Reply to Dual income families, what is your HHI?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]10:06, are you saying you lost $100,000 a year in gross income and don't notice it?????  I don't understand - were you saving more than $5,000 each month before, or spending a lot?[/quote]

I was a senior associate in commercial real estate and that market pretty much died, at least in my specialty (securitized financing).  So I got shit canned and took about a $100K hit.  (and to be honest, I was damned lucky to get the job I did.  Most of my coworkers who were laid off, there were dozens of us, fared much worse.)  First thing I did was refinanced my first mortgage and paid off my 2nd mortgage  while I still had the high income (and luckily the appraisal for our house came in fine), and those two moves alone saved me about $2K/month.  Soon my car was paid for, saving another $550/month.  I lowered the cable channels, dropped the housekeeper to every other week, eat out a little less, less extravagant on holidays and christmas, etc.  So no, other than the moves above which were not too drastic, I really haven't noticed too much of a change.  I think we spent a lot more before.  Right now (new job) I don't yet contribute to my 401K, so when I start doing that things will get a little more tight, so we might have to tighten our belts a bit more.  But like the poster above said, we still have 7K or so left over after housing expenses, so its not like we are destitute.

I'd consider moving, but the relocation costs and real estate commissions would be huge.  Rather stay where we are and hope the market recovers.  Besides, about $1K or so of the housing payment goes to principal, so that in a way is forced savings, and hopefully sooner or later the housing market will recover and the house will start to appreciate again.  We have an acre lot in Vienna, so pretty good spot and I'm confident enough in our careers that our incomes should rise back to where they were in a year or two.  If not, we will just not have as extravagant as lifestyles. That is fine too.  [/quote]

Sorry about the layoff. Amazing that it took a layoff though to get you to save all that money each month.[/quote]

layoff had little to do with it.  the rates dropped so I refinanced, and I borrowed money from my father to pay off the 2nd mortgage.  the car loan was up.  the only "sacrifices" are eating out a little less per month and having the housekeeper come every other week.  Again, not that big a deal.  I agree with the PP that people don't realize how good they have it - and while I wish I still had my big fat paycheck, I don't miss the job and in all honesty don't miss the money.[/quote]

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