Build reserves before you need evidence that reserves matter.

Reserves feel wasteful right up until the day they are the only thing between you and a crisis. Because the proof of their value only arrives with the emergency, the case for building them always looks weaker than it is. By the time you have the evidence, the window for building has closed.

Choose one kind of reserve you are thin on: money, rest, goodwill, time, health, and add to it deliberately this month even though nothing is wrong. Resist the feeling that it is unnecessary. That feeling is exactly what the good period is supposed to feel like.