Emergency fund, where should you put it?

zorry

Veteran Expediter
Seekerman, You must be a numbers guy.

And the only on here. On $5000:

0.85 % is $42.50
3 % is $150.
How much inconvenience can you go through for $150 ? Much less $42.50.

Give the man a gold star !

And remember, that $42.50 is taxable . :)
 

RoadTime

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
I'm sorry......I'm not a numbers guy. Can you tell me how 0.85% on $5,000 equates to $425.00 a year?

Good question and catch. I think your right. I just ran the numbers for 1 year and got $42.50
Straight up math $50 is 1 % of $5000. I didn't even think twice about it :rolleyes:
 

Mailer

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
Seekerman, You must be a numbers guy.

And the only on here. On $5000:

0.85 % is $42.50
3 % is $150.
How much inconvenience can you go through for $150 ? Much less $42.50.

Give the man a gold star !

And remember, that $42.50 is taxable . :)

Now do you know why I choose the word "worship?" Lol.
 

seekerman

Expert Expediter
Seekerman, You must be a numbers guy.

And the only on here. On $5000:

0.85 % is $42.50
3 % is $150.
How much inconvenience can you go through for $150 ? Much less $42.50.

Give the man a gold star !

And remember, that $42.50 is taxable . :)

LOL. You gave me a start. I was about to pick up the phone, call my bank, and ask 'em where my money was. I so wanted it to be true!
 

Mailer

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
Ok, it looks like I'm not going to find a better rate on the main street. I'm going to the wall street.

50% Regular savings.
30% Mutual Funds.
20% stocks.

:)
 

RoadHouse

Active Expediter
I haven't been doing this job long enough to build up an emergency fund yet. I do however have a credit card with a decent limit on it to save my bacon if I run into a problem. What is the average mount of money that you guys keep in your emergency accounts?
 

usafk9

Veteran Expediter
You found it before I read your question. That's the one that has several billboards near home. If I'm not mistaken, there's another in west Michigan that has a similar deal.

Also, FWIW, LMCU lends on commercial vehicles at very attractive rates, at 80% LTV.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using EO Forums mobile app
 

Dynamite 1

Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
I was questioning the 425 $ per year also but thought I'd wait to see if my doubt was correct. We get 1.5 % on our savings and we don't make that much on a higher balance.
 

Mailer

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
I haven't been doing this job long enough to build up an emergency fund yet. I do however have a credit card with a decent limit on it to save my bacon if I run into a problem. What is the average mount of money that you guys keep in your emergency accounts?

I calculate my set aside amount based on my needs and wants. I would go back a few months to get the average of the monthly spendings.

Then identify which expenses are needs(Those that I have to pay for) and wants(Those that I don't have to pay for but want to pay for). Subtract the wants expenses from needs, the balance would be my estimated one month emergency fund.

I have 6 months worth of the emergency fund. 50% in the regular savings for ease of transactions. And the other 50%, I just moved it into the stocks and mutual funds account.
 

Mailer

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
UPDATE: I brought up this thread about 6 months ago. Before I got into the expediting business, I spent months reading posts from great members who were willing to share the insights of this business.

What I've learned from those postings were that you can earn a decent income and since it's an unpredictable business, you can go broke within a week.

It was latter part that concerned me the most. I'm the breadwinner in the house and have mortgage and other bills to pay. What if the freights are slow, like now, or my carrier went under?

That's why I knew I had to build my emergency saving to cover atleast 6 months of expenses just in case I need to tap into it during the slow times.

I was searching for ways to make sure the monies can earn better interest and work as hard as I am.

After reviewed the responses on this thread, in my opinion, banks are not the good place to help grow your hard earned monies. There's got to be the better place.

I decided to experiment to see if can find better return than the bank. As I have stated in my posts on this thread, I'm going to invest in the stock market.


Im not advocating anyone here to jump into the stocks. It's always risky in the stock market, but with good research and well diversified portfolio, it's possible to have better returns than the bank.

Here is my results(I made some modifications on my portfolio)

75% Regular savings(tiny returns)
25% bought 3 moderate risk stocks

Current stocks yields since purchased=102.5%:):)

I outinvested the bank today, I'm very happy with my experiment:)
Of course, the process could reverse tomorrow and that will be another update, LOL.
 

asjssl

Veteran Expediter
Fleet Owner
I keep mine in savings...but I have been also flipping cars for awhile now with the maintence/ emergency fund..I get them on Craigslist ..auctions ..have a few dealer friends...some I get just because people are hard up for money...always seem to at least double my money...gives me and my son something to do..and I enjoy working on them...

Sent from my SM-G900V using EO Forums mobile app
 
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Mailer

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
UPDATE: I brought up this thread about 6 months ago. Before I got into the expediting business, I spent months reading posts from great members who were willing to share the insights of this business.

What I've learned from those postings were that you can earn a decent income and since it's an unpredictable business, you can go broke within a week.

It was latter part that concerned me the most. I'm the breadwinner in the house and have mortgage and other bills to pay. What if the freights are slow, like now, or my carrier went under?

That's why I knew I had to build my emergency saving to cover atleast 6 months of expenses just in case I need to tap into it during the slow times.

I was searching for ways to make sure the monies can earn better interest and work as hard as I am.

After reviewed the responses on this thread, in my opinion, banks are not the good place to help grow your hard earned monies. There's got to be the better place.

I decided to experiment to see if can find better return than the bank. As I have stated in my posts on this thread, I'm going to invest in the stock market.


Im not advocating anyone here to jump into the stocks. It's always risky in the stock market, but with good research and well diversified portfolio, it's possible to have better returns than the bank.

Here is my results(I made some modifications on my portfolio)

75% Regular savings(tiny returns)
25% bought 3 moderate risk stocks

Current stocks yields since purchased=102.5%:):)

I outinvested the bank today, I'm very happy with my experiment:)
Of course, the process could reverse tomorrow and that will be another update, LOL.

Sorry folks for this resurrection.

But I thought I should give the updates on my experiment (you might have to review this thread again to get the whole picture).

As I have stated I have decided to take the risks in getting better return thru the stocks purchase instead of leaving the emergency fund in the bank savings account.

After about 6 months of the experiment, the returns were positive. Stocks were sold and the proceeds were added to the emergency fund.

Unfortunately, last year I had to dip into the emergency fund (bad bad bad, Lol..). Anyway, I decided to build it back up. I took another calculated risk and use 1/3 of the funds and purchased the stocks.

Well uh....the stocks went down and never came back up....Adios, bye bye. This time, the experiment failed.

Then, this morning, I just happened to check the stocks monitoring app. It shows 215% gain.

Yeah right! The app probably need some tweakings. Lol

Checked account again. The app was fine. I sold the stocks.

Apparently the company was bought out. Benefits went to the shareholders. Fair enough.

True that the experiment has ended in the positive. But in my opinion, it's too risky. I would be reluctant to do it again.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
I've heard a few stories from people getting advised just to hold unto their cash as the market is just too volatile right now. CD's are a solid option
 
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Mailer

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
I've heard a few stories from people getting advised just to hold unto their cash as the market is just too volatile right now. CD's are a solid option
Yes, agree with the CD's. It's safer.

Now we just got to figure out whether to hold or sell our current stock, yeah the expediting business. Lol...
 

TDave

Expert Expediter
Not a bad thread good ideas. What I've been doing is keeping 3 months of expenses anything over that I place in 6 months of cds then repeat. Not a big return but I keep saving and money not tied up forever if I need it.
 
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davekc

Senior Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
Everyone risk threshold is different based on many factors. Keep in mind that CD money isn't making you anything once taxes and inflation are factored. More of a lock box if even that. As mentioned, "money makeover" from Ramsey is a great read and first start. "Cash is king" is paramount in this industry and many others.
In a condensed version, this is what we do. Not advise per se but how we approach investment. Some previously posted in other threads.
I typically work the opposite sides of a market. Literally for years actually. In the simplistic sense, if the market is low, that is when I buy. With expediting, when it tanks, that is when I invest in equipment typically. Happened the beginning of this year. lol.
Same with agriculture. I make heavy investments when the commodity market tanks. As mentioned, expediting no different.
To expand from that, same line of thinking I use in real estate purchases. When things tanked in 08/09, what did I do? Bought property that was in distress direct from banks that wanted to unload it just for the paper.
As mentioned, stock market works the same way. Buy when the market is low.
My advice for borrowing,is never unless the borrowing money actually produces a stream of revenue.
I always ask myself when people buy a new car. Do they realize they just bought a depreciating asset? Well no. They are chasing Pokémon. lol.
 
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