What do Arbor Day and surviving a disaster like the pandemic-driven turmoil of the past year have to do with one another? Read on, and I’ll explain.
Did you celebrate Georgia’s Arbor Day this year? It falls annually the third Friday of February, which may be a little confusing if you also know that National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April (April 30 this year). Turns out, state versions of this tree-centric holiday vary as much as their climates: Georgia’s falls as our usually mild winter is winding down, while Alaska postpones its version until late May.
The actual date, of course, doesn’t really matter – what matters are the trees! We plant them for multiple reasons. The masses of trees that are lost to development each year need to be replaced. Tree plantings also have always had deep symbolic meanings as events – witness the cherry blossom trees in Washington D.C. or the 300 planned flowering trees that Freedom Park is adding to honor the late civil rights icon and veteran congressman John Lewis. Also, as we become ever more mindful of where our food comes from and how food insecurity threatens so many Americans, planted fruit trees literally pay us back with food.
Trees are powerful symbols for those of us in the financial industry because they are the opposite of instant gratification. You cannot instantly produce a tree – just like you cannot instantly produce financial security. Each is the product of years, decades even, of work and patience and persistence. The secret is not to let the time required to reach that goal, be it a towering oak or shelter from that proverbial rainy day, discourage us.
Georgia’s state tree, the live oak, can take 70 years to reach its full size, and then live to be several centuries old. Farmed pine trees can be ready for harvest in 15 to 20 years. And a pear tree, planted from a seed you dug out of your lunchtime pear, can bear fruit in somewhere between 3 and 10 years.
I think of these specific Georgia trees as symbols for the different types of savings. The slow-to-mature, massive live oak represents retirement savings, a process that ideally takes our entire working lives. The pine tree symbolizes our medium-range savings goals, for things like college for our children or homeownership. And that pear tree can be the emergency savings we all should have – the safety net that protects the other money we have saved and lets us sleep at night.
Those emergency savings are what the ongoing COVID crisis has brought into laser focus, and we’re fortunate they’re the pear tree of our savings examples – you know, the one that bears fruit fastest.
The emergency savings rule of thumb has been around so long, it’s hard to say where it comes from. It tells us we should have three to six months’ worth of basic living expenses socked away. That’s all your bills – rent or house payment, car note, credit card bills, utilities, insurance, and oh, yeah, groceries – times at least 3 and hopefully 6. And the challenge of the past year has a lot of us wondering if that rule of thumb doesn’t need a longer thumb – say 9 months or a year.
If you have never reached that 3-to-6-or-more threshold, you have no idea of the peace and power that little bit of security can mean. For many of us during the financial sinkhole that was 2020, our emergency savings made the difference between mere uneasiness and near despair. So, consider making building (or rebuilding) such a fund a priority as we begin to climb out of the current crisis. Set up a regular savings program based on withholding, with deposits going straight out of your paycheck and into your account without passing through your pocket.
Do I hope you set that account up at Center Parc Credit Union? Of course I do, but the real point is to establish it somewhere and stick to it. And stay out of that money, even when laptops go on sale or your daughter is planning a wedding. That way, the next time our world changes practically overnight, you will have access to a financial lifeboat and a precious sense of relief.
So get busy and set up your emergency savings account, or if you already have one, goose the amount you contribute until you reach that minimum threshold. And while you are at it, plant a tree and grow your future!
Submitted by Donna Williams
Community Development Liaison for Center Parc Credit Union