The 5 Sinking Funds That Prepare Me For Any Expense

Taking the stress out of long-term expenses

Just as I graduated college, moved halfway across the country, and started my first job, a months-long string of bad luck hit me hard. My first week at work, I got hit with a thousand-dollar repair bill due to my car running into some serious engine trouble. A month later, I had a severe allergic reaction while traveling for work and had to be taken to the hospital. A few weeks after that, I spent hundreds on a night guard, which of course was not covered by insurance, to address my newfound stress-induced teeth grinding habit. Around that time, I also came to realize that my toxic work environment could no longer be justified by the paycheck. So I decided to quit without having a new job lined up.

While this series of events is a much smaller deal, and could have been handled much better in hindsight, much of the stress associated with it stemmed from having just graduated with very little time to build up much in the way of a safety net. Once I found a new job and got enough distance from those few particularly stressful months, I realized that getting smart with my money was absolutely critical for taking the stress out of the bigger expenses that always seemed to come up at the most inopportune of times. Preparing my savings account for these events would not only keep me out of…