Having savings means you can say yes when your little brother needs help. That’s what makes saving worth it.

Money set aside is usually framed as protection against bad luck, which makes it feel joyless. The better frame is capacity: the ability to act when someone you love needs something and the timing is not up to you. Being the person who can help is a quiet kind of power.

Give your savings a name that is a person rather than an emergency. Add to it in small amounts that do not require discipline you do not have. Then leave it alone until the day someone needs you to be able to say yes.