Bitcoin Forum

Emergency funds are very important to have as an investor however building an emergency funds on a low income can be challenging, but it's definitely possible with the right approach, and here are some approach that can help you.

A. Start little by little and be very consistent.
All you need to do is start small no matter how small the money is, just be accumulate it and be consistent with time you will build a very strong backup funds, you can use the " pay yourself first" method which means saving before using your Discretionary income for anything else, the key to succeeding in these is by being consistent.

B. Cut down all unnecessary spending.
Cut all unnecessary spending for example eating out especially in expensive hotels, and what ever you want to do always look for cheaper alternative for example buying your food items in bulk.

C. Find a way to increase your income.
Find a side hustle don't just depend on your salary alone, you can engage yourself in freelance or any other thing that you find comfortable.

D. Take Advantage of Community Resources.
If you know you don't have what it takes to stay in big cities then stay in your community and take advantage of your community resources if it is farming you farm it will help you save cost.

E. There's one thing that always help me to save cost, I will plan my week and withdraw the particular money I need to spend for that week and keep, through out that week I will make sure I don't withdraw again and if I have a leftover money for that week i will add it to my savings account.

The truth is just that we are taking everything about money too serious, that is why almost everything in life is just revolving around money. For the fact that you are saving money that will stand as emergency funds for you in the future does not mean that you can't go above your budgets in a week or a month such that even if you see something valuable that requires money, you now take because you have already made your budget and decide to discard the opportunity to afford that valuable thing that can be helpful to you or your family. Saving and keeping money for the future is not bad but we should not make our life appear like we are held in a bondage just because of some decision we want to take. I have seen people who have saved a lot of money but kept themselves hungry and without good clothes. Should we go that extreme to deny ourselves the basic things of life just because we want to keep funds that will stand as aid in the future? People can become so stingy to themselves just because they want to meet a target but haven't really thought about if they are the owner of their lives.

It is wise to consider an emergency fund and all your points are valid to help secure it. However, I prefer people to look beyond the "emergency" itself and focus on investment and more sustainable earning means that will continue to enrich the person to have excess.

Saving of funds these days is no longer encouraging as inflation is eating our savings in the bank. So instead of opting for emergency funds saving (and of course using your strategy and even more), one can convert it to investment funds, in which part of it will be ready at any time needed to cover emergencies. That looks like a better plan to me.

Another one that will be good is to have retirement plan and fund. But all these are good for someone that are well paid and not spending all the money made weekly or monthly.

That should be for someone that knows very well about investment already. Some people can know about cryptocurrencies and invest on altcoins and either win big or lose hard. I have heard friends told me how they lost money on investment. Although, I think bitcoin as an investment is good.

But I think both emergency fund and retirement fund should not be part of investment funds, but they should be on appreciative assets like bitcoin and not in fiat.

Emergency funds de very important for every household, especially for people wey get dependants like children and aged parents. Nobody know wen emergency needs fit to arise, dat na why e de very important to prepare for am so dat we no go de run Helter skelter to de look for money during emergencies. Di main factors wey person go carry for mind to be able to keep emergency funds na spend below your income and to achieve the aim you must make budget for your expenses. Without a tight budget for your income e go de easy to spend money on things wey no de important to you, plenty distractions go confuse you to spend your money anyhow.

You go make budget wey go include money for basic needs, investment and emergency funds, if emergency no happen, di money go remain as savings for you. But person wey im income de very small and e no de reach am to take care of im basic needs like cheap food items, di person no get any business for investment and emergency funds. Di person need to try and increase im income by either quitting his job and get anoda one, get a second job or learn a skill as a side hustle wey go de give extra money.

Your topic make correct sense but as e no directly talk about cryptocurrency I believe say e belong to sub board.

you see this particular thing; it is one problem we have among people, and this is not just restricted to those that are trying to be intentional on their emergency fund or in building their portfolio, a lot of the people that are struggling in the city are not willing to start small but prefer to leave the comfort of their home to strange land that is not even as comfortable and cost effective as their home.  cutting your expenses according to your ability is one way that helps you achieve most of your goals. if you don't have what it takes to stay in a city where cost of living is very expensive, why not remain at a place your capacity can carry and when you finally get the required finance, you can move up? leaving above your means will only lead you to eating from hand to mouth and with that, you cannot even invest well let alone have enough that you can set out for your emergency fund.

I've always emphasizing on this matter many times because, it looks so ugly for one to keep himself hungry for the sake of saving funds. I dispute on this because the Bible says "Give us this day our daily bread" so why would someone disobeyed and never trust in God for his statement, you don't believe you can get it again if you spend the ones you have on you? Or the fear of loosing all will gets you trap in bondage of not buying yourself good things. It's really crazy while some people think such way.

No matter how much you wan saved, e go still finish, and you sef fit die anytime live the money saved somewhere, wetin you con use am do now. See, money was meant to spend, if you view money that way then you'll break out from that bondage.

Some people drink at least a bottle of beer every day and use some funds to gamble always, such funds can be kept and stay away from drinking and gambling, because you will definitely lose than winning. You can channel those funds into your emergency funds.

It means that you are not sincere OP, because from what I have observed as someone with other people responsibilities on me, there are sometimes that your need for that week will be higher than the previous week. When it's like this, you don't have any option than to spend more than what you budgeted, otherwise, it will affect you seriously. Only if your parents are still feeding you is when you can have a fixed amount for the week, because you don't have any responsibilities.

I kind of agree with you on the part of taking good care of one self even in the middle of saving for a brighter future, its very good to practice some good stuffs, but being extreme tends to affect us negatively, so we should always try to strike a balance between being goal minded and having a balanced life, so we don't end up inflicting physical, emotional or even psychological harm on ourselves trying to be achievers. It is very important that we build emergency funds on a carefully thought out discretionary income. There are more dangers that can emanate from denying ourselves so much to gain materialistic advantage which we might end up being stingy to ourselves and give less attention to issues of great concern like health challenges all in the name of building backup funds.

There is need to create a balance in even doing the right thing, over aggressiveness becomes a problem and might give a negative result in the long-run

People living in the villages don't usually spend much on anything, they only spend on what can't be planted like fish, Maggi and the rest. Any other things are produced and reared in the farm. These villagers don't need much money for cooking,  a little amount of 1000 Naira is enough to cook a nice delicious meal because every other items are gotten from the farm, the standard of leaving is way too low in the community but it helps saves money than city.

Leaving in the city is very extravagant and needs you to purchase everything before you eat, you spend much on so many things and it's kinda hard to save money except your job is a high paying one.

One thing about unnecessary spending is that it means different things to different people. What might be unnecessary for Mr A. Can be productive for Mr. B. So I will simply say we cut down on thing that wouldn't add value to us and things that will become a burden or affect our savings.

Let take for example a car can be a liability for Mr. A but for Mr. B it is a source of Income. Another example is the amount we spend on food. Mr. A might be comfortable spending #20000 on food but Mr. B is struggling with buying food of #1000 so wisdom requires cutting down the amount spent so as to have a saving for the future.

Well, you should also know that your own method might work for you, but not for others. Everyone has a certain number of responsibilities to take care of and so long those responsibilities haven't been met, he might not be thinking much about saving or investments. The only thing I know is that one should be able to minimize his earnings and diversify it into things that can yield him returns on the long run. Just put all eggs in one basket, also try to have a plan b.

I think I agree with O.P and disagree with what you just said above, because emergency funds are meant to be emergency funds, and not what you go about withdrawing your investment funds everytime you have a little personal or family emergency, since one thing that is certain in life is that there will always be an emergency, just as accident and as an investor, inculcating the habit of not always touching your investment funds is one criteria for financial success. Because imagine O.P invest all his money (i.e $1000) in Bitcoin without keeping any emergency fund, and then few weeks later the price of Bitcoin falls drastically by 20% and causing his wallet balance to be left with $800, and he is struck with an urgent emergency of $100 and he goes about withdrawing it and left with $700. Don't you think it would have been better if he had invested just only $800 and kept $200 for emergency? Because he would have had more balance left after the 20% and $100 would have been deducted.

You post is good but you almost made me forget what emergency fund is because you presented it to be conflicting with the caption of your post. When you say you can build your emergency funds, what comes to mind is money that is already set aside when investment have already been made not something you will start building when you have made investment already. What you can build is your cashflow so that more money are at your disposal to remain liquid but you cannot build your emergency funds because they must be accounted for during the planning of the investment.

OP, you have a good idea here but  if you could edit  the name to suit what you have written, it would be okay and precise on the information you have communicated to members of the local board. It is nice for one to have an emergency fund which is otherwise a backup funds because such could be of great help and rescue whenever any situation that requires urgent attention emanates.

One can device means of saving up for an emergency which they can fall back on whenever such situation comes up. There is this app although it is a microfinance bank app which one can save as they spend. You have options to save in percentage the amount you spend, whenever you make a transaction ie you paying, you save the percentage you have set to save up for spending being automatically saved for you. I see that as a good idea to accumulate emergency funds and you can terminate the process at anytime you want to use the funds you have saved up.

If one can cultivate the habit of constantly using such measures of saving as they spend, one can realise a good amount of money using such function in the app and that would be very fast and easy as long as they have set up the percentage to save per transaction they make.

I'm trying to practice saving through investments. Instead of just saving money somewhere, knowing our currency is always devaluing, I'm saving it in an investment. For example, Rise App allows you to put money into certain investments, which accumulate over time. Even Palmpay has an option where you can save money and earn interest.

Instead of just saving money somewhere, I'm saving it in the form of an investment. Yes, what you said - investing, thinking about how to double your money, rather than just starting somewhere. Life can be unpredictable, and situations may arise where everything you saved in a year is spent in one day.

It's frustrating that our country makes many citizens struggle financially, to the point where affording a good living is challenging. Cutting basic necessities like food can affect our health, how much can we cut to the point we don't live well. The solution for me is investing and finding sources to earn more, so I can live properly, not lavishly, but properly.

Unnecessary spending is the number one cost of brokeness, pair pressure and living above your limits are the reason we have many Nigerian earning above minimum wage yet they are still struggling financially. Open eye wey they make things wey you no fit afford to enter your eye, try avoid am. No go dey waste money wey you fit gather use do better something. Anything wey dey make you spend unnecessary, cut it off and your finances go improve. Instead of womanizing, stay with one woman and build with her.


Na here the solution supposed start from because at the end of the day, if you no get better cashflow e go weigh you. Plenty things dey to learn wey fit make you money and you no need commot your house. Find one or two and make good use of your time. Use your youthful age to hustle so tomorrow when others dey still hustle, you fit dey relax they enjoy the wealth you done accumulate.

No doubt all this things them wey you talk na things wey person need to put into consideration before him go talk of building of emergency or backup fund. Most times wey dey face challenges when it comes to setting aside emergency or reserved fund and the reason na say our level of income generation dey very low to withstand wetting we wan use am for, so the solution be say make we device a means to dey generates income or make we reduce our cost of living to enable us to achieve our target.

I don't know if the Op really understand the concept of emergency funds. And if he does it would have been better for him to explain it in the Op so that those who don't understand it would understand it better and many of this concepts are brought to dis local board from speculation board. "Emergency Funds", some people thought Emergency Fund is set aside for buy bitcoin so they use if to flood the buy buy and sell sell? And other speculation threads. And one thing Op need to understand is that poor investors can never have emergency fund because they have to think of what to eat and wear. So if they try but small units of bitcoin then they have to think of their survival before thinking of emergency funds. People don't have money to pay medical bills, buying of fuels, maintenance  of cars, home appliances maintenance, and to feed but to have backup fumds to buy bitcoin that is not right.

Adding to my earlier reply,
Here's the catch, not being able to start small make it difficult for you to not do it big. Not being able to save money when you're on a minimum income, you'll become a careless spender that will go broke when the source of his income increases or stops because you're living pay check to pay check and not responsible. Anything that you want to do, start small to build up the interests before you go bigger.


Environment matters alot so I won't say they should go back to the village to live but they can live in the city with a budget and still go by the day living like a normal person. Don't be pressure by what the society is doing but stay disciplined and keep building.

These ideas would work very well in a situation where you have no one else depending on you or using you for a side hustle. My broda, for this country way we Dey eh, you fit Dey hustle your own make people way you sabi and even people way you no sabi Dey hustle you o, lol… na the funny thing be that. For this country eh, the economy Dey tough every body but, e get people way e touch pass you and na you those people Dey carry get hope. You go just Dey like this, call go enter your phone with situationship needing help. If your mind no strong reach, you go fall for plenty and that budget way you think say, you don use plan your week, e don finish with just 2days into the week o.

E dey very important to live within your means, many people dey change their status when dem never suppose do so, if you keep everything in check, you go fit save money, use some for investment and keep some as liquid emergency fund. Financial intelligence dey very important oh, but so many people no know, that is why you fit see person wey dey earn N500k, dey do better than person wey dey earn N800k, because the former dey disciplined and him dey financially literate.

Fair point, however there's nothing wrong with moving to the village to save costs. There are those who made a lot of money, retired early, and returned to the village to settle, not because they couldn't afford to live in a city. Just arguing that we shouldn't think of villages as the least desirable places to live.

Some villages are wilder than most cities  ;D

I must say I love the way you approach this, and yes, I fully understand what "emergency funds" are and how valuable they are. It only seems to me that you do not understand my disposition, that's why you think there will not be even excess to tackle any emergencies. This is all about planning.

Note, anyone who struggles to save emergency funds will surely struggle to save for investment. In the same way, anyone who can easily save for the emergency fund will easily save for investment funds. Am I right? This means that money is not the issue for the latter but just prioritizing the emergency funds separately. Needless to today, there could still be some money to fall back on even when you are doing business or investing, there are dividends for your work.

And talking about business and investment, many don't bother about emergency funds again when they flourish in them, they have excess money (and even savings) to pay any bills whatsoever. That's one of the purposes, and mind you, when investing with the mind that you need some emergency funds ( as addition), you should invest with diversification where you have instant access to some funds in case you want to liquidate them for the unforeseen. It's all about planning.

No one wants to be left behind in terms of savings, many choose the area of ​​income from the time frame after a certain period. Everyone's plan is not the same, but it is wise to devote yourself to a savings program by reducing excess expenses within the income. I think the center of a person's income is his partner, especially if the person has a good life partner, then it is possible to save a little even with a small income. It is wise not to spend unnecessarily on any unnecessary work and to manage the savings process keeping the future in mind.

Many people have a lot of weekly or monthly income but due to the lack of a specific plan, they make their lives miserable, let alone saving. Some people, even with a small income, manage a weekly or monthly savings process with a well-thought-out and well-thought-out plan. So I think we all should have a specific savings fund, no matter how much we earn, which is capable of providing great help in the future.

As an investor, it is important to save for emergencies. To be honest, it can be tough for an investor to build emergency money when they are already into investing, but one needs to do step by step to make the saves for an emergency. It is not like saving we can do all at once, but it is very necessary for an investor in case an emergency happens, we should not sell the investment wey we been don start for a long time.

Of course, reducing our spending is good, especially when you consider the situation of our country; we have no idea where we are going because everything is becoming more expensive, and man has no choice but to spend more than he earns. But reducing our expenses doesn't mean we shouldn't eat; some newbies should not see the advice and start starving to prevent themselves from eating three times a day because we work so hard to chop.

However, I have seen plenty of individuals who have relocated from the city to their village, and it is not because city life is more expensive for them to live in, but because they find it difficult to make money in the city. You are right because we are known for farming, we should not be as eager to make it as our friends if it doesn't work out for us in the city, our forefathers' lands are available in the village; one must start somewhere, and being a farmer can't stop us from making millions.

Your point is valid but then, someone doesn't necessarily need at good partner when it comes to savings, it's a habit that should be normalised cause image you're single, would you be waiting for when you have a good partner before saving? the answer is no, on the other hand it is very important to know people completely before choosing them as partners but that's a discussion for another day. Anyways every Bitcoin investor should be already good with saving cause the concept of Bitcoin investment involves saving for the future and that's why it's got long-term plan therefore someone that doesn't have the habit of saving can barely survive when it comes to Bitcoin investment cause on the long run they could be triggered to take profits when it's not due. There's this wise saying that a man who fails to make plans is already planning on fail what am trying to say is that if one doesn't make plans for their future then they'll live a life of regrets when that time comes. For instance, those who saw and believed in the future of Bitcoin are reaping the rewards currently but those who sold their coins and failed to save are currently regretting.

If you want, you can create a nursery as a backup. From some source of income from Bitcoin. By doing this, you will get both entertainment and new ideas. It will also play a role in protecting the environment of the world. Or you can create a farm. Which will be a beautiful and great decision for you and your family, we are all aware of the financial income of the farm.

But it would be best to choose the work that you are passionate about or the work that you are skilled in. First, plan in which work you can achieve success. Then try the work that comes to your mind. There is no alternative to work. Any work can be a message of peace for you.

If you build your emergency back up that way then you are more or less an investor with no back up because using a farm as back up will be too slow for what the person will use it for because we no that in this country everything farming normally come on the season is supposed to, so your emergency back up will take very long, and secondly emergency back up is not supposed to be place under anything you are just passionate about because it should be something you can pick anytime you want, if perhaps the emergency back up is big and the time for usage is in a year, putting it on a feast deposit is a good back up.

Op all this things them wey you talk like this dey very necessary for us to consider first before venturing into Bitcoin investment. Because person wey know set up a good emergency funds before in enter Bitcoin investment go just end up selling in Bitcoin early, while because when in get any challenge him know go fit withstand. But when person plan him self very well e go help you to hold your Bitcoin for a long time investment. However, na wetin make e dey very good to set up something aside from your Bitcoin investment.

Emergency funds are actually good for backup plan for investments especially when it comes to crypto currency especially Bitcoin so I will agree with you that emergency funds be used for investment which can bring money to your account at the end of the day because emergency funds are not always used for spending as it's only used in time of problem

I will say that people should take investment serious because it's key to your financial stability and growth for individuals who are struggling financially

Bitcoin investment is the best and when properly invested for long term you would definitely enjoy the profits from the investment. Most people doesn't know how to channel their investment properly because when they don't plan very well it usually ends the other way round where they would have to pull off their investment if they don't have reserved funds or emergency fund to use as back up for their expenses when the need arises.

Exactly there's nothing like having all it takes before one can live in the city as long as you can afford the bills I mean in terms of paying house rent and other things, I think that's just the major challenge we always have when we are living in the city. Perhaps it most not only have to do with farming alone, how about those that has a very nice skill? You know there are some skills that can't help probably when we keep staying in the village.

but the very moment you just decided to move to the city, sometimes you most not even think of having all it takes before moving to the city because you strongly believe that the moment you showcase your skill to one or two persons, from there they  can start creating more opportunities for you, at this point you start building yourself and as well planning for your future.