emergency fund

this week has been a real killer at work. i've been getting online at about 7 each morning and doing an hour or so of work before heading into the office. i've been arriving to work at about 9 and work until 7 and then get back online at 9 and work til 12. hopefully, i'll just lock down the computer and not touch it this weekend, but it's never that easy for me.

look, i'm in IT and am used to some crunch time hours, but this time around, there's to big release or anything of that nature. just getting hit with a few requests late in the day or trying to catch up or just getting caught up in something or another. it's easy for me to fall into this routine.

so, today my boss rattled one of my direct reports. he expects that we essentially produce defect-free code. now, i certainly strive for that, but there are some things that just don't happen and i just don't know how to straighten the guy out. anyway, that led to drama with my employee about how he doesn't need to be treated like that -- and you know what? he doesn't -- and him trying to decide what to do with his future with my company. you know, it's 90% good and 10% bad here, and one day the 10% will just be bad enough to chase some folks out of here. we get this all the time -- my boss just doesn't react well to mistakes -- and one day it's going to be the day that my report walks. and then one day it'll be my turn.

and, that'll be the day that i'll walk out with no worries because i've got a well funded emergency fund. or, what i refer to on some days as a "go to hell" fund. now, you talk to 10 people about an emergency fund and you'll get 10 answers as to how much you need to keep. for me, right now, it's real easy for me to keep about a years salary in my emergency fund. why? well, where else am i going to put it? my 2% in savings and cd's is totally outperforming anything else right now.