This will serve as a prelude on my future post regarding Emergency Fund. I just can't help but to immediately share my experience of how important having an emergency fund really is.
We normally leave the house to go to work around 7AM and we would normally use the car. But to my surprise, the car just wouldn't start. Twice, I tried to start the engine but to no avail. My initial reaction is to pop the hood and checked the battery terminals if it is loose. I disconnected the terminals and put it back in. Tried to crank the engine and it still won't start. The first thing I thought is, the battery is done. However, I didn't experience a hard starting the last couple of days. The only thing I remember is that it had a little jerk when I started it the day before.
Left with no choice, I told my wife to just call tricycle so she can go out of the subdivision. For me, I called on the Motolite hotline and requested for an immediate battery delivery. This time I ordered the Motolite Gold. The previous one was an Enduro.
Fortunately, I had an available cash which really came in handy in situations like this. This is the result of the discipline that I've developed through the years when it comes to money management (more of that in future posts :)). I was thinking of using my credit card but there were time that I'm already afraid of using it due to several incidences of double charging, which is sometimes one of the problems of using credit cards, even if I am going to pay it online afterwards.
Fast forward. The Motolite personnel arrived as scheduled. Tested the old battery and it really needs to be replaced. Installed the new one an I was able to start the car. After several testing, I paid the guy and gave him an additional tip for a good service. The good thing about this is I paid in cash without feeling hard about the whole thing. Even if the battery cost around P5500.00. That is because I have available funds intended for things like car maintenance.
With this experience, I really would want to encourage everyone to create an emergency fund regardless how much one is earning. It doesn't matter how much we earn. It on how much we save that matters.
