I am diligent about contributing to my emergency fund. I know it would be critical should I have an emergency or lose income. I have always wondered – what would be a situation where I would have to come up with a large sum of cash promptly?
What was the largest one time emergency fund purchase you had to make?
byu/sideout25 inpersonalfinance
Posted by sideout25
13 Comments
So far I think mine was a furnace for 4600 last year. But now I need a new car this year so I’ll be spending 6-8k on that once I make up my mind on what I want.
my shiba and a groundhog had a backyard WWE match and that vet bill was $1800. i rent so i don’t have any unexpected maintenance issues but my friend who’s a homeowner just had to replace her water heater for $3400
14k for a new roof on one of my rental properties after a wild hail storm. I’ve had AC units need to be replaced on more than one house that were ~7k each time.
If you are a home owner you will need a fair bit more emergency fund I think for replacements of large devices or home repair but in the last 5 years the biggest repair bills for me were related to the car at 900 dollars. Over time I think I also had about 1900 in medical bills in a bad year. The amounts you need vastly differ depending on your state and city average costs.
I used to suggest aiming for 5k or higher for house owners but it may be higher now since things are more expensive. If you are not a home owner then 2k seems like a fair estimate but people who live in higher rent areas may want to set aside more.
5500 for a car repair not too long ago. Engine trouble.
My dog had emergency surgery last year. $15K
15k for a new well pump and underground electrical.
If you own a house there are many instances where you’d need a great deal of cash for a repair..
For us last year it was an AC replacement.. we live in Phoenix AZ, so going without wasn’t an option. That cost us $13k
This year we have had our dishwasher go out.. then followed by our washing machine.. so there went another $3k..
If you have a pet you never know what unexpected cost can pop up for them as well. In the last 2 years we have spent thousands on our dog trying to diagnose his skin condition that causes hairloss and constant skin infections.
$6k for broken sewer line. That was the largest emergency. Largest expense was furnace, and roof on rental property. Had electrical problems with a rental one time. Furnace wasn’t working in winter and determined it had no power. The basement had very poor lighting, and I noticed something glowing on the other side of the basement. Turns out it was the body of a mouse that crawled inside the electrical panel and shorted it. This was a really old 60 amp service with fuses. We removed the main fuses and still had power. Turns out someone had wired power form another units service into this panel. It’s a miracle the place never burned down.
Buying a funeral for one (or both) of parents. Or other loved one.
Buying a replacement for a car that decided to immolate itself on the highway.
Sudden family travel.
An act of God taking the roof off your house.
Rage quitting your job with no prospects lined up in an HCOL area.
Needing dental surgery that isn’t covered by your insurance.
215k. Bought a house. A bunch of windows were leaking right after close. It’s a long story, but it wasn’t covered by insurance or the prior owner. Our realtor was probably really the one at fault, but we were left holding the bag. Had to rip the deck and the siding off to check for damage and ensure things were properly flashed going forward. So we paid for siding, windows, and a deck all at once, entirely out of pocket. I give the whole experience 0 out of 5 stars.
We lost our home and 90% of our material belongings to a house fire. While we got insurance money, that took a very long time. Luckily we had the money to replace things as we needed without burdening ourselves. But it was a lot of upfront out of pocket expense.
A few years ago, we had a snowstorm that knocked down a huge silver maple tree branch in our backyard. It knocked down the power lines, which broke the power line connection to the house. We lost power for 3 days, and relied heavily on food delivery. We had an electrician come out to repair the damage. We also had the huge maple tree removed. I forgot how much it cost, but it was quite a few grand in total.