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Emergency Funds & War Lists

Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Brett.

I was never a saver until I heard the phrase “emergency fund” (thank you Dave Ramsey). Sure, I had always had a savings account but it was really just a “keep-money-here-til-I-go-broke-then-empty-it-in-a-panic” fund.

But Dave rebranded the boring “savings account” with a much stickier phrase–emergency fund. Think unexpected trips in an ambulance and $4000 A/C units that croak (both of which have happened to me in 2009). By tagging that cash as “EMERGENCY ONLY!”, I’m less likely to blow it.

Making that switch in language flipped the way I think about that money.

I recently tried this with my TO DO list. I started noticing that my weekly To Do list looked more like the fossil record. Lots of “undone’s” still staring up at me on Friday.

So I renamed it.

One week it’s my War List.

One week it’s Victory List.

One week I simply wrote Destroy This! at the top.

I think differently about that list now. Men don’t want “to do” things. We want to conquer.

When things go stale, shift your thinking. What has grown stagnant in your life and could live with a rename?

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