Saving & Emergency
Financial resilience: what it actually means
Resilience is the capacity to absorb a shock without lasting damage, and it is built from a small number of components.
Imani Serrano
25 articles by Serrano
Budgeting
Living on one income
Whether by choice or circumstance, single-income households have a specific set of vulnerabilities and a specific set of protections.
Saving & Emergency
Savings goals and making them stick
Named, specific, automated and visible goals are saved for; vague intentions are not.
Budgeting
The costs of having children
The largest costs are childcare and foregone earnings rather than the items people budget for.
Budgeting
Money conversations that need having
Several specific conversations prevent most household financial crises, and almost nobody has them in advance.
Saving & Emergency
What happens to money when you die
The documents are inexpensive, the absence of them is expensive, and several assets do not pass under a will at all.
Saving & Emergency
Building savings on a low income
Small amounts genuinely matter, the support available is under-claimed, and standard advice frequently does not apply.
Budgeting
Spending triggers and how to interrupt them
Most overspending is situational rather than a matter of character, and situations can be changed.
Budgeting
Automating your money
Every decision removed is a decision that cannot be got wrong on a bad week, which is what makes systems outperform discipline.
Saving & Emergency
Planning for a big purchase
The decision to finance or save changes the total cost substantially, and the calculation takes ten minutes.
Saving & Emergency
Starting to invest, and when not to
The order of operations matters more than the choice of investment, and several things should come first.
Budgeting
Housing costs and the decisions that move them
The largest household cost is also the least reviewed, and several of the levers are larger than anything else available.
Budgeting
The grocery bill and where it actually goes
Food is the largest flexible cost in most households, and the savings come from planning rather than from deprivation.
Saving & Emergency
Insurance you need and insurance you do not
Insure what you could not absorb and self-insure what you could, which eliminates most of what is sold.
Saving & Emergency
Saving with children and teaching money
Financial habits form earlier than most parents realise, and the effective teaching is practical rather than instructional.
Budgeting
Money and mental health
The relationship runs in both directions, and the practical adjustments that help are specific rather than motivational.
Budgeting
Tracking spending without hating it
Manual entry fails within weeks, and the automated version gives you the information without the discipline.
Saving & Emergency
Sinking funds and planning for predictable costs
Most financial emergencies are not emergencies at all — they are predictable costs that nobody budgeted for.
Saving & Emergency
Saving for a house deposit
The deposit is one part of the cost, the schemes vary enormously, and the timeframe determines where the money should sit.
Budgeting
Household money when two people earn differently
Joint, separate and proportional arrangements each have consequences, and the fairness question is not the same as the practical one.
Budgeting
Cutting fixed costs before cutting coffee
A few hours spent on the largest recurring bills produces more than years of small daily restrictions.
Saving & Emergency
Where to keep short-term savings
Default accounts pay poorly, the differences compound, and the right product depends on when you need the money.
Saving & Emergency
How much emergency fund you actually need
The standard answer is a range rather than a number, and the first small amount matters more than the eventual target.
Budgeting
Why most budgets fail in the second month
The problem is almost never discipline — it is that the budget was never built from what actually happens.
Budgeting
Budgeting when your income is irregular
Most budgeting advice assumes a fixed monthly salary, which a large and growing proportion of households do not have.