People share 10 worst financial shocks they didn't see coming due to poor budgeting

Unexpected expenses.

We can never predict when we need some extra cash for an emergency situation. One can face an accident, lose their job, go through messy divorces and whatnot. It's always great to have some emergency cash stashed around for times like these when we can face these financial crises without breaking a sweat. However, what happens if you are not prepared for dire circumstances like these and your budgeting doesn't include keeping some emergency funds aside? u/fmoss asked the Reddit community to share some of the financial shocks that they didn't see coming until the last minute. Here are some of the best responses about the financial woes that these individuals had to face just because they did not add an extra sum to their emergency budgets.

1. Baby with health condition

Having a baby with any kind of health problems. Folks are starting to understand that just having a kid is expensive (birth, daycare, cost of the car seat, etc.), but having a diabetic toddler or a child who needs heart surgery is just off the charts. My friends from college had a baby with vision and hearing impairments. It's absolutely upended them financially. It changes who can babysit, who can/will go to doctor visits, and pretty much every part of their house has had to change. She's not even school-aged yet. u/Clever_Mercury

2. No financial cushion 

When you have zero family and friends you see that things get bad all the time. And it’s costly. You don’t realize just how often until you’re 100% on your own. It's even worse when you live paycheck to paycheck. It’s nearly impossible to prepare for these kinds of things. And don’t even try to rely on anyone, it just adds bumps in the road. All you can do is save, save and save. Every penny counts. u/Dangerous-Ocelot948

3. Hospital bills

Hospital bill. I've been to the hospital twice in the last 5 years. The first time was a long weekend in the ICU. The second was checking myself into the ER. Bill for the former? $40,0000. The latter? $17,000. Fortunately, I had "good" insurance and only paid (check notes) about 5 grand for both. Most people don't have "good" insurance or 5 grand they can drop when things get worse, and I got off light. u/gogojack

4. Relative in prison

Family member committing a serious crime. u/dumb*uck. Court is crazy expensive, especially if you don't want to depend on an extremely overworked public defender. Plus there's the sudden lost wages from being in jail, so their family may need financial help to get by. If convicted, everything in prison that isn't the bare minimum to not die costs money. If you want them to have any kind of quality of life you're depositing money into their account for commissary. Legal fees don't necessarily stop once in prison if you want to challenge the conviction. Then, once out, the person has to start completely over, may not have a place to live, and while on probation usually has pretty strict rules they need to follow. Most people struggle to find employment after release as well. u/moonbunnychan

5. Family funeral

My father had cut out an article for a casket wholesale dealer. The casket he had was lovely and cost 20% of the price of the same one through the funeral home. They have to accept you having your own casket. u/sam8988378. So a person found a casket on Amazon that was way cheaper than the tacky stuff they offered. Also, sounds terrible but shop around. The deceased went to school with his sons and is now the owner of a local funeral home. They remembered her and gave us a “family” discount. It was $1500 more than the place we went with and this was just for cremation. No service. The new place was also way less pushy. They wanted a big service and were trying to guilt us even though she was very adamant about no service. u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach

6. Retirement funds

Not planning for retirement. Social security isn't as much money as you think, and if you don't have an IRA or 401k you're planning for poverty. u/McFeely_Smackup. I don’t have benefits. Not PTO, no pension. I’m a nurse supervisor for the government. I have 12 years of experience. They’ve had me as a “temp” for 4 years. I have a really great resume. The gig economy is taking over everything. I’m stuck in this position for a number of reasons. I expect better from this country. u/killermarsupial

7. Losing a job

My husband and I were both made redundant from the same company on the same day. We weren’t given a firm finish date, though - “sometime between tomorrow (August) and November” and if we left before our final date we’d forfeit our redundancy pay-out. We were called into separate meetings, so neither of us knew it was happening to the other. There was a lot of bad behavior from that company in our last few months there, but it was just cruel letting me leave that room thinking we’d be okay because at least my husband still had his job. When I got out, checked my phone, and realized he’d lost his job as well, I doom spiralled hard. u/FormalMango

8. Old age care costs

Long-term care costs. If you can't take care of yourself, you should budget about $ 50K-$100K a year. So many planned inheritances go up in smoke because the money they wanted to give their kids goes to their long-term care. Long-term care insurance is important folks. Make sure your parents have it. u/SomeGuyInSanJoseCa. For what it's worth, I would not recommend long-term care insurance (LTCI). They refused to pay out on both my grandparents. The LTCI needed them to be in a bad place for at least six months then took 8-10 months to send someone to assess them. By then, my grandparents went downhill quickly and died before being approved. They paid out $10k after my grandparents died because my dad threatened to report them to the state. Between both grandparents, they paid in thousands for 20+ years. u/StraightCurveball

9. Getting divorced

I don't think a lot of people realize how much divorce can affect your credit score, especially if you mix your finances. Splitting assets can mean things like foreclosure or voluntary repossession if one party or the other can't afford the bills alone. Closing credit lines can severely impact your credit as well. If you're the one left without a car or house, getting back on your feet can be extremely difficult even if you make good money alone. I'm a subprime used car dealer and I see plenty of people coming in making $7000+ a month with credit scores in the 400-500 range. When asked, the answer most of the time is "recent divorce." u/ornithoid

10. Dental care

I fell into depression for 5 years and stopped taking care of myself. Once I was back and went to the dentist I had 7k worth of dental work to get done. Took out a 60-month loan for it that I'll be paying off for a good while. I already paid 2k in interest alone. Now my teeth are my top priority. I feel so bad when people have accidents and need extensive dental work. It's such a financial burden. u/No_Cow9852