What a cushion is for, and what it is not

The cushion is the one part of a budget whose job is to do nothing most of the time. This lesson draws the line between what it is for and what it is not, because a cushion with a vague purpose is usually spent on something that felt urgent at the time.

Three things it is for

Unplanned repairs: the boiler, the car, the laptop you work on. A gap in income: a late payment, a contract that ends early, a few weeks between jobs. A trip you did not choose: a family emergency, a funeral, a hospital visit in another city.

Each of these shares two features. You did not pick the timing, and not paying has a cost of its own. That is the test.

Three things it is not for

A holiday you planned, even a cheap one. The sales, even a good one. A gift, even for someone you love. All three are worth having; none of them is unexpected, and each belongs in a separate pot with its own date, which is what the course on goals is about.

The reason for the hard line is simple: every time the cushion pays for something planned, the next unplanned thing lands on a card or on someone else.

The one-sentence rule

Write this where you will see it: "The cushion pays for things I did not choose and cannot postpone." If a purchase fails either half of that sentence, it waits for its own pot.

Lesson 2 turns the rule into a number: one month of your regular costs, taken from your own figures, not from a rule of thumb.