Bye Bye Emergency Fund

I haven't touched this blog in over two years because I stopped having things to write about. I know it's lame, but I've been working on a lot of things, especially work.

But now, it looks like I'm facing another potential financial crisis. After both of us having steady contracts for the past two years, my partner has lost her contract. Our business' montly gross revenues will drop by half as of tomorrow.

It's a scary time, because my partner (well now my wife) and I are just 21 days shy of adopting a child, and our financial picture has changed a lot. Some of it, like finally paying off all our credit cards, is very good. Some of it, like the fact that we are about $25,000 upside-down on our mortgage, is not so good.

At this point, we are grateful because other than our mortgage, we have only one debt to service. We owe $7,900 on one of our cars, but that vehicle shows a private party sale blue book value of nearly $12,800. I'm fairly certain, since the car has extremely low mileage and is in excellent shape, that we'd easily be able to sell it for more than we own on the loan if we get too hard up.

The other good news is that if things go too far South, our truck and trailer are paid off. If we found ourselves both without work, we could move into the trailer and still have a place to live. It wouldn't be pleasant, since the RV is really designed for weekend camping. My wife and I lived in it as a couple for nearly three years, so it could be done. I think it would be much tougher with a 13-year-old child and four pet parrots.

I'm going to hope I don't lose my contract as well.

Our emergency fund savings aren't as ample as we'd like. Though I have more than $13,000 set aside, it turns out that every penny needs to be sent to the state and federal government on April 15th. I though we'd done especially well this year, and we'd managed to make all of our estimated tax payments on time in 2008. I figured we'd come out just fine at the end of the year, but when our CPA told us we owed even more money, I thought I might cry. It was especially depressing when she told us what we were going to owe in estimated taxes, though that number will most certainly drop now that my wife doesn't have a steady contract, and she'll be picking up smaller jobs from a variety of clients.

So, bye, bye emergency fund, it's been nice knowing you. I guess we start all over again after April 15.