How long could YOU go without a paycheck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or your spouse if you are a SAHP. How long would you be able to float if you lost an income in your household.

For ever.

We have some savings, and we would adjust our budget.

This happens to people in the private sector all the time, btw.

[Anonymous]

A pretty long time, like years, if it was just one of us. We could pretty much keep our lifestyle if we ramped down our savings significantly. If it was both checks we'd be fine for a year or two if we cut back on savings and spending.

[Anonymous]

So much of it depends on what comes up. If a car dies or needs a costly repair you are looking at a big expense. If the furnace or AC goes out or the refrigerator stops working you are looking at spending some money.

We DIY a lot of things as it is - yard work, house cleaning. I SAH with the kids and drive them around as necessary. We aren't involved in a lot of expensive activities.

There are areas that we could cut back and there are things that we could sell if we had to. But bad things tend to happen in threes and if you have a car break down, a furnace go out and your refrigerator stop working all in the same month you are going to burn through savings faster than you had anticipated. Maybe next month you'll need to spend $$$ on getting a tree taken down or you have to travel to see a sick relative.

So I will say that my answer is - it depends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much of it depends on what comes up. If a car dies or needs a costly repair you are looking at a big expense. If the furnace or AC goes out or the refrigerator stops working you are looking at spending some money.

We DIY a lot of things as it is - yard work, house cleaning. I SAH with the kids and drive them around as necessary. We aren't involved in a lot of expensive activities.

There are areas that we could cut back and there are things that we could sell if we had to. But bad things tend to happen in threes and if you have a car break down, a furnace go out and your refrigerator stop working all in the same month you are going to burn through savings faster than you had anticipated. Maybe next month you'll need to spend $$$ on getting a tree taken down or you have to travel to see a sick relative.

So I will say that my answer is - it depends.

Sheesh! this post depresses me.

[Anonymous]

We have six months of emergency expenses on hand that we could stretch to nine or so. We are about to tap into it thanks to Trump while he, his administration and congress get their pay checks. F--- them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much of it depends on what comes up. If a car dies or needs a costly repair you are looking at a big expense. If the furnace or AC goes out or the refrigerator stops working you are looking at spending some money.

We DIY a lot of things as it is - yard work, house cleaning. I SAH with the kids and drive them around as necessary. We aren't involved in a lot of expensive activities.

There are areas that we could cut back and there are things that we could sell if we had to. But bad things tend to happen in threes and if you have a car break down, a furnace go out and your refrigerator stop working all in the same month you are going to burn through savings faster than you had anticipated. Maybe next month you'll need to spend $$$ on getting a tree taken down or you have to travel to see a sick relative.

So I will say that my answer is - it depends.

DIY isn't housecleaning and yard work. DIY is doing painting, major remodeling, plumbing, electrical, hardwood floors, doors, windows. If you have both parents not working, you only need one car. If you can DIY, you can watch a youtube video and possibly fix your own fridge. You don' tee know the meaning of DIY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of it depends on what comes up. If a car dies or needs a costly repair you are looking at a big expense. If the furnace or AC goes out or the refrigerator stops working you are looking at spending some money.

We DIY a lot of things as it is - yard work, house cleaning. I SAH with the kids and drive them around as necessary. We aren't involved in a lot of expensive activities.

There are areas that we could cut back and there are things that we could sell if we had to. But bad things tend to happen in threes and if you have a car break down, a furnace go out and your refrigerator stop working all in the same month you are going to burn through savings faster than you had anticipated. Maybe next month you'll need to spend $$$ on getting a tree taken down or you have to travel to see a sick relative.

So I will say that my answer is - it depends.

DIY isn't housecleaning and yard work. DIY is doing painting, major remodeling, plumbing, electrical, hardwood floors, doors, windows. If you have both parents not working, you only need one car. If you can DIY, you can watch a youtube video and possibly fix your own fridge. You don' tee know the meaning of DIY.

DIY is not just the name of a cable network, it actually is an acronym that means Do It Yourself. HTH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of it depends on what comes up. If a car dies or needs a costly repair you are looking at a big expense. If the furnace or AC goes out or the refrigerator stops working you are looking at spending some money.

We DIY a lot of things as it is - yard work, house cleaning. I SAH with the kids and drive them around as necessary. We aren't involved in a lot of expensive activities.

There are areas that we could cut back and there are things that we could sell if we had to. But bad things tend to happen in threes and if you have a car break down, a furnace go out and your refrigerator stop working all in the same month you are going to burn through savings faster than you had anticipated. Maybe next month you'll need to spend $$$ on getting a tree taken down or you have to travel to see a sick relative.

So I will say that my answer is - it depends.

DIY isn't housecleaning and yard work. DIY is doing painting, major remodeling, plumbing, electrical, hardwood floors, doors, windows. If you have both parents not working, you only need one car. If you can DIY, you can watch a youtube video and possibly fix your own fridge. You don' tee know the meaning of DIY.

Oh, sorry. We don't OUTSOURCE our house cleaning or our yard work. We do that work ourselves. Better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or your spouse if you are a SAHP. How long would you be able to float if you lost an income in your household.

Forever. We are a 2 income home and have structured our lives around 1 income.

If we lost both, we could live off cash for about 6 months VERY frugally. If we had to dip into investments, depends on the market that day, but maybe a few years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or your spouse if you are a SAHP. How long would you be able to float if you lost an income in your household.

Forever. We are a 2 income home and have structured our lives around 1 income.

If we lost both, we could live off cash for about 6 months VERY frugally. If we had to dip into investments, depends on the market that day, but maybe a few years?

Oh and one of is us a fed, but unaffected by the shut down.

[Anonymous]

Maybe 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or your spouse if you are a SAHP. How long would you be able to float if you lost an income in your household.

For ever.

We have some savings, and we would adjust our budget.

This happens to people in the private sector all the time, btw.

All the time in the private sector people have to go to work without being paid? All the time in the private sector you can't go to work but can't make changes like dropping child care because you might have to go back to work tomorrow? All the time in the private sector you can't get a second job because of ethics rules?

I don't think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or your spouse if you are a SAHP. How long would you be able to float if you lost an income in your household.

For ever.

We have some savings, and we would adjust our budget.

This happens to people in the private sector all the time, btw.

All the time in the private sector people have to go to work without being paid? All the time in the private sector you can't go to work but can't make changes like dropping child care because you might have to go back to work tomorrow? All the time in the private sector you can't get a second job because of ethics rules?

I don't think so.

No, we just get furloughed and don't even get a paycheck when it is over. And just like you, we also have rules that often require us to get permisison to work another job. We also get laid off and don't get to just retire in place. My DH got laid off, along with 20% of his company and Yes, we still had to pay for childcare while he looked for a new job that took 4 months to find. UNLIKE you, our jobs are not guaranteed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of it depends on what comes up. If a car dies or needs a costly repair you are looking at a big expense. If the furnace or AC goes out or the refrigerator stops working you are looking at spending some money.

We DIY a lot of things as it is - yard work, house cleaning. I SAH with the kids and drive them around as necessary. We aren't involved in a lot of expensive activities.

There are areas that we could cut back and there are things that we could sell if we had to. But bad things tend to happen in threes and if you have a car break down, a furnace go out and your refrigerator stop working all in the same month you are going to burn through savings faster than you had anticipated. Maybe next month you'll need to spend $$$ on getting a tree taken down or you have to travel to see a sick relative.

So I will say that my answer is - it depends.

Sheesh! this post depresses me.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a downer. I tend to be a just in caser, meaning I tend to think of the worst case scenarios and plan accordingly. I always have a stocked pantry, extra water, even firewood on hand if times get tough. I was laid off when I was younger and I remember all to well how tight things can get.

Government furloughs have been happening as long as I can remember. They come to an end before things get too bad. I feel for the people dealing with all of this uncertainty. My heart goes out to you.

[Anonymous]

As long as we still had healthcare, we could go two years before we would have to raid 401k or IRAs.