BiggerPockets Money Podcast · Friday, September 25, 2026
Kate suggests re-evaluating what constitutes an 'emergency' expense, particularly for pet care. She argues that predictable events like a cat's annual vet visit or a recurring urinary tract infection should be budgeted for as regular expenditures rather than emergencies, as they are foreseeable.
“And when you think about emergencies, this is where things really shifted for me too. Things like vet bills. We all know that people tend to get sick or maybe get hurt. Like it's inevitable. You're probably going to need stitches at some point in your life or you're going to need antibiotics for an infection, right?”
“So why not take the same approach with your pets? It's not just their once a year annual exam that you might run up against. You know, my poor kitty cat had a urinary tract infection last week, and we had to take her to the vet for some medicine and treatment.”
“So I really don't think that those things should be categorized as emergencies when we know they happen on a fairly regular, maybe an annual or biennial schedule.”