Picture this…3 AM, 85 degrees outside, and your air conditioner kicks the bucket with one last, half-hearted rattle. Now remember, you have three kids and a husband in the house, none of whom do well in the heat. And tomorrow? Your friendly meteorologist confirms it will be a scorcher.
This was me last week. After a horribly frigid winter, I had expected a mild summer. Surely that cold weather pattern would cool down our 99 degree days come August! Farmer Almanac, I am not. After hunting down as many fans as I could find, I logged onto my Afena mobile banking app and started planning.
When my husband and I decided to start focusing on our finances, the one thing we heard over and over again at Afena Federal Credit Union was “Pay Yourself First”. That meant setting up an emergency fund for those rainy…or steamy days. And it had me feeling pretty good as I slowly melted into a puddle, let me tell you. But the next morning, our HVAC tech laid the price tag on me…$3200 to completely replace our current air conditioner. Comfort doesn’t come cheap, people! And despite my self-congratulatory pat on the back about emergency funds, I hadn’t planned on that big of a hit…plus I didn’t want to completely deplete it and start over at zero.
My mom always told me that sometimes you have to bite the bullet. I knew I’d have to finance that air conditioner somehow, even if it did mean the D word: DEBT. I went to Afena, talked about my options, and decided to pull the money out of my home equity line. Three days later, the kids are happy, my husband is relaxed, and I’m wearing a sweater to bed. I’m Claire, the Afena blog mom. Thanks for reading.