7 Mistakes to Avoid When Building Your Emergency Fund

Building an emergency fund requires focus and discipline. Once you have allocated a value to your emergency fund goal, you must consistently save enough to achieve that value, in order to ensure you’ll have funds at your disposal when you need them the most. 

Emergency savings need to be easily accessible, because you never know how urgently you’ll need them! Keep your money in avenues that offer instant liquidity, such as liquid mutual funds, which are instantly redeemable and also allow returns on your investment.

Assets such as equity , real estate and cryptocurrency2 may promise high returns, but they are prone to volatility. Your emergency fund should be secured so that market volatility does not eat into its value. Try and avoid high-risk avenues and invest in safer options to keep your capital intact.  

An emergency fund is meant to be used in one case only – emergencies. It may be tempting to dip into your fund when you need money in other situations, but you must be firm. You never know when an emergency will strike, and it’s imperative to be ready at all times, so don’t touch your emergency funds in non-emergency situations. If you have to do it, make sure you replenish it immediately, so that when an emergency strikes, you have the money you need. 

Once you have built an emergency fund for yourself, you must keep updating it according to your circumstances. Your lifestyle and requirements will change with the passage of time, so try and re-evaluate your emergency fund at regular intervals, and increase it to match your changing needs.

This is a common oversight. If your emergency fund has been used – either partially or fully – then it must be rebuilt as soon as your situation stabilises. The moment your income and expenses return to normal, resume monthly contributions to your emergency fund.