In retrospect, I was kinda asking for it.
Back in December, I sent my mom a snapshot of my various savings accounts’ rather large sum. I was gleeful. And I guess I was a bit smug — or at least overly comfortable with my financial situation.
Shortly after that, I learned that my best bet was to replace my aging HVAC unit since there were some deep and fleeting discounts. The unit plus installation was $8,200 — which, unfortunately, was about $4,500 less than I had saved up in my HVAC fund.
So that $4,500 came out of savings. Owie.
Then in late January, I noticed some of my tiles were warm — or even hot — without the HVAC on and with the rest of the house being chilly.
I called around a bit and found out I probably had a slab leak. Because of course I did.
I had to pay a plumber ($140 base charge) and a locator ($250 base charge) to come out and figure out where the leak was and what was needed to fix it.
And I shouldn’t have been surprised when they determined it was behind my beautiful tiled shower which, due to stalling out on the project multiple times, I still hadn’t even gotten a chance to use.
They had to do minimal demolition (the last row of tiles on the shorter side — so about six square feet — and the plumber really tried to save them by cutting on the grout lines. Alas…
In the end, it was much less than I assumed when I heard the words “slab leak.”
The online mid-range price was $3,000. The plumber charged me $1,980 for the repair. So even with the initial plumber and locator visit, I paid less than $2,400.
I still have to find and pay someone to fix the small tiled area, which will involve some careful tile cutting. And I’m going to try to use drywall tape and paint to cover the 3 spots in the wall they had to cut to get access to the pipes.
Anyway, all of this means that my savings account balance went from $12,500ish in early December to half that in late February.
Logically, I know that’ $6,000 is still a darn good cushion — even if I didn’t also have a pretty robust emergency fund.* I’m trying to remind myself that a lot of even very money-savvy people aren’t in a position to save up even $6,000 in a savings account.
So it’s not that I’m panicking. Once I found out the fix was going to be $3,000 or less, I actually calmed down a lot. But I still need to kvetch a bit.
Anyway, times like these are a good reminder that:
A) Some of those “renting is throwing away money” folks should really take it down a notch. Home repairs can quickly diminish how much money is “saved” by not renting. And there’s something to be said for someone else always having to handle the headache of any repairs that come up.
and
B) Even well-padded savings/emergency fund accounts can take a surprising number/dollar amount of hits in a short period of time.
Which is why it’s so important to so many of us to pad ourselves in the bubble wrap of healthy saving account balances. It keeps us more calm when surprise expenses rear up.
And since a lot of folks aren’t fortunate enough to be high earners, this is where I remind you that if you’re doing anything to build up an emergency fund then you’re still doing great.
Sometimes it’s soothing just knowing that whatever horrible number you’re hearing will be at least a little less out of pocket — because you have some savings. It can also just allow you to feel a bit less anxious when things are quiet. You know you’ve got something in abeyance for when life hits hard.
And anyone who’s trying to deal with their finances responsibly** deserves at least a little peace of mind.
Anyone else had any nasty surprises lately?
* I didn’t take the costs out of there because I’m so very close to reaching my goal amount.)
** Unfortunately, for some people even responsible financial behavior means they don’t get any breathing room money-wise. They also deserve some peace of mind; but until we fix a few things in this country, all I can say to them is: Life is exhausting, so you should be proud that you’re doing as well as you are.
My dog’s 6 month check up not including take home meds was over $500. Up from $200 something last time. She was due for a lot of vaccines and daycare and her kennel both have lots of requirements. Guardia anyone? Her allergy pills are $2.88 each. Found it cheaper on Chewy, but my vet won’t process the prescription for them or mail it to me. I would need to drive over a 1/2 hour each way to pick it up.
Had to replace my car 6 mos ago during the huge used car shortage. It’s a sweet 2016 Maxda CX-5 touring. Much higher end vehicle than I would have purchased if there had been any options. Now I’m doing all the new to me vehicle things. Wipers, battery, floor mats. Next up 4 new tires and alignment to the tune of over $1200. And a monthly car payment. OUCH
I consider myself lucky that I can do this while working a 32 hour week.
Hang in there everyone.
Wow, that’s a lot of surprises. Mazdas are sweet little cars, so at least you’ll get long-term happiness from that nasty hit.
It’s strange that the vet is making you pick up the prescription. And so frustrating, I’m sure. I hope they come around in the future to just giving you the dang Rx!
Ouchhhh though. Here’s to replenishing the funds
Fingers crossed for sure!
Yep, home ownership means multiple expenses when you least expect it. Last year was a doozy for us.
We had a planned expense of all new windows and doors, which was over $20,000. Two weeks after that project finished, we had an unplanned expense of replacing our HVAC system. That was another $12,500. Not to mention we spent probably over $8000 last year getting a bunch of trees trimmed and unfortunately one 100 year old dead tree removed since limbs were already dropping out of nowhere and crushing the fence. Oh yeah, we had to fix the fence.
It reminds me of a few years ago when we had a planned expense to get the entire interior of the house painted that ended up in tandem with an unplanned plumbing expense of $$$ to fix a leak that required tunneling under our home. Oh, and a rental house had the same plumbing issue at the same time (what are the odds). Probably $80k left our accounts in a 6 week time span.
And then also this past year our two rental houses had a plethora of expenses totaling over $30,000. When we account for paying property taxes, I think we were actually in the hole about $8000 on the rental properties last year.
Thankfully, my obsession with stockpiling cash paid off and we were able to cover everything. But a lot of people that own rental properties don’t own them outright like we do and don’t have a cash cushion, and I don’t think they really understand how they’re going to handle things like this. Our property management company requires that we fully fund up front (ie, transfer $ from checking into our portal account with them) any large repairs (smaller ones they just take out of what our rental income would’ve been before they send us the check). We can’t just stick it on a credit card.
Wow that is an incredibly nasty confluence. Both time!
And yeah, when people preach about how rental property is the way to go for passive income, they always seem to forget that one nasty repair could wipe out most of a year’s profits. Or one bad tenant who has to be evicted — losing anywhere from 3-5 months’ rent, plus any damage they do in retaliation for being evicted.
Long-term — ie, once the property is paid off — it’s not so bad. But especially lately with people saying to buy 3-4 properties in a short period of time using one to finance the next, they’re not going to have the cash when repairs hit. Such an exhausting thought.
Preach.
I had a reaction to Shingles VAX and was in ER (and had to be admitted, released by cardiologist) after both doses — so my EF took about a $2500 hit from all that….
Grateful I had insurance to ease the pain, and the cushioned EF to pay my out of pocket expenses. Still paying myself back. Takes time, but grateful for the ability to do it.
Oof, that’s quite the hit. And so annoying that it happened when you were doing the smart thing to protect yourself. Siiiigh.
Glad you’re on track to getting back to a good base. Still… grumble grumble.
We have 3 rentals. Rental property #1 sustained $40k worth of damage in December. $10 k from us after insurance because we’re doing upgrades since it’s actually convenient to do them now. Rental property #2 needs at least 1 new window and #3 had a septic issue for $1k. It’s still a great investment (since we can sell them) but it hurts to come up with $$$ when problems happen. We also like providing housing to several families. We are mostly in it for the tax savings though. I don’t know how we would deal with it if we had no savings.
Yeah i worry about the people being encouraged to just jump into a mortgage as a landlord because it helps pay for their house.
Like… yeah probably? But the exceptions are a real problem