As I became aware of the weather event slowly unfolding in the upper North Island and, over the days that followed, the scale and breadth of the carnage it caused, it took me right back to the Canterbury Earthquakes and our experiences of coping with a natural disaster. Since the beginning of The Happy Saver, I’ve talked about Emergency Funds, and I’m not letting up. Although they are fantastic for solving minor money problems, they are even better for giving you strength when the absolute worst happens. An emergency fund comes into its own in a real crisis.