Talk to any financial planner, and they’ll suggest that one of the most important assets you can have is an emergency fund. “What if you lose your job? What if your car needs major repairs?” they’ll ask. The emergency fund is supposed to act as a safety net, helping you stay out of debt.

Media personalities also tout the importance of an emergency fund. Dave Ramsey recommends that you cover 3-6 months of expenses. Suze Orman recommends eight.

The Problem

I believe there is a problem with an “emergency” fund. But before we get into that, let me first say that saving for the future is definitely important. In fact, financial planning is about saving for a future we hope to create.
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Since I’ve only been blogging for a few months, I’m still a total newbie to this whole blogging thing and have lots more to learn. As such, I’ve been reading up on ways to get traffic to my site and build an audience.

Well, one of the blogs that I’ve not only been looking to for help, but that actually inspired me to start my own blog was Bob’s blog at ChristianPF. In particular, it was his post on how to make money with a blog that inspired me to set up this blog and eventually monetize it over the long haul.

So in reading his extremely helpful post, he suggested a few tips on getting traffic to your blog. Two of them included writing guest posts on other people’s blogs, and submitting your own posts to blog carnivals, which is a community that organizes posts on similar topics around the blogosphere.

Over the past few days, I’m excited to say that I actually accomplished both! Bob chose an article that I wrote and put it up on his blog. Check it out! It’s about a method of saving money on groceries that you may not have heard about.

Also, I submitted my post on The Easiest Way To Beat Inflation to a few carnivals, and one of them selected the article! The one I was featured in was Carnival of road to financial independence over at One Family’s Blog. Go there to check out some articles on various topics including beating inflation, frugal living, and generating passive income.

That’s it for now. Like I said earlier, I’ve still got a long way to go in creating an established blog. But I’m taking baby steps, and these firsts provided some motivation and encouragement to keep pushing forward.

Cheers!