My grandfather was a doctor and he always said, "No one plans to be sick." The truth is, a medical emergency can happen to anyone at anytime.
Most people think they're properly managing their personal finances by simply logging in and getting their bank balance or checking to see how their spending compared to their budget.
The old-fashioned layaway program is coming back. The program, where a store holds specific merchandise for a customer until they pay it off, became popular during the Great Depression.
With the economy still on the sliding, we seem to be regaling ourselves more and more with sweets, purses, chocolate and wine. Actually there's an arguement that purses and shoes can be cost cutting!
Establishing good money habits early in life (trust me, at 53, if you're in your twenties, you ARE early in life,) is paramount for building a solid financial foundation for the rest of your life. Since we aren't taught these things, no matter what level we educate ourselves, or to what degree, people ask me how to start their financial life.