我要做个守财奴：新年6大省钱计划

2. Keep a slush fund handy
手头要有一笔备用金

Something — be it a car repair, an emergency root canal, or a job layoff — always comes up to throw you off your monthly budget. To keep these incidents from running you into debt, you need to have an emergency stash in an easily accessible account, preferably a money market account (they earn a little more interest than regular savings accounts).
总有些事会给你一个措手不及，打乱你的每月预算，比如修车、牙根治疗或是下岗之类的事。为了避免因为这些事而让自己背负债务，你需要准备一个随时可用的紧急账户，比较好的是货币理财账户（比起一般的储蓄账户，它们赚到的利息会更多一点）。

How much is enough? Easy. Track all of your spending for a month (including everything from your mortgage payment to lunch at the deli), and multiply that monthly total by three. That three-month operating budget is a scary number, eh? Well, this is the minimum you should have on hand in case the roof caves in (literally or figuratively) and you need some dough to get you through the rough spots. And don't worry if this money isn't accruing the big interest; it's there for emergencies.
多少钱才足够？很简单。记录下你一个月的总花销（所有林林总总的账目，从按揭支付到去熟食店吃午饭的开销），然后把月消费总额再乘以三。这份三月收支预算看着有些吓人，是吧？这个数字其实是你手头应该有的最低费用，用来防止意外的发生，不管是房子倒塌了还是出现其它意外。你需要一些钱帮你度过这些难关。如果这些钱不能产生很多利息，也不必担心，因为预留这些钱是为紧急状况准备的。