Showcase: The Joy and Agony of Using Your Emergency Fund

In the Plutus Awards Showcase, the Plutus Awards team and Apex Money highlight the best financial articles, podcast episodes, and videos from around the web each Friday. To submit an items you’ve written, created, or discovered, submit a request for consideration.

Less Cars, More Money: My Visit to the City of the Future. [Mr. Money Mustache] — “If I could have one single wish in the world, this is what I would wish for. It’s a change so massive that it would make every person on the planet better off and fix most of our problems in one grand sweep. And it’s probably not what you’d expect.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

The Joy and Agony of Using Your Emergency Fund.  [NZ Muse] — “It was our second to last night on holiday. Slumbering in a cute Airbnb in Napier. Literally the last thing I expected was a call from the local cops at 4am notifying me the car had been stolen (from right outside!) for a joyride, recovered, and the perp in custody.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Give More, Pay Less. [Tony Isola] — “Making money doesn’t create success; what you do with it does. The Go-Giver sold millions of copies based on the application of this premise. The book answered the eternal money question – How do we delineate true wealth? Your true wealth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”​​ (Submitted by J. Money.)

Less Is More. [Money by Lisa] — “If the difference between two competing options is cloudy, how do you decide? Here’s my decision rubric: (1) Among my options, which one will give me greater stability today (2) How does this decision affect my future stability? Let’s say you are weighing the pros and cons of paying off a debt or adding to your savings. It’s not an obvious choice because, at least as far as your balance sheet is concerned, the outcome is actually the same. Applying the questions above can help.” (Submitted by J.D Roth.)

Invest Like Oprah? [Contessa Capital Advisors] – “In fact, studies have shown that after-tax returns from these sophisticated “alternative investments” rarely if ever beat a more standard mix of stock and bond funds. All these different investments help her not put all her eggs in one basket. Some will do really well and some will never justify the high fees she pays to the managers.” (Submitted by Jim Wang.)