How long could YOU go without a paycheck?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:so sad people live below your means

Mid 30s with kids

250k in investment account bulk earmarked for college but still. We would be fine for multiple years with no income coming in

that's easy to say and do when your means are robust.

We don't have a robust income. We save, live in a small sh@t shack, and drive older cars. We do spend what we want within reason but we love under our means to save for an emergency, college and retirement. We could get a nicer house but I'd rather be financially comfortable and not be stretched.

What a boring way to live!

How is it boring to live under your means? We take vacations, cruises, go to concerts and lots of other stuff because we live under our means. We don't have to think twice about getting what we need/want.

RIGHT - so back to the earlier point: THIS IS EASY TO DO IF YOU MAKE A LOT OF $$$. Go on your cruises! Enjoy yourself! Stop acting like everyone is able to do this AND save $250k for a rainy day.

Are you the person in another thread calling $150HHI low income or something?

Anyway, that's great you've saved a lot. You probably worked very hard for it. Recognize your privilege, at the same time, please.

Its not privilege to earn $150HHI. A lot of the cash savings we earned making 80K and my husband only recently started earning a lot more. Its how you choose to spend your money. You cannot complain if you live in an $600+K house, driving two nice cars and a few good vacations a year.

This is PP - and I'm not complaining at all. We live in a $350k house and drive a 7-year-old Kia Soul. We take modest vacations, by and large. I would slap anyone who said they felt badly for us. But it's still hard to save a lot of $$< given how expensive life is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This turned into a big old brag thread.

People are struggling, but at least the rich folk on DCUM can brag about their savings.

I answered the question that I could last a long time. Why is that bragging? OP asked a question. I, and others, answered it -- presumably honestly. Are only people who are struggling aloud to answer without it being considered bragging?

Sure, if someone said 'I can last forever, sorry poor suckers' or otherwise editorialized in a degrading manner than I could see why you might be upset. But most of the posts I have seen, including my own, have simply answered the question, nothing more or less.

Why is it a brag thread -- bc as with all DCUM threads, financial dick measuring contests bring out the people who can smugly say they can live 3 years or 10 years or for the rest of their lives with no pay. That means the "regular" people -- i.e. the 78% of people who are paycheck to paycheck and 1-2 paychecks away from disaster -- keep their mouths shut bc they don't need to provide honest answers so rich people can tell them -- OMG you live above your means, stop eating out etc.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A couple of years? I have 200k in cash and stocks (saving for a rental). My mortgage is $2k a month.

I am a furloughed fed. I’ve been thinking of applying for other jobs, but how to do that if I don’t have an ethics officer to get permission for outside employment? I don’t think I’m going to be essential.

Simple.

If you work for the USDA, dont go get a job at Monsanto. You wont get un trouble if you act on good faith. Nobodybiangoing to pull you up on ethics violations for working for Uber or getting on Rover.

Actually they will. Not sure what part of no outside employment allowed do peippe not understand. We received an email yesterday that we could not even engage in pro bono during the shutdown. Can’t even work for free to stay busy.

But pro bono legal work is still legal work. Since it is somewhat related to your federal position, you would need specific approval. Uber/Rover is presumably wholly unrelated. Therefore, that would not be prohibited or need specific permission, at least at my agency.

The letter says “no outside employment, including pro bono work.” I mean- no outside employment is no outside employment no?

As I recognized in my post, your agency's rules may be different. We have blanket approval for something truly unrelated to what we do for the government and not related to entities we regulate. Uber/Rover and the like would fall under that for most people.

My uber driver tonight was furloughed. He can't work in his usual line of work, but he can uber.

[Anonymous]

I think we’ll be okay for a year because I’m a nervous nelly who was afraid to do anything with our cash savings.

But I have no idea how to live right now. Do I let my son play sports and live life normally, or do I hide in my basement.

With a layoff my husband could get some temporary work and look for a job. Anxiety comes from not being able to take action. And we’re just kind of stuck.

[Anonymous]

FINALLY! Someone living in a house that costs less than 400k! I didn’t think anyone else like me exhausted in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 years. Much longer with lifestyle changes and unemployment. But after 2 years I would have to be tapping into retirement funds.

Similar. But I oversave, probably have too much in cash, and live well below my means.

[Anonymous]

6-7 months

[Anonymous]

Indefinitely but we are retired... that’s the whole point of being retired.

[Anonymous]

We are a two income family and DW is the breadwinner. She is excepted, so working but obviously not getting paid. We've already begun to pare expenses because who knows how long this will last. We are incredibly fortunate to be able to get through a year using liquid assets and my pay before needing to dip into retirement or funds ear marked for college. I feel for those who won't be getting back pay and those who are already hurting. I know this is so much harder for others.

[Anonymous]

Agree that this thread is full of humblebrag and jerky comments. We don't live paycheck to paycheck and we earn average salaries and have kids. You know why we don't live on the edge? We inherited a significant amount of money 10 years ago. It was an enormous leg up. Most middle income people don't have that.

I'm not a jerk, so I don't make shaming comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that this thread is full of humblebrag and jerky comments. We don't live paycheck to paycheck and we earn average salaries and have kids. You know why we don't live on the edge? We inherited a significant amount of money 10 years ago. It was an enormous leg up. Most middle income people don't have that.

I'm not a jerk, so I don't make shaming comments.

But someone answering the question, without obnoxious editorializing, is not making a shaming comment.

If you are shamed because someone answered the direct question posed by OP, that's on you not the poster, again assuming the person just answered factually and didn't provide offensive commentary.

[Anonymous]

We live paycheck to paycheck with no savings aside from retirement so we really couldn't last long at all- less than a month for sure. I won't pull money from my retirement funds so have had to use credit cards that I'll have to pay down when I have income coming in.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A couple of years? I have 200k in cash and stocks (saving for a rental). My mortgage is $2k a month.

I am a furloughed fed. I’ve been thinking of applying for other jobs, but how to do that if I don’t have an ethics officer to get permission for outside employment? I don’t think I’m going to be essential.

Simple.

If you work for the USDA, dont go get a job at Monsanto. You wont get un trouble if you act on good faith. Nobodybiangoing to pull you up on ethics violations for working for Uber or getting on Rover.

Actually they will. Not sure what part of no outside employment allowed do peippe not understand. We received an email yesterday that we could not even engage in pro bono during the shutdown. Can’t even work for free to stay busy.

But pro bono legal work is still legal work. Since it is somewhat related to your federal position, you would need specific approval. Uber/Rover is presumably wholly unrelated. Therefore, that would not be prohibited or need specific permission, at least at my agency.

The letter says “no outside employment, including pro bono work.” I mean- no outside employment is no outside employment no?

As I recognized in my post, your agency's rules may be different. We have blanket approval for something truly unrelated to what we do for the government and not related to entities we regulate. Uber/Rover and the like would fall under that for most people.

My uber driver tonight was furloughed. He can't work in his usual line of work, but he can uber.

Working in Uber is not "employment".

[Anonymous]

One paycheck? 6-7 months

Two paychecks? 3 months

[Anonymous]

1.5 years (after that, would have to dip into retirement or sell the house)