Canna Campbell

By having a bit of a backup plan to the side allows you to be able to navigate stressful times with a greater sense of resilience and strength.

So the difference is reactionary versus proactive.

So when we are reactive, we're normally forced into a situation, possibly out of the blue, and we become irrational and our emotions are running high and we often make decisions which aren't necessarily the smartest and best decisions for us.

We're almost in a sense of survival mode and the adrenaline kicks in.

But when we are being proactive, we have done the work in preparation.

We have built up the emergency savings.

We are able to handle the situation with grace, with dignity, but we're also able to prepare.

be calm and make smart, intelligent decisions that allow us to move forward, to outgrow the situation and to continue on getting back on our feet again and building our lives.

I'm going to like jump across the desk and throttle you for saying that.

It's not this arbitrary number and it's not this, you know, generic formula.

What is right for someone is different for the other person.

You've got to look at your... Very satisfying.

Like...

You've got to look at your own individual situation and the risks and the responsibilities that you carry.

For example, a single parent looking after, say, three children carrying the bulk of the financial responsibilities and is perhaps self-employed needs a lot more emergency money than, say, a 22-year-old that's studying and perhaps living at home.

If you were to use those generic formulas, you run the risk of the young person having too much in emergency money and it's not an efficient use of funds, and then you run the risk of the single mother being exposed to financial risk.

She would or he would potentially need significantly more money set aside.

Yeah.

As a guide, what I suggest people do is sit down and look at their situation and look at the safety nets they've got, things like sick leave, annual leave, accumulated leave, perhaps even long service leave, what savings they already have established, you know, what things like income protection and insurance policies they have in place as well.

And look at what their living expenses obviously come into this as well.