When my family was hit with 2 expensive home repairs at once, we only made it through thanks to our high-yield savings account – Business Insider

I don't know about you, but the bulk of my income is spoken for before it even hits my checking account. Not only do I add money to my emergency savings fund and pay for insurance every month everything from health, home, and car to life and disability I also have my mortgage, retirement savings, and debts to think about.

Despite all of that, I'm here to argue in favor of yet another way to redirect your money: a homeowner's savings account.

Hear me out.

Yes, technically your emergency savings account is meant to cover you in the case of a homeowner's emergency read: flooded basement, broken water heater, termite infestation, etc. but what if it's not enough? Or what if multiple things happen at once?

Having a separate high-yield savings account dedicated specifically to house stuff can help ensure you stay covered if things like a broken water heater and a non-covered healthcare expense crop up at the same time. When you have a family, this becomes even more important.

My experience two years ago is the perfect example why.

After saving up for a while and receiving a particularly lovely tax refund my husband and I decided it was finally time to dig up our old, rotting deck and replace it with a beautiful new one.

We were still in the midst of paying off some healthcare expenses related to the birth of our second daughter, but we figured we could handle it all. Then, a few weeks after the deck installation finished, guests staying in our basement felt water leaking through the ceiling. As it turns out, the water hose to our refrigerator had a leak, and it was seeping through the basement ceiling.

Luckily, we caught it early enough that it wasn't as devastating as it could have been. We ended up spending about $300 to get the water hose replaced, and since the ceiling damage was minimal, we let it dry out, painted over the stain, counted ourselves lucky, and moved on. Until about a month later when we suddenly had no hot water.

A quick trip to the basement (again) confirmed that our water heater had not only gone out, but that it was leaking out into the laundry room. We were lucky enough, again, to catch this relatively early on, but even the low-ball estimate for repair included a brand new hot water heater (generally about $799-$1,501, according to HomeAdvisor) and replacing the laundry room flooring (about $1,000, plus the cost of tile).

At this point we began to feel two things. One: a little unlucky, and hopeful that the home issues would stop. Two: extremely grateful. Grateful that we had decided back when we first bought the house and knew we would want to make some updates to start siphoning off some money into savings specifically for house-related things.

Updating the deck, fixing the refrigerator and hot water heater, and replacing the laundry room floor meant that the savings was pretty much depleted, but we knew we were still covered for whatever additional health-related expenses or other emergencies might be coming down the pipeline because we had our emergency fund.

At the end of the day, I'm not a certified financial expert (I just write about money), but I like to helpfully suggest, to whomever will listen: If you're a homeowner, get yourself a new high-yield savings account as soon as you can, and start putting whatever you can away specifically for house-related emergencies. You'll never be sorry you did.

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When my family was hit with 2 expensive home repairs at once, we only made it through thanks to our high-yield savings account - Business Insider