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A comment on Why Don't People Manage Debt Better?. Parent comment

Re:Why Don't People Manage Debt Better? by enraged_camel on Friday February 19, 2016 @08:00PM (#11138045)
>>These are all great reasons to have an emergency fund which covers the payments on all your debts (and your other expenses) for a few months.

That's not what an emergency fund is for. An emergency fund is for essential expenses, such as rent (or mortgage), food, prescription medicines not covered by insurance, and so on. If you are in the "I'll just use my emergency fund to pay off my debts in case disaster strikes" you've already lost the game.

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Re:Why Don't People Manage Debt Better? by superuser2 on Friday February 19, 2016 @08:22PM (#11138133)
The internet personal finance community usually considers debt payments to be a fixed expense that you need to plan for in your emergency fund in addition to the other things you mentioned. I'm not sure where you're getting your "emergency funds can't cover debt payments" assertion from.

20k amount financed on a car @ 2% for 48 months: $434/mo. Save that (in addition to your other savings) for 6 months, then finance the car. Then you can absorb a 6 month unemployment stint out of savings, during which you can downgrade at any point if necessary. Or you can wait an extra 42 months to save $827 in interest if that's worth it to you, but either way the risk is managed.

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