April is financial literacy awareness month, so it's a great time to assess your financial goals and determine whether you are using all the tools available to achieve them. This year, Arvest is joining thousands of participating organizations for America Saves Week, April 6 - 10, an annual celebration of everyday Americans saving successfully, and a call to action to continue and start saving more. The theme is: Own your financial story. Small steps, large impact.
The non-profit America Saves is all about empowerment through education, regardless of where you are starting from. Many have contributed stories of their own lives to their website, americasaves.org. One could start from already being in overwhelming debt, or not having any debt but wanting to build an emergency fund to stay out of debt should an unexpected expense arise.
Small steps, large impact – Time can be your friend or adversary.
Bankrate releases an annual Emergency Fund Report that uses a survey to measure how ready Americans may be for unexpected expenses, and the most recent one in March 2026 suggested: "just 47% of Americans indicate they have sufficient liquidity or access to funds to cover a $1,000 emergency expense." If that many Americans may struggle with a $1,000 expense, that number is sure to go up should the expense be closer to $10,000, which one may incur when considering an unexpected expense such as a major home repair.
Let's consider the true cost of a product when you save and invest for it, vs. the cost if you have to take on debt to pay for the same thing.
When time is your friend, and you make the small step to deposit $150 a month into an investment account (a little less than $5 a day), earning an average of 7%, it will take less than 5 years to have over $10,000, according to the Arvest savings calculator. That means that with less than 5 years and the effort of savings, you could get a 10% discount on that $10,000 expense and afford it for less than $9,000. If the money isn’t needed, you’ll start earning on its growth, so after 10 years, you’d have almost $26K.
On the other hand, let's say you had to take out $10,000 in car loan debt, and paid the same $150 per month until the debt was paid off. If it were a used car loan which has the average interest rate of about 10%, we can see from this Arvest loan repayment calculator that it would take 98 payments, or over 8 years, and the total cost would be closer to $15K. Even if you increase your payments to $215 each month so that it would be paid off over 5 years, that would still incur ~$2,700 in interest.
So when we compare the discount of savings and investing vs. the premium of borrowing, that difference of $5 a day could mean avoiding a 60% increase in the cost of the $10,000 emergency (~9K saving $5 a day vs ~15K paying off ~$5 a day). This difference would be even bigger if it were credit card debt rather than a car loan. Small steps. Large impact.
Borrowing is also important, and can help us achieve bigger goals. Without borrowing to purchase a car, one might not be able to get the job that supports that cost and many others. Spending money on ourselves can also help us enjoy life, enjoy work and keep our income stream secure. However, if there are ways to save in order to fund emergencies, it should certainly be beneficial to make time an ally instead of an adversary.
Steps to building an emergency fund
- Set the goal. Determine monthly expenses, multiply by six. Don’t overlook annual expenses, such as property taxes.
- Set a monthly objective. Make savings a routine monthly expense, prioritizing it above even small luxuries. Pay yourself first.
- Monitor the progress. Have an account designated as the emergency fund, preferably one such as a money market account that pays more in interest while still being liquid and readily available.
- Replenish any funds you use. The emergency fund shouldn’t be untouchable, but anytime it is tapped, it will need to be topped up afterward.
Once the goal is met, you can graduate to building your investment portfolio, which is the path to financial security. For more savings ideas, consult an Arvest client advisor.
This content has been prepared by The Merrill Anderson Company and is intended as a general guideline.
© 2026 M.A. Co. All rights reserved.
Arvest and its associates do not provide tax or legal advice. The information presented here is not intended as, and should not be considered, tax or legal advice. Consult your tax and legal advisors accordingly.
