Optimal Finance Daily · Saturday, September 19, 2026
Craig Stevens, author of 'It's Only Money' on retirebefore.dad.com, is increasing his emergency fund after witnessing his parents incur significant costs from two major home repairs. He realized that while he previously viewed his emergency fund as a buffer against job loss, it also needs to cover unexpected, large-scale property issues.
“My parents recently had two back-to-back costly home repairs that changed my thinking. If something similar happened to us, we'd have to borrow from other sources.”
“The plumbers had to bring in the jackhammer, dig up the basement floor, and all outside the house to replace the pipe. It was a big, messy job, and expensive.”
“Then two weeks after the plumbing problems, a 70-foot tree fell from a neighbor's yard, toppled a significant tree in my parents' yard like a domino, down some big branches from a neighbor's tree, crushed the fence, then snapped an old telephone pole with a basketball hoop on it.”