The reasons for an emergency fund

[Hatton]

Our second child is coming up on a week old now. We also have a HDHP and I am not looking forward to the bill, but will be able to pay it.

We also will have an unexpected expense though. My wife was laboring at home like she planned on. It was a VBAC and we were prepared for labor to take forever. It was going fine for a few hours then she thought it stalled. Then all of a sudden she went from 0-60 in about 5 minutes, water broke, and she couldn’t walk. So she got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Baby was crowning when we rolled into the room. 25 minutes later he was here, happy and healthy.

As an aside, they sent a fire truck and an ambulance, which I expect, and both only had men. They all pretty much refused to look at her nether regions and see if a baby was coming. They had a second ambulance meet them on the way with a women who finally checked her and said the baby was turtle heading. Seems weird to me that you can have a job as an emergency responder, but decide there are certain emergencies you don’t respond too. Anyway, if they try to charge us extra for another ambulance, that is a bill I would argue about paying.

You are lucky that your wife and baby are ok. No words.

[DynamicHipScrew]

Congrats on the babies. My wife just delivered our second a few days ago.

[pierre]

Our second child is coming up on a week old now. We also have a HDHP and I am not looking forward to the bill, but will be able to pay it.

We also will have an unexpected expense though. My wife was laboring at home like she planned on. It was a VBAC and we were prepared for labor to take forever. It was going fine for a few hours then she thought it stalled. Then all of a sudden she went from 0-60 in about 5 minutes, water broke, and she couldn’t walk. So she got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Baby was crowning when we rolled into the room. 25 minutes later he was here, happy and healthy.

As an aside, they sent a fire truck and an ambulance, which I expect, and both only had men. They all pretty much refused to look at her nether regions and see if a baby was coming. They had a second ambulance meet them on the way with a women who finally checked her and said the baby was turtle heading. Seems weird to me that you can have a job as an emergency responder, but decide there are certain emergencies you don’t respond too. Anyway, if they try to charge us extra for another ambulance, that is a bill I would argue about paying.

[VentAlarm]

Congrats on the healthy baby.

[NumberWhizMD]

Just wanted to share my recent experience, and why I'm so thankful for an emergency fund.

A little over 2 weeks ago, we welcomed our 3rd child (hence, why I have been absent from here for a bit). We couldn't have asked for a smoother delivery, and are very thankful for the new addition. We have a HDHP and anticipated the costs of labor/delivery, and we didn't have any unanticipated charges (NICU).

However, in the week that followed our delivery, we had another child need to go to the ER (r/o appy), and a major car repair (nearly $4000). All of this at the beginning of my 12 week maternity leave (1/2 at 60% pay, 1/2 unpaid). We are fortunate enough to be in a position that the 5-figure bills we now have can be paid, in addition to keeping the length of my maternity leave without having a significant drop.

Really, the post is to say that unexpected things can happen. I am thankful that I don't have to be concerned that I need to rush back to work sooner in order to pay these bills. Our emergency fund really helped in this situation, and I'm happy that we had built this up in anticipation of my leave. Now the only thing that can get me back to work sooner is the boredom... =) Luckily, I have plenty of CME I can work on to help.