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If you are like me and watched the value of your 401k disappear right before your eyes, that probably caused you some financial fear and a few sleepless nights. I can't even imagine the fear and anxiety of those that were close to retirement.
It seems that many of us are only 1-2 paychecks away from bankruptcy. Most of us have no savings to fall back on if there was a major emergency. If you are currently in this situation, it is probably causing you to be fearful of the "what if's" in life.The good news it that the bad economy has caused many of us to start saving a little bit more. Hopefully, the trend will continue once the economy picks back up.
What about me, what do I fear? I have an irrational fear of running out of money. I fear some major emergency could come along and wipe out my savings. I fear not being able to pay my bills and losing my home. I fear that I will end up living on the street because I couldn't make my mortgage payment. I fear that if I were to run out of money, I would have no one to help me pick up the pieces. I know this is irrational because I have a great friends and an even greater family who would help me out as much as possible but I just can't shake that fear.
I just don't want to risk it and as a result, I hoard money. If you've seen my Savings Challenge posts, you know that I have a goal of saving at least $50,000 in my savings account by December 2010. I'm pretty confident that barring any major emergency, I can make this goal. Once this goal is completed, I will probably bump up the amount to $75,000 and eventually $100,000 by the time I am 35. I think once I've saved six figures, I will feel a little better about my fear of running out of money.
What is/are your financial fear(s)?
