Do Unexpected Expenses Derail Your Saving Plan?

Over 70 percent of Americans say they find it hard to save because of expenses they didn’t plan for. Ann Carrns at The New York Times reports that unexpected, but not unusual, expenses thwart efforts to save. She also urges to not let unexpected expenses derail your savings plan. “If unplanned expenses occur so often, can they really be a surprise?” If you own a car, for instance, it will eventually need to be repaired.  So you need to build up your emergency fund for rainy days by setting up automatic transfers from checking to savings each month. The old rule of thumb for saving  six months of income might be unrealistic for many people. Reasonable goal like one month of income should be enough to cushion many of those “inevitable bumps” in the road and to avoid taking on high-interest debt. (nytimes.com)