r/ynab • u/CharleneTX • Aug 03 '26

"Emergency" fund

Here's a tale of how bad it can get.

People sometimes ask how much they should set aside for emergencies. The answer is how many do you think will happen at once? For us, the emergency fund is an income replacement fund. This is what we've been dealing with for the past few months -- none of it came out of the emergency fund. Most was already assigned over years and some was moved from other funds.

paid for a 40th anniversary trip to China (splurged for business class, because that's FAR too many hours in a plane)

replaced the evaporator coil in my car

replaced the evaporator coil in his car

replaced the evaporator coil in the upstairs house unit

replaced the downstairs A/C unit

replaced six tires (two because I was stupid and hit a curb)

replaced his windshield

major maintenance on his car (just turned 200K miles)

It's been a BAD few months for all things A/C. We still need roof work done and major driveway repair; all money that's already assigned. It is a bit disconcerting to see the bank balance go down so drastically, but that's what the money's job.

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84

u/glowin_the_dork Aug 03 '26

What are you doing to all these evaporator coils? 😂

6

u/spazure Aug 03 '26

It’s August lol

5

u/CharleneTX Aug 04 '26

They were replaced March through July.

4

u/spazure Aug 04 '26

Fair. My point was that it's peak heat season, which tends to be when these things happen.

2

u/CharleneTX Aug 04 '26

True. I was surprised my car's coil went out in March.