A savings account is just a stack of future no’s you can afford to say.

Money in an account is not really about the number. It is about options: the ability to leave a job that treats you badly, to skip a trip you cannot stand, to turn down someone who is counting on you having no choice. Being broke is not a character flaw, but it does shorten the list of things you are able to refuse.

If anything at all is coming in, send a piece of it somewhere you do not touch, even twenty dollars. You are not building wealth. You are building the ability to walk out of one bad situation without needing permission.