Savings are quiet power. They’re what lets you say no to a bad job.

Money in an account is not mainly about what it buys. It is the distance between you and having to accept whatever is offered, and that distance changes how you behave in every conversation about work. Without it, every bad situation has to be endured. With a little of it, you get to choose.

Start the buffer now, at whatever size is real for you. Twenty dollars a paycheck into something you do not touch is enough to begin, and the point is the habit rather than the amount. The first time it lets you walk away from something, you will understand what you were building.