Save Like a Squirrel
Store part of every abundant season to survive the inevitable financial winter
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
Save Like a Squirrel reframes emergency saving around predictable cycles rather than unlikely catastrophes. Just as a squirrel stores food during abundance because winter always returns, a person or business should live on part of a strong season and reserve part for a weak one. Savings should be separated from checking, preferably where it earns a competitive rate, and measured in months of necessary costs. The target can grow as experience reveals longer or more expensive risks. The reserve is not a trophy: it is meant to be used when a true financial winter arrives, then restored in the next abundant season. This cyclical model counters the tendency to interpret a windfall or strong year as a permanently higher spending baseline.
Origin
Aliche uses the squirrel analogy to make saving memorable and describes expanding her companies' reserve target after observing pandemic risk and Microsoft's one-year reserve.
Core principles
- 01Good financial seasons do not last forever
- 02Windfalls must fund both current life and future resilience
- 03Emergency reserves buy time during shocks
- 04Reserve targets should reflect the severity and duration of plausible winters
How to run it
- 1
Define Winter
Identify the income interruption or business downturn your reserve must survive and calculate essential monthly costs.
Pro tip Use replacement time and business volatility to size the risk.
- 2
Set the Month Target
Choose an initial reserve measured in months, then raise it when evidence shows the risk is larger.
Pro tip Three months can be a starting point; Aliche's companies moved to six.
Watch out Do not copy another organization's target without considering your own costs and risks.
- 3
Separate the Store
Place the reserve away from everyday checking so it remains visible and harder to spend casually.
Pro tip Seek a competitive savings rate.
- 4
Harvest in Abundance
During strong seasons, live on some income and save some rather than consuming every available dollar.
Pro tip Automate contributions where possible.
Watch out Do not treat a temporary windfall as permanent income.
- 5
Draw and Rebuild
Use the reserve to carry essential costs through a genuine winter, then replenish it when conditions improve.
Watch out A reserve that is never permitted to serve its intended purpose cannot provide resilience.
In the wild
After the pandemic exposed the duration of business shocks, Aliche asked her CFO to increase company emergency savings from three months to six. In a later rough financial year, the businesses used three months of that reserve.
→ The companies still retained another three months instead of exhausting their emergency savings.
Common mistakes
Eating every acorn
Spending all income during a strong season leaves nothing when the cycle turns.
Keeping an outdated target
New evidence about shock duration should prompt a reassessment of reserve size.
Confusing wants with winter costs
An emergency target should first protect the essential operating baseline.
Is it for you?
Best for
Households and businesses with cyclical, uncertain, or shock-sensitive income.
Not ideal for
People carrying acute high-cost debt who need a tailored balance between reserves and repayment.
From the transcript
“we understand that life is cyclical and that Financial winter comes for everyone”
“when the financial acorns are abundant I live off some I put aside some”
“we had to tap into three months of the six months so imagine I only had three months we'd have no more emergency savings”
From the episode
Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche: Financial Wholeness, The Financial Freedom That's Accessible For Everyone
Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche