National Preparedness Month

In case you didn't already know September is National Emergency Preparedness Month. Kind of a big deal. In our neighborhood, the city has planned a big mock disaster to see how the emergency crews respond and how well we as individual citizens respond.

I was thinking it would be fun to creat a big mock financial disaster... then I realized there are a lot of us that are already unfortunately going through one! The recession has taken its toll and many were not prepared. Either way I think now is a great time for us to step back and think.

How ready are you for a financial emergency?

Preparedness is not something you can make-up over night. I would advise that every family should have at very minimum three to six months of expenses saved up in  an account that is fairly liquid and fairly accessible. In addition, I suggest having proper insurances and back-up plans in place. I also suggest that everyone have a food storage of  a minimum of three months of goods you will really eat, not just wheat and water.

Here are just a few questions to ask yourself to see how well prepared your familiy is for a financial disaster:

1. If you were to lose your job how long could you go without work and survive?
2. What would happen to your loved ones if you were injured and could not work?
3. What would happened if you died unexpectedly? I know it is morbid to think but really how would your loved ones provide for themselves? 
4. What would happen if you or your loved ones were injured or came down with an illness?

Murphy's law says that anything that can go wrong will. I believe there is an equal opposite. When we are prepared for anything to go wrong it more than likely will not. I would rather be on my made-up side of Murphy's law than the other. And even it does go wrong you are prepared!