# Can you pay for a $1000 emergency expense without borrowing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 26, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181 "2011-08-26T14:22:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/141 "2018-05-29T22:37:02Z")
I could now, but there was a time not long ago when it would have been a real struggle, even though I was working at a job that gave me an above median income. I was just bad at managing money, and made some stupid choices. Fortunately I seem to be getting better at this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/142 "2018-05-30T16:24:25Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > I > > I haven’t lived paycheck to paycheck for five or so years. I lived poor for decades, always worked at least two jobs, started college when I was 30, and clawed my way through grad school. I’m now financially comfortable in my 50s. Rather than pay my student loans off I make the minimum payment and have a substantial amount in cash and investments put aside for my nieces and nephews to inherit… Won’t your student loan have to be paid off before your nieces and nephews get any money? ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/143 "2018-05-30T16:32:05Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Won’t your student loan have to be paid off before your nieces and nephews get any money? Depends; federal student loans are forgiven at death, private loans aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/144 "2018-05-30T17:59:53Z")
Sure I do. Now. There have been periods in my life, particularly after unhappy life events, where I didn’t. And I haven’t lived “stupidly” in probably over 20 years. I had to do credit consolidation about 20 years ago, and since then I never have bought anything other than a car or house that I couldn’t pay outright with cash. ---
**Author:** ![D.E.S.K.Top668](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@D.E.S.K.Top668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.E.S.K.Top668)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/145 "2018-05-31T02:22:23Z")
I responded “No,” because I don’t have that liquid. But we have three credit cards that have almost no balances and any one of them could cover that easily. In twenty four hours, I could sell stock to cover it. In all fairness, we don’t have it right now because my wife’s car (2003 Saturn wagon) gave up the ghost and I talked her into junking it and getting something from this decade. Our emergency fund covered a NICE down payment on a low mileage 2015 Ford Focus. In addition, last year we took a two week cross country trip (Ga to Ca) so the DESKKids could experience the west coast and meet (face to face) some relatives that probably aren’t long for this world. If all goes according to plan, we should be back to around two grand by the end of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/146 "2018-05-31T04:07:36Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Won’t your student loan have to be paid off before your nieces and nephews get any money? Nope, student loan debt died with you unless there’s an unfortunate co-worker aluve. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/147 "2018-05-31T04:32:20Z")
Damn Kindle! Federal student loans are discharged upon death. If there’s a co-signer, they are responsible for the debt. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/148 "2018-05-31T17:21:41Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > … > …Rather than pay my student loans off I make the minimum payment and have a substantial amount in cash and investments put aside for my nieces and nephews to inherit. > … In addition to the otherwise-mentioned forgiveness upon death, having that cash saved up will help you a lot in your retirement. Under some circumstances, student loans are forgiven after 25 years. I don’t know if that’s _all_ loans, or just specifically the ones on an income-based repayment plan. There’d be a tax hit on the forgiven portion of course. Back to the original question: we could certainly come up with credit to cover a $1,000 expense. We’d have trouble paying it off right away though, without dipping into investments. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/149 "2018-05-31T17:54:53Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Nope, student loan debt died with you unless there’s an unfortunate co-worker aluve. > [@Jennshark](#): > > Damn Kindle! Federal student loans are discharged upon death. If there’s a co-signer, they are responsible for the debt. Heh, I wondered about that. Before I read your 2nd post I was suspiciously eyeing my officemates… ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/150 "2018-05-31T18:56:22Z")
I could, but just barely. I’m a frugal person. I treat my credit cards like checks and pay them off every week. I also contribute to an HSA. This past year, I got cancer, and though I have insurance, cancer treatment cost me thousands of dollars out-of-pocket, draining my HSA and hitting my savings as well. I totally believe 64% oF Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. Many of my friends do, and they’re college-educated, hard-working, frugal people who don’t abuse credit cards. Once Obamacare has been gutted, I think you’ll find that 64% increasing. Wouldn’t it be nice if the fantasy that those who live paycheck-to-paycheck are spendthrifts were true? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/151 "2018-05-31T19:03:49Z")
Yes, kind of. We use a form of envelope budgeting where all of our cash is allocated to a future expense. We tend to have between $20,000 and $40,000 in a cash account, all earmarked for something whether it be family gifts, savings for a holiday, power bills, groceries, etc. if we had to come up with $1000 then it is there, no problem, but we would be “borrowing” from one or more virtual envelopes to do it. The way I typically work it is to move money from the envelopes that are assigned to the most distant future expense as that means there is more time to refill the envelope. When the OP was originally posted I wouldn’t have been able to come up with $100 cash, let alone $1000. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/152 "2018-05-31T20:00:57Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Heh, I wondered about that. Before I read your 2nd post I was suspiciously eyeing my officemates… Hee hee ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/153 "2018-05-31T20:38:40Z")
Does anyone else feel guilty about being able to comfortably cover such an expense? While we have worked hard for what we have I had the benefit of getting a head start from my parents. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/154 "2018-05-31T21:39:58Z")
Well I’m retired and have been planning for it for 45 years. So I have two pensions, an investment fund and a decent bank balance. I’ve never paid credit card interest, nor gambled. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/155 "2018-06-01T03:18:37Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I could, but just barely. I’m a frugal person. I treat my credit cards like checks and pay them off every week. I also contribute to an HSA. This past year, I got cancer, and though I have insurance, cancer treatment cost me thousands of dollars out-of-pocket, draining my HSA and hitting my savings as well. > > I totally believe 64% oF Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. Many of my friends do, and they’re college-educated, hard-working, frugal people who don’t abuse credit cards. > > Once Obamacare has been gutted, I think you’ll find that 64% increasing. > > Wouldn’t it be nice if the fantasy that those who live paycheck-to-paycheck are spendthrifts were true? Seems to me your specific personal anecdote isn’t exactly on point. _Thousands_ of dollars of sudden expenses will throw a very high % of people off track. But when you scope down to not being able to handle $1,000 it is in fact a problem of people not living within their means, often. Not at the relative bottom of the income scale. But half the people are above the median income by definition. Somebody above the median would have at least $1k saved pretty quickly if they lived just like the people slightly below the median. Many choose not to, in at least some semi-conscious kind of a way. By which I mean social expectations which are a powerful force. People don’t generally make level headed rational choices about what standard they or especially their families ‘deserve’ to live at. But it seems pretty inescapable IMO that lots of people who can’t absorb a $1k hit (per general polls a high % though not in this unscientific one) could do so if they just lived like lower income people who really, really cannot. They don’t want to do that, and would rather take the risk of borrowing, and probably also end up with nothing saved at retirement. I believe I’m speaking in basic factual terms of the income distribution and the obvious fact that ‘paycheck to paycheck’ is much higher standard for some people than others. If everyone living ‘paycheck to paycheck’ made a similar amount of money it would be one thing. But it’s vastly different amounts, even correcting for personal circumstances or locations that are out of people’s control (which they often really aren’t anyway). Obvious IMO if we don’t sidetrack on how it’s ‘judgmental’ to say this. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/156 "2018-06-01T03:21:57Z")
I’d be more worried if I could not pay for an emergency expense, period. I do have a cash emergency fund but I use credit cards (and pay in full or do 0% deals) a lot. At one point I was paycheck to paycheck just to eat and also had no access to debt or borrowing. Right now my main income is a low-wage hourly job and I could save $1000 in about a month if I really had to. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/157 "2018-06-01T03:59:52Z")
$1000 would be no problem. A weekend of overtime would more than cover that. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/158 "2018-06-01T13:26:04Z")
> [@Scoobysnax](#): > > Does anyone else feel guilty about being able to comfortably cover such an expense? While we have worked hard for what we have I had the benefit of getting a head start from my parents. Nope. I had the benefit of a head start from my parents, but my parents or grandparents worked themselves out of poverty - to give a better life to their children and their children’s children. It would be a disservice to them to feel guilty about accepting the gift they sacrificed for. I do feel angry that our society is structured in such a way that some people get a head start (some much much greater than mine) based off the socio economic and racial demographics of their birth, while other people are shackled by the same thing. And I’m aware that we tend to see only the previous generation when looking at advantage and don’t really don’t understand the impact of what happened two or three or five generations ago. Both wealth and influence (and the lack thereof) can have intergenerational impact far beyond one generation. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/159 "2018-06-01T13:53:21Z")
Absolutely it varies by birth. Some of us get through college only with the aid of thousands of dollars in student loans. Others have parents who can pay for the entire college education of their children. Even if they never give their children another dime, they’ve put the kids ahead by not having those loans to pay off. Some people are careful and frugal and are able to save some, but then have friends or family who need assistance. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181/160 "2018-06-01T14:17:51Z")
> [@Scoobysnax](#): > > Does anyone else feel guilty about being able to comfortably cover such an expense? While we have worked hard for what we have I had the benefit of getting a head start from my parents. Not guilty, but I am grateful that I got a bit of a head start. My story is funny. If I were so inclined, I could make it seem like whatever success I’ve had was my own doing. Scholarships, degrees, good investments, good jobs and promotions. But I recognize that I had opportunities because of my parents. Decent public schools growing up, health and dental care my whole life, no foreclosures or evictions as a kid, some help with undergraduate expenses. These aren’t opportunities everyone gets. It would be nice if we had public policies that made these opportunities more widely available. > [@Corry\_El](#): > > But when you scope down to not being able to handle $1,000 it is in fact a problem of people not living within their means, often. Not at the relative bottom of the income scale. But half the people are above the median income by definition. Somebody above the median would have at least $1k saved pretty quickly if they lived just like the people slightly below the median. Many choose not to, in at least some semi-conscious kind of a way. By which I mean social expectations which are a powerful force. People don’t generally make level headed rational choices about what standard they or especially their families ‘deserve’ to live at. Many people are living within their means now but are still in a hole from their last emergency. They will still be trying to recover when the next emergency comes around and they won’t have that $1000 any time soon. I’ve known people who worked hard their whole lives, didn’t spend crazily, and tried to live modest lives, but a period of unemployment, a health crisis, or just some bad luck with home repairs can set them back years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-pay-for-a-1000-emergency-expense-without-borrowing/594181.md?page=9)