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Hola Migente, welcome to the Money Cheeseman podcast where we spilled the real cheeseman on building wealth without the bullshit.
Whether you're trying to invest, grow that side hustle, finally get your money right, or my favorite, buy rental properties, you're in the right place.
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I'm your host Violetta, a first Gen.
Mexican immigrant, real estate investor, entrepreneur, and your financial hype woman.
Get ready for tips, tricks, and expert advice straight from Nuesta.
Comunidad Porque Dinero is power and we're here to claim it.
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Don't forget you can always find helpful resources down in the show notes and in descriptions, so make sure you check that out.
Having an emergency fund has recently saved my behind because I had three things recently happened to me and I am so thankful that I had an emergency fund.
1:03
Now, this isn't the first time we talk about having an emergency fund and why you need a emergency fund, but I feel that ever since we don't hear of the stories of when we actually use those funds.
1:18
Funds, right, because they're there for emergencies.
Yeah, this is, we get into this mindset where we think it is a savings account and it's not.
We tend to resist when something does come up that we don't use those funds.
1:37
I know I've been guilty of it and I'm like, no, I don't want to touch those funds.
I'll just do without.
But that's the point of an emergency fund is to use them.
So I want to share three ways that I recently used these funds for three different types of emergencies.
1:57
But before we get into my story, I want to just kind of like quickly do a recap of what an emergency fund is and the different kind of types that you can have.
And you know, I know we talked about it and you'll see it, but really emergency fund is basically in the name, right?
2:18
It's for your emergency, but you have several different types, like you can have one for in case you got laid off or they cut back your hours or whatever.
So that's more of an emergency fund for living expenses.
2:33
Like maybe you want to have a few months worth of your mortgage payments and your big bills and you know, like your car payments and stuff like that.
Maybe you want to save up an emergency fund for that in case something happens.
2:50
And the recommendation varies.
It used to be 3 to 6 months, but with everything going on with the job market and the layoffs happening and everything going freaking crazy, you're looking at more like a year of saving up.
3:06
And then you have another fund for like smaller emergencies, but still, you know, emergencies like, you know, you have to, you know, replace a tire and you know, or you had some plumbing issues at the, the pool, the toilet or whatever, right?
3:25
Things like that.
And those are the ones that I'm kind of talking about right now with what I had to deal with.
Now, where do you want to keep your funds?
Well, you want to not have them in a regular savings account at a bank.
3:45
You want to have a high yield savings account because the bank it divided like, you know, 1% or less around there.
And so you're not even keeping up with inflation.
And with the high yield savings account it gives you, I mean, it's in the name, right?
4:03
It gives you a higher yield and you know most of them keep up with inflation, right?
And there's so many out there.
The one that I use is upgrade.
I am going to link it down below.
It is an affiliate link, but we both get the kickback on it.
4:24
I think it's, I haven't looked lately, but usually it's like up towards $200 depending how much you put in there, right?
But we both get the benefit.
But I'll put that down there right now as of this recording of Tuesday, September 23rd, because I got to put it out there because I don't want you to come at me saying, OK, it was at this percent, but right now it is at 3.42% because remember, interest did go down.
4:53
So it brought down the high yield savings account and it's pretty simple, easy to use.
I like it, but there's so many out there, you know, check your credit cards, for example.
Amex also has 1 and I don't know if I have an affiliate for that, but I'll post it down there too if I have one.
5:15
But if not, you know, check your, your, your cards and things like that to see which one is the best for you.
The point is to move your emergency fund from a regular bank to a high yield savings account.
5:31
I did that with my mom and it was such a struggle because, you know, our community is very, you know, has a lot of financial anxiety and, you know, they like things that are for sure like banks.
And I moved her to upgrade and I think she's already this year earned over like $1000 in, you know, the interest from, you know, just having her account there.
5:57
So that's the reason why I say it's better to have it in a high yield savings account because she was barely getting anything at the bank.
But anyways, let me get back to my story of the three ways that I used emergency funds recently.
6:18
It was like back-to-back to back it felt like and the first one was if you're not familiar or don't know, I have been living in an RV because the house that is on the land is not ready to be moved in.
6:39
The house is there now I have a manufactured home on the land.
The problem is can not DNA utilities so I can't move into it yet.
So we had bought an RV and we were living in it because we're like, OK, it's probably a month or two before we can move into it.
6:58
Well, it's September now.
We bought that in June and like Tovia, we haven't been able to move into it.
And with, with my daughter and everything and like just the chaos and everything like that, we were like, you know what, We're just gonna like put the RV on the land.
7:18
We built a parking pad for it on the land and we're like, all right, let's just go move it over there.
And then we're gonna just go stay at my parents house, which is where I'm at now.
And you can hear my daughter in the background and probably and it's the we're just gonna wait out here until the house is done.
7:40
And but when it was time to go move the RV, we noticed that the tires were like almost shredded.
Like we, it wasn't going to be safe to move that RV like, but we freaking made it to there because between California to Texas, like it just wore out those tires really bad.
8:06
So we needed to replace them.
And that was like $800 that we did not plan for that we did not expect.
But luckily we had again, that emergency fund that we had been putting funds into throughout the year past year or so.
8:27
And we're like, all right, good, we could use that.
And next day we need on they replace the tires and we moved it to the the land and now we're over here at my parents.
Now I am a real estate investor and I own 3 duplexes over there out of state in another state and MIT the Colas Huerta that this area, the area where I have my 3 duplexes there was 1000 year flood.
9:06
This was back in August and they had a lot of rain.
I think it was like 3 days of just nonstop rain of just like heavy rain and you know, it, it caused some flooding.
And it's crazy because I didn't wasn't even paying attention until I got the e-mail and of notifying the owners from my property manager, notifying the owners that there was 1000 year flood or whatever.
9:38
And that, you know, I had a property that had some flooding and I have my duplexes are are built to where they have a basement and then you have the first unit and then the second unit is on top of that unit.
9:58
So now stairs going up and everything like that.
And you know, to in order to pump out the water and just do clean up.
And I think one of the basement windows broke because of the water coming in.
10:16
I think that was Nico stole upwards to like $2000.
And, and the unfortunate thing was that my insurance was not going to cover it, which is so annoying because the, the reason they said was because it did not happen in the four walls of the house.
10:43
I, I, I don't know, it was so weird, but it was because the flooding was actually not from the flooding itself.
It was just because the sewer system was so, you know, there was so much flooding and everything, so it got overflowed.
11:02
And so it, it came into the basement.
Now from the pictures, I think I lucked out a little bit because from the pictures it showed that it wasn't too bad.
There was definitely standing water.
11:18
There was like water, I would say maybe an inch, but not a lot to where it messed up a lot of the appliances and stuff.
Like, you know, my tenants down there in the basement, they have their laundry room, so they have their their washer and dryer.
11:36
The water heaters are down there, the furnaces are down there.
So like it would have been bad if if it would have like flooded everything.
I think it did kind of short circuit one of the water heaters.
I had to I saw that they replaced like a pilot or something like that.
11:54
I forgot what it was, but they did have to replace something because it kind of like short circuited it or it or something.
But there is a, I think it's called a sump pump in the basement that is for that.
It's like if a little bit of flooding happens, it like goes into the source system or whatever.
12:12
But because it got it just, you know, it was just a lot, a lot from all the flooding, it just kind of like backflowed into that basement.
And so the property manager, which I'm so thankful that they were on top of everything, like they were immediate response.
12:32
They got fans, they got pumps to take out the water and clean up and everything.
And everything was taken care of pretty fast for my tenants.
But all that it cost me about $2000 around there, maybe a little bit more.
12:48
I still have, I still have to go back and look at everything.
But I know from my last calculation and I haven't seen any new charges for anything related to flooding.
They, they took care of all that.
13:05
So that was again around $2000 and the same as with a like yourself, you want to have an emergency fund cuz right now you'll think of like, oh wow, you know that's what the risk with real estate investing that something may happen or whatever.
13:24
But when you are doing your calculations, when I go out to look at a property that I am thinking about investing, when I am making that decision on whether I'm going to buy it, I include that I include about 5 to 10% for emergencies in the cash flow.
13:47
So when I look at all the expenses after paying the mortgage on the property and also the property manager and other basic expenses, I also take away things for emergencies like, you know, having to replace the water heater.
14:09
I've had to do that about a year ago and now with the flooding, you know, so I have an emergency fund for that.
And then whatever's leftover is, you know, my cash flow, the the money that I keep.
14:25
And so I count for that.
And I make sure that when I'm looking at these properties that I have enough cash flow to cover all of that and also have some leftover for me that are that makes it worth it to invest in that property.
So those are things to think of when you are investing in real estate is to make sure that you're going to have enough funds to create an emergency fund for each property.
14:52
And you know, and then that builds over time.
Like you want when you buy your property, that's the first thing you want to do.
Like you're not going to go out there and pay yourself first.
You're going to pay your emergency fund and your maintenance fund, all that first.
And then when you get a few months worth of that, then yeah, you start keeping the money or whatever.
15:15
That's what I do first.
Some people like to kind of like do half CS where they do enjoy some of the money and then at the same time build up their emergency fund or whatever.
But I just, I just put everything to the side and I reinvest everything.
15:31
But that is another way that I had to use an emergency fund.
Now, the last way that I used my emergency fund was pretty sad because I had to say goodbye to a beloved pet.
15:50
I had a black German Shepherd that I got back in 2013.
I got him as a puppy and he was with me throughout my whole military career.
And, you know, I had got him because I was by myself.
16:08
So I was in Virginia.
I had just bought my first house and I was, you know, young and single and sola like I was, you know, I wanted some companionship and everything.
So I got him and he, you know, kept me company, went on hikes and everything and went to the park and he was just like my best friend and and went with me everywhere.
16:33
Like if somebody invited me to like a cookout or whatever, I always asked if I could bring my dog because he was pretty well behaved.
I took the time to train him and get a trainer and all that.
Because you never had a German Shepherd before.
And the first two years are rough.
16:48
But once you get past those two two years and you train them like they are the best dogs and everything.
So when we got over here, well, actually in California, I started noticing that he was like slowing down, right?
17:04
He, it was over the summer right before we moved and I started noticing that he was like starting to slow down.
He was definitely more clumsy.
And I'm thinking, oh, great, you know, hip dysplasia, right?
And but we were in the middle like of, of all these big major life events and, you know, we had to move we and all that.
17:29
So then we got over here and who is still OK?
And then we had them in the RV but I noticed, well not notice he had a few accidents.
Like we got a ramp for him to try to make it easier for him to get up on the RV.
17:45
Cuz if you've never been in an RV, it's pretty high and he has steps and everything.
But you know, again, he had, you know, hip issues already.
He was starting to have hip issues.
So it was hard for him.
So we had to help him up and some, you know, he fell a few times and even that, that freaking ramp that we got for him just kind of like still didn't help.
18:10
And matter of fact, it ended up, you know, burnt he, he ended up getting rug, rug burn on his paw trying to get up there and everything.
So after that and and he fell a few times, I was like, you know what, let's just go drop them off at my parents, you know, because they have a yard and, you know, it'll be easier for him and he doesn't have to try to get up and down these big Harvey steps.
18:36
And so, yeah, he was fine.
We would come back and forth, right, to visit my parents and then, you know, visit him as well.
And he, he was OK.
But then, you know, last weekend, not this past weekend, but the first, I guess ends up being the first weekend of September.
18:56
I forget.
We you know, we moved the RV to the land and then we made our way over here to my parents and then that freaking same.
Well, next morning he was I noticed him outside.
19:13
We let him out to potty and then I looked outside the window and he was just laying down and he looked like he was in pain.
And I got worried because I thought maybe it was bloat.
You know, when dogs drink because he does drink water pretty fast and a lot.
19:29
I thought he maybe he had like something where like his his stomach.
So you know the item sometimes that you know it twist or whatever.
So we took him to the vet and nobody had come in out or whatever.
19:44
He was like hurting and all that and I felt so bad moving him.
And so we went over there and the X-rays and they took X-rays and they saw him and everything.
And that was like in total that that visit was like 3, 50, I believe around there.
20:01
Or was it 450?
I forget because my, my husband is the one that, you know, has the, the stuff on, on his credit card.
You know, we use the credit card to get the points and then we move the funds.
But he hasn't moved the funds yet that I saw.
20:17
But it was around that amount.
And you know, they told me that he had like a slip disc.
But the vet told me like, Oh yeah, we just give him like some steroids and just some rest and blah, blah, blah, and just help him to go potty or whatever and just give him a couple weeks and, you know, hopefully he'll get back up and, and get to walking around there.
20:42
But like I said, he had already was starting to really struggle with walking already and I brought him back.
I think it was a little just because I didn't want to let him go at that time or whatever hindsight I'm like, Dang, I should have just like put him down there at that time.
21:02
But with the vet, you know, she told me that like, no, you know, he's he's definitely like uncomfortable.
Of course he's going to be in pain because, you know, it's the muscles and and he has a slipped disc.
But with some time he should be able to recover as long as it doesn't get worse, right?
21:21
And so we had, and it was so hard.
You had to get a harness and lift them and everything.
And he was just not having a good time.
So finally this past Saturday, I just, I, I couldn't do it anymore.
He just deteriorated so bad.
21:37
Like, you know, like he was just there and he would cry and everything.
And so I was like, no, we got to go take them.
So we took them and, you know, had to put him down and that was another, I think the vet to do that was like 190 and then another $90.00 for another company to come and get him to like, you know, dispose of his body through cremation.
22:06
And then we ordered a little keeps keepsake of his paw print and a little photo frame that goes along that.
So that was like another $35.
I was pretty bummed out because I had really thought that he was going to make it onto the land.
22:25
I knew I wasn't going to have him much longer because he was like, you know, getting old and struggling with walking and all that stuff.
But I really thought he would at least last of a little bit till maybe next year, halfway next year.
22:42
We had planned to, you know, do his little doggy area for him to potty and just to enjoy outside.
And we had designed a ramp for the deck, which now we don't have to do that extra expense.
But we had done all that.
22:59
So, yeah, I was pretty bummed out and I'm just glad that because I had an emergency fund, you know, going through this difficult time, it was really stressful and everything.
I didn't have to stress.
I didn't have to have this, you know, the stress on top of, you know, mourning my, my dog of 12, basically 12 years have to worry about, you know, the expenses of everything because that's, that was all another almost $800, right?
23:34
And I'm just thankful that, you know, I had this emergency fund.
So it's things like that.
Hopefully, you know, you never want to have to use these funds for things like that.
23:49
But having that option and that available made it so much better that I didn't have to, you know, worry about like, oh, can I get like a keepsake or whatever of him or whatever.
24:06
We chose not to get his cremated remains bag because it's like I, I would have rather have buried him on the land.
But obviously we're in Dallas and I wasn't going to be able to, you know, drive with him to San Antonio because I really thought, again, I had thought that he would be over there and just, you know, live the rest of his days over there in the land.
24:30
And I would just bury him in the land.
But that didn't work out.
But yeah, that was the last way I had to use my emergency fund.
But yeah, I didn't mean to have that sad part be the last one.
24:46
I probably should have liked sandwiched it in, but it's just I didn't even think about it until now.
I was like, oh, wow, now, now this episode's gonna end kind of, you know, sad.
But what, what next, you know, is just making sure that we replenish our emergency fund, right?
25:05
Because we just spent, you know what, 22 grand basically on, you know, these expenses.
And I don't count the the rental property as part of my personal emergency funds because that's my rental investing business.
25:28
So that's separate.
It's a whole separate LLC.
So that's the emergency funds for that.
But yeah, so now our focus is going to, you know, replenish those funds because again, you don't know when something might happened.
25:44
You know, I don't know if I'm going to have to if we're going to have to replace the trucks, you know, tires now.
I mean, you know, you don't know.
So always remember that once you use those funds and you get through whatever emergency, you have to always remember to go back and replenish those funds.
26:11
And you know, don't feel guilty about it.
I know, let's say you have like $5000 in the in the emerge in your fund.
This is you after, for example, me just spent $2000.
26:26
Then you feel guilty that you had to use it.
Like no, that's what that money is there for.
You know, you already have to go through the struggle and the stress of dealing with an emergency.
You don't want to have the guilt on top of that.
26:43
That's what that money is there for.
It's supposed to be used and guilt free and just always want to make sure that you replenish it and then so that way you have you know it ready for the next emergency that may come up.
27:01
But other than that, hopefully y'all had a great few months.
I forget when I uploaded an episode.
I just been dealing with a lot as you can see with all the emergencies that I had, just a lot of life events and it's kind of like that's not necessarily a struggle, but it's definitely, definitely something to get used to now being with my parents.
27:33
I love being here, but it's definitely kind of have to create a new routine of when I'm, you know, going to be recording podcasts and, you know, taking care of my daughter and other projects that I'm working on.
27:48
But I am kind of pulling back with, you know, money cheese man, teaching real estate investing, but I'm still going to be doing the money cheese my, but I do have something else.
So if you haven't been following me on Instagram, definitely go follow me there because I am kind of putting a few kind of sneak peeks on what I am working on.
28:15
And definitely if you haven't signed up for the newsletter, definitely sign up for that.
So we follow on that.
But yeah, I'm gonna link that down below.
But other than that, I'm gonna stop rambling.
I will see y'all in the next episode.
28:31
Bye, thank you so much for listening.
Don't forget to like and share this episode so others can also find this podcast.
Don't forget to follow me on all my social medias listed in the show notes below, where you can also find resources to help you in your financial journey.
28:54
If you're interested in becoming a guest on the podcast, you can find that information in the show notes.
Other than that, thank you so much for your support and I will see you in the next episode.
Bye.

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