haapai
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Joined: Dec 20, 2010 20:40:06 GMT -5
Posts: 5,871
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Post by haapai on Mar 26, 2020 14:27:59 GMT -5
Two weeks ago, I thought that the moment at which we all woke up to the necessity of the mini-EF had arrived. I don't think that way any more. It is unlikely that many of the folks wiped out financially by COVID-19 will look back on events and see how having a paycheck stashed in savings would have improved their array of choices.
I say that even though I am sure that having such savings does improve choices. Sales at my grocery store started exceeding projections on Ash Wednesday, so folks who had the funds got far more of the TP, rice, beans, canned tomatoes, cough syrup, and sanitizer that they wanted than folks who were waiting to get paid.
The folks who shopped early will probably have better outcomes but who is going to remember that after the nasty year or so that we have ahead of us? It may take smaller, household-sized, or local crises to make people wake up to the importance of saving. The broader the crisis is, and the longer it lasts, and the more ways that there are to point fingers at others, the harder it is to translate an emergency into "Yeah, I need an emergency fund".
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