People often get into financial trouble because they don't expect the unexpected. By intentionally saving for unexpected expenses, you can break this cycle. An unexpected expense may be an auto accident that requires you to pay your deductible or a repair to your home. An emergency can even be a planned expense that comes due before you expect it.

For example, suppose you had planned to take a vacation later this year, but your best friend is attending a conference in the Bahamas and asks you to go along, stay for free in the hotel, and pay only airfare and food. You might decide that now is a better time to take an inexpensive vacation. However, given your goal to get out and stay out of debt, you don't dare put the trip on credit cards. This trip will be a much easier decision for you if you have money in the bank to borrow against.

Ideally, you should keep six months' income in the bank. If there are two wage earners in your family, keep six months of each person's income in savings. Yes, this is a lot of money, but if you're able to save this much money, you have choices in your life. You're never going feel stuck again: If you're laid off, you have time to find a job you really want; if you've been looking for a new house and find the perfect one, but the current owners won't wait for you to sell yours first, you can use your savings as a down payment, replacing the savings after you sell your existing house.

The trick to having money available for unexpected expenses is twofold. First, you never dip into your savings unless you're faced with a truly unique situation. A shoe sale at your favorite department store is not a unique situation. And if you have time to plan for an unexpected event, save in advance by changing your lifestyle to free up more money for savings, but don't dip into your savings unless you absolutely have to. The money in your savings account is for that oh-my-gosh-what-am-I-going-to-do-now situation.

The second part of the trick to keeping savings on hand for unexpected events is always to replace it after you use it. If you have six months' salary in the bank and you use one month's salary to make up the difference between your disability pay and your normal pay, when you get back to work full time, immediately begin replacing that one month's salary.

These two concepts — leaving money in savings for unexpected expenses and replacing any money that you borrow from your savings when unexpected situations arise — are not common in our society. You'll find that the majority of Americans don't think they're capable of doing this. If they see they have money in the bank, they'll spend it on whatever they think will make their lives better at that moment. But the truth is, having this security gives you the power to choose, and that's the greatest power you'll ever have — much greater than the big-screen TV for the Super Bowl.