An opportunity fund

Anyone who has studied personal finance to for any time has heard of an emergency fund. An emergency fund is a pool of money to cover expenses that come up suddenly. You to start with $1000 dollars to cover incidents when you are getting out of debt, or anytime after that. It prevents you from using your credit cards.

I like the idea of having an opportunity fund as well. My wife and I use an over funded life insurance policy to build our opportunity fund. What this means is I pay a little more for the insurance, but it builds cash value faster than normal. This fund was initially intended to be our own bank if and when we needed to get a loan. We used it for my wife’s last car. We can be our own bank and pay the interest to ourselves, however it can also function as a fund for when great opportunities arise.

A friend of mine once developed a product and intended to use his home equity line of credit to fund the first batch of production. This was just as the housing bubble burst and his LOC got shut off. If he had had this type of fund, he could have used it to fund his first production run and begun his business.

But is doesn’t have to just be for business! What is a good giving opportunity comes along? Do you want to empty your savings? Maybe if that is what God is asking you to do but what if you had this opportunity fund just sitting waiting for the right use? That missionary who needs funds to take the gospel to whereever. That orphanage that is looking to expand. Your church is ready to move into a new building but they need $15000 for chairs! (That happened to us)

An emergency fund exists to cover emergencies, and opportunity fund could be for anything.

You consider this money spent already, so it isn’t part of your savings but what could you have used this money for in your past?

Starting a business
A great deal that came along
Chipotle stock when it went public (Still mad I missed that one)
A big offering at your church.
Paying rent for a friend who just lost their job
The possibilities are endless

Do you already have one of these? Do you wish you did? Tell me in the comments below.

An opportunity fund