Things are going to come up in your life that you’re unprepared for. Whether this situation is a sudden layoff, an illness, a family emergency, or emergency home repairs, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for it. One way to prepare yourself for unexpected emergencies is to have an emergency cash fund. You can begin setting up a fund right now.

The first step is to open a savings account at your bank. You can start with a small amount, even using the minimum amount your bank requires. Once you have this account set up, add to it on a regular basis. You can easily do this by allotting a certain amount from each of your paychecks to go into this account each pay period. Talk to your employer’s payroll department to see if they can have this done automatically for you each pay period. Decide in advance what percentage of your paycheck you wish to have automatically deposited into this account.

The second step is to add any extra cash you have left over after paying your monthly bills to the account. No matter how small this amount is, it will build up over time and increase the amount in your emergency fund. The more you are adding to it each month, the more interest it will accrue.

The third and most important step is to forget that the account exists until you absolutely need it. If you dip into this savings whenever you see something you want, you will deplete the funds and defeat the purpose of having the account in the first place. You must leave it alone until an emergency comes up so the money will be there when you need it. You also need to remember to start replenishing the account as soon as you can when you use the funds.