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Do you have an 8 month savings cushion?

April 24, 2009 by Susan

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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Suze Orman dished some of her tough love and savvy financial advice during the Avon sponsored blogging women conference call.

Thanks to Maria Bailey of BSM Media, I was one of the lucky bloggers on the line with Suze. We were all frantically tweeting notes and questions to Suze and sharing her pearls of financial wisdom with the twitterverse using hashtag #suze.

It was a Suze power hour, that’s for sure. I learned a lot and also got a good kick in the pants.

Suze has got us Moms figured out. She knows that we put everyone before ourselves. She knows we don’t pay ourselves and save for our own tomorrows.

Within that hour conference call, Suze drove home her famous, bottom-line, must-do recommendation: Have an 8 month savings cushion!

Ouch.

Guilty.

I do NOT have an 8 month savings cushion ready and waiting in a bank account down the street. And the idea of building up enough to live on for 8 months is pretty scary.

But, I suppose the alternative is even scarier.

So, I guess I’d better start saving.

Suze is really serious about this 8 month thing. In fact, Suze even advises only saving for your kids college if you have no credit card debt, have an 8-month savings cushion, and are saving for retirement. She’s adament that we moms take care of ourselves first.

She agrees it can be tough to find the money for the 8 month savings, but she suggests we pretend that we’ve hit the hard times and cut back on all non-essentials until we build up the savings.

I think it’s good advice… but pretty tough to actually follow.

What about you? Do you have an 8 month buffer? Would you be willing to cut your cable to build your buffer?

I’m going to start taking saving much more seriously and try to build up an 8 month cushion, but I don’t think I’m cutting my cable just yet.

Do you procrastinate on the big stuff? Like your will???

As moms we MUST pay attention to our will and trust, but it’s so easy to put it off. For one, it costs a bundle to get it done. Then, you usually need to find a notary, book an appointment, get a babysitter, drive to the appointment and so forth.

Well, here’s some good news…

Suze Orman is going to take care of all that for you!

Suze OrmanYes, she’s giving you your own FREE “Will & Trust Kit” worth $2,500.

Just go to suzeorman.com and click the “Will & Trust Kit” link in the blue bar on the left-hand side of the home page.

Click the orange “Gift Code” button and enter “Moms Rule” into the gift code field.

Click the green “Submit” button and follow the instructions to redeem your free copy of the Will & Trust Kit.

But hurry… This gift code is only valid until Midnight EST on Saturday, April 25th.

Melanie Nelson took fabulous notes during the call and has published an extensive summary as well as a Mr Linky where everyone who was on the call is linking up. Definitely read through the various posts and search twitter with the hashtag #suze.

I also want to shout out a thank you to Avon for arranging this call. Suze works with Avon as their representatives’ financial advisor. On the call Suze used the example of a direct sales business with Avon to be a good way for women to be in business without carrying any risk.

So tell us, have you ever worked with a direct sales company before?

And remember, I want to hear what you think of the 8 month savings cushion… Do you think you’ll get there? Or are you already celebrating that success?

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Maddie’s Lesson
Spend a night-in with Pride and Prejudice AND a new Blu-Ray Player!

About Susan

Susan Carraretto and her identical twin, Janice Croze, created 5 Minutes for Mom in 2006. Susan loves all social media, but her top addiction these days is Pinterest.

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19 Comments

  1. Melanie Nelson says

    April 28, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    The call was amazing! Thanks for sharing your recap and linking up. I’m loving getting all the info from the different callers. Can you believe I was so busy I forgot to download the will info? duh. I can’t believe I was on the call, excited about the link, then didn’t do it. Gah.

    Reply
  2. Whitney says

    April 26, 2009 at 11:37 am

    I’m afraid our emergency fund would not last 8 months! We did put our entire income tax check in there though, so we are pushing towards it!

    Reply
  3. AmyL says

    April 25, 2009 at 10:31 pm

    Ouch….8 months? We’ve done Dave Ramsey too and paid everything off except the house, and we’ve got the small emergency fund. But it seems like the bills are never-ending. Our van is 11 years old and the mechanic said it’s not worth putting money into, so we’ll drive it till it dies. But I wasn’t planning on replacing it until next year so that’s scary. Appliances in this house are getting old and we’re noticing problems so we’re nursing those along as well as we can. We fixed the dishwasher for $25 instead of a $200 repair bill a few weeks ago!

    Thanks SO much for the will and trust kit! That’s on our list of things to do this year and this will be helpful. And the savings? Gonna have to keep working on that….

    Reply
  4. Lisa says

    April 25, 2009 at 7:07 pm

    We have been through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and had our emergency fund built up to about 2 months of savings. Then my hubby was laid off for a few months from one of his two jobs and I lost my main job and extra job at the same time. I am so glad that we had done FPU, paid off our credit card debt, and had the EF set up. We have paid off (and CANCELLED) 3 credit cards and 1 of 2 cars. We also used our savings to survive until April, when we have a little money coming back in. We are down to basics so that we can build that EF back up and eventually get 6-9 months banked. Our goal is debt free by 2020 (HOUSE and ALL!).

    Reply
  5. Susan says

    April 25, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    I had always heard a 6 month cushion, but with job security being what it is, it’s nice to know we have a bigger buffer. We have been slacking in the will department and I feel guilty every time I think about it. I know we need one because we have 2 kids now so this is perfect timing!

    Reply
  6. Michelle says

    April 25, 2009 at 10:50 am

    Ok, so we score in the “will & trust” category–that came as a compliment from the attorney who finalized our kids’ adoptions, which was nice. Sort of morbid, but necessary.

    As for the savings cushion, we are working on it!!

    Reply
  7. Faerylandmom says

    April 24, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    We have about 2 months of savings currently, but that’s because we saved up over the last two tax returns to pay off our van. We are now debt-free, aside from the mortgage, and are working to build up a 3-6 month cushion with what used to be our car payment.

    I think the 8 month figure is pretty arbitrary. Realistically, I think it makes more sense to hammer out with your husband to figure out what level of savings you feel comfortable with, and I think 3 months is the minimum. Also, make sure that whoever feels comfortable saving less should probably give in a bit more to the one who wants to have a larger savings. It’s just a nice thing to do, I think. 🙂

    Either way, having that emergency fund tucked away is a MUST. And no, we don’t have cable. 😉

    Reply
  8. Abby says

    April 24, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    What a great deal! Thanks!

    Reply
  9. Alicia says

    April 24, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    This is great. I’ve already signed up. Thank you!

    Reply
  10. susan says

    April 24, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    Thank you so much for this code! I have a little one now so it is so important to get our “affairs in order”.

    Reply
  11. BlapherMJ says

    April 24, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    Thanks so much for this info! I am a big fan of Suze and will be getting the Will and Trust kit!

    Reply
  12. RefreshMom says

    April 24, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    Thanks for offering the will kit. We really need to get this together; getting such a great product for free is amazing!

    Reply
  13. Jen Thomas says

    April 24, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    I haven’t listened to Suzy much, but am a big Dave Ramsey fan, and they seem to say a lot of the same things. We’re in the process of building our emergency fund and are proud to say we are debt free except for our home which will be paid off in less than 8 years! (And we are in our early 30s!) Thanks for the will and trust info, I can’t wait to dive into it!

    Reply
  14. Maggie says

    April 24, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    This is awesome. Thank you! We are working on our emergency fund AND becoming debt free then we’ll work on our 8 month buffer. It’s SO hard to save money, isn’t it?

    Reply
  15. The Happy Housewife says

    April 24, 2009 at 11:52 am

    We do have an emergency fund built up, we cut ton of expenses to get there, but we don’t miss any of them! We are also debt free, which helps to cut expenses, no bills!
    My husband just started biking to work this week, to save on gas as well as get exercise. It has been great, and just one more way to save.
    Toni

    Reply
  16. Cammy says

    April 24, 2009 at 10:43 am

    I really respect Suze and the ruthless advice she gives. We are working on our nine month buffer and have been living debt free for a while now. Thanks for the link.

    Reply
  17. Becky says

    April 24, 2009 at 9:50 am

    I really like Suze Orman as well as Dave Ramsey. We believe very strongly in building a 9 month savings. We first have built an emergency fund, and now are focusing on getting completely out of debt. Our next step is our 9 month savings. I feel so empowered now that my husband and I have taken control of our lives. We have cut our cable {to the 15 dollar a month basic television} and love it! We have so much more time in our lives.

    Reply
  18. Heidi says

    April 24, 2009 at 9:28 am

    I really like Suze Orman. She is to the point and isn’t afraid to tell you what you are doing wrong.

    I’m off to get the kit!

    Reply
  19. ktjrdn says

    April 24, 2009 at 8:49 am

    We’re in the process of using the Willa nd Trust kit and it’s great. Very informative.

    Reply

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