Shanli Liu says unexpected household and vehicle expenses hit about once a month, and most people fail to save because they can't predict which one. Treat surprises as inevitable. Build a flexible savings buffer instead of guessing what will break next.
The reason that so many people don't hit their savings goals is because something happens, right? Your AC breaks, or when your carburetor needs to be replaced in your car. Or the thing is, is that things that are unexpected, you can expect them to happen. You just don't know which one it's going to be. Because if you look at a year, it's like about once a month you'll have something unexpected occur, and you know it's going to cost you. Now, I would be clear, if you've got a family, things like that, it's fine. You also have to just like type things— now it's just a spouse conversation— and, okay, is this the neighborhood we need to be in? Can we, can we carpool? Like, you have to be real about this. And so it's just You're preparing for the expense, not which expense it is.
