Photo Credit DjCodin from www.freedigitalphotos.net
Last Monday I got a terrible phone call. My grandfather’s health had seriously and suddenly declined, and my father and uncles would be taking him off life support later that day (per his advance directive).
I was crushed. I lost my maternal grandmother this past summer without a chance to say goodbye—and now my dad’s family was in terrible pain 2,000 miles away and I couldn’t do anything about it.
I haven’t seen my grandfather in 17 years, nor my dad in 7. My kids would never meet their great-grandfather—a war hero and a man with as many stories as he had days. I wouldn’t be there to hug my dad in a time of pain.
The next morning I spoke to my dad—grandpa was hanging on despite the absence of the machines. I called my husband at work and told him “I’m taking the kids to Missouri to be there. I want to use the emergency fund.” Bless his heart, he didn’t even blink. We used our $1,000 emergency fund and bought standby tickets and a cheap motel near the hospital. I got a bargain deal on a fleet van as a rental car (I thought to ask about small business discounts). The kids and I arrived at the hospital just five hours before grandpa passed away. We got to say goodbye, he met my daughters and he even laughed at their jokes in his last hours.
The peace of mind that the paltry $1,000 was able to give me is worth far more than any dollar amount. My dad met his granddaughters for the first time, we all got to say goodbye and we got to support one another in a time of pain.
Three days later we returned home on another standby flight exhausted and with $180 left in my wallet to discover that my husband had picked up enough extra shifts while we were gone to almost entirely replenish our $1000 emergency fund.
I thought I’d tell you this story as a way to illustrate to anyone who’s still in “the slog” what financial peace feels like, and how you know when you’re starting to get there. Being able to take that trip without fear of running out of money gave me more peace of mind than I could have ever imagined—it also didn’t derail our financial plan. This is a decision we couldn’t have made at any point before in our married lives–traveling cross-country on a moment’s notice.
We’ve still got a ways to go to be debt-free—about $10,000. We still think we’ll be done by July or August of this year. And then we’ll take a real vacation!
Tagged as: budget, Savings
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