Thursday, January 21, 2010

Your 'Go To Hell' Fund

You've heard about the importance of having an emergency fund. Hopefully yours is nicely topped off and is of sufficient amount to cover about six month's worth of living expenses should the need arise.
After you have a fully funded emergency fund, your next pile of savings should be aptly named your "go to hell" fund. What is this fund for? Simply, it gives you the ability to tell your employer/professors/significant other/etc to "to go hell" should the need arise.
While your emergency fund should only come into play during an actual emergency (job loss, emergency car repairs, the fridge dies, etc), your "go to hell" fund can be used in the following situations:
  • You hate your job and literally can't survive another day at work. An immediate sabbatical is called for.
  • You need a (possibly permanent) break from your significant other and are willing to take the next plane to anywhere to accomplish this.
  • You come upon a once in a lifetime opportunity and after careful consideration, determine that it is something that you want to throw your money at (it may be a business opportunity, a classic car, a can't-miss investment, etc).
  • You realize you just spent the better part of your undergraduate life (and a huge chunk of your parent's money) to work towards a degree in a field that you recently decided you would never want to work in. You hear the siren call of trade school...

Anyway, you get the idea. To develop this fund, you will first want to determine the amount of money that you want to have in this fund (a range of $5,000 to $50,000 seems like a good amount). Next you want to build this fund as quickly as possible--sell stuff, get an extra job, put all "found" money (birthday checks, rebates, etc) into it. A huge amount of drive and momentum will do wonders to get this account filled up fast so that when the mood strikes, you can simply say "go to hell" and be able to back up such words with cold, hard cash.

5 comments:

  1. That my friend is a Great idea,I've heard it before a long time ago and never acted on it.Now I shall!

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  2. another reason to have cash on hand (in your sock drawer, not in the bank):

    Every once in a great while, you come across a great deal that you can make right now, for cash. Sometimes it's on a Sunday, or after banking hours. Having a "piggy bank" makes the deal possible.

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  3. I have no need to have such fund.

    I'm a multi-millionare, my 147 employees love me 'cause I pay excellent wages and give them great benefits.

    I do come from poor family, my father when he died left me only five million and I had to make ends meet with that little money but, I MADE IT.

    When I get to go I'm planning to include my 147 employees in my will and leave a similar amount to each of them.

    George Buffet.

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  4. BTW the rest of my money is going to go to :

    G R E E N P E A C E .

    WE GOT TO SAVE THE WALES.

    (of course has nothing to do with the welsh)

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  5. Take this job and shove it, I aint gonna work here no more! Great post, great premise, I starting my Go to Hell fund now!

    ReplyDelete