two jobs. I managed to be debt free - no credit cards, no tax bill, no car note -- almost 24 months later. In that same time, I also managed to stash away a cool $1,000 in a savings account. That was such a joyous feeling. I felt victorious! I felt like there wasn't anything in the world that I couldn't accomplish.

But within a year of meeting my next partner, my savings had been depleted and I was back in debt again. There were three reasons why that happened: I fell in love with a person who had no respect at all for money; I wanted to please that same person and not rock the boat of our precarious relationship; and I convinced myself that I needed to go back to school full-time (and in effect, exchanged a $40K salary for a $400 monthly grad assistant stipend).

Those were all BAD choices on my part.

What I didn't understand then, that I do now, is that concrete financial action steps are important and can help people get on solid financial footing with a plan, some patience, and a lot of persistence. But if we never address the deep emotional work that drives our spending behaviors, and leads us to make bad financial choices (or life choices that impact our finances badly), we'll find ourselves needing a financial lifeboat again.

We need both to create real financial abundance. And ultimately, we all must begin to accept, and sincerely believe, that there is no such thing as a lack of money. There's more than enough money for each and every person on this planet to have all of their basic needs met, plus some. It is a such a fallacy that money is reserved for just a few.

Working as a fund raiser, and using as an example my own personal philanthropy, I see on a daily basis that all kinds of people have created financial abundance in their lives through work they love and conscious money management. Mind you, I didn't say they were cheap. Financially abundant people don't deprive themselves of things they need or enjoy, they simply make every dime and dollar count. They make sound financial choices, consistently.

That's the only difference between people who are financially abundant and people who spend their entire lives struggling to stay afloat financially. Go ahead, make a plan to get out of debt, but also choose to delve into what drives you emotionally, what feeds you spiritually, and what future you want financially. By starting at the roots of financial abundance, I know from personal experience, that success is inevitable. But it all begins first with a choice.

No Dollars and Cents? How About Common Sense.

While surfing through the channels of bad reality television recently,
I stopped long enough to watch a commercial on the ABC Family
Channel.

Yes, a commercial.

Watching television is a true indulgence that I don’t often allow myself
often and pausing long enough to watch a commercial is even more
unlikely. Still, there was something striking about this particular Visa
commercial. 

Scenes of a sunny day in New York City filled my screen. New Yorkers
bustled about their rush hour morning duties buying daily newspapers,
coffee, and donuts. Each customer either swiped a Visa card or waved
it over a credit card machine.  

Although I don’t live in New York, I could have easily been in that
commercial.  I use my Visa check card for nearly every purchase,
even the random .95 cents pack of gum.  

This is, on my part, not a matter of laziness.  I intentionally choose
to use the card because I track all of my purchases electronically
through my bank’s website.  I have personally withdrawn $200 on
a Friday and promised myself it would last two weeks only to find
Monday morning I have a few singles and a piece of lent left
in my wallet. Not even enough left to make a visit to Starbucks.  

I know all too well that one of the fastest and easiest ways to go
down in flames financially is to withdraw money from the ATM
machine.

The second, of course, is to depend too much on your credit card.

And then the commercial took a turn for the worst.  Everything came
to a screeching halt when one burly customer, a long line snaked behind
him, offered cash to pay for his morning java.  The clerk sneered at the
man.   Other customers in line rolled their eyes, sighed out loud, and
looked at their watches. 

Long after the commercial had evaporated from the screen, I sat in
stunned silence.  And then I turned off my television, my brief indulgence
ruined.

That Visa produced a commercial with the obvious message being
credit is easier, faster, and BETTER than cash, was not the true
horror. What did frighten me, however, was knowing thousands,
maybe even millions, of viewers who are already buried in credit
card debt just received positive reinforcement and for the ludicrous
reason of not inconveniencing someone who didn't have the
foresight to add an extra five minutes into their morning commute.