It is good advice if you can save the money. One of the things I learned when I was desperately poor is you must lean on your community of other poor poeple. Trading favors is how we survived. If my friend didn't have enough for food we fed them. We worked on each other's cars. We had to live close to each other because we didn't have gas money or reliable transportation. It sucked.

Now that I have escaped the poverty trap and have an emergency fund, it's like I've activated a cheat code. Everything it easier when you have immediate money.