🛟 Your first emergency account

The buffer comes first

Before you save for anything else — and long before you start investing — you should have cash ready for something that needs fixing immediately. The bike breaks. The dentist sends a bill. The washing machine dies. If it happens without a buffer, the credit card picks up the bill — and then you're paying interest on a washing machine for years.

That's why the emergency account is the most important account you can have. It is the number one way to avoid credit cards: you borrow from yourself instead of the bank.

How to build it

Start small. The first goal is one surprise — an amount that covers a repair or a bill you didn't see coming. Then keep building towards one month's salary. Move the money into its own account the day you get paid, before you get around to spending it. 90 is the new 100.

This is not investing

The buffer stays in a plain account you can withdraw from the same day. Not in funds, not in stocks. The money isn't supposed to grow — it's supposed to save you. And when you spend from it, the first thing you do afterwards is fill it back up, before anything else.