I mostly worry that something would happen to DH. DH essentially cannot be fired and we can probably live on his salary alone for quite some time, but he has a chronic medical condition in which case I'm not sure what would happen.

We try to keep a lot of savings.

I worry sometimes. I bought a lot of house. However, I still own a small condo that I rent out, and if I ran out of other options I could sell the big house and go back to the condo, which has a very small mortgage. I could probably even pay it off with the equity from the big house, though I'm not sure I'd want to do that in a no-cash-flow situation.

We made sure to buy, and keep, a house that was less than 25% of our take-home. Honestly I HATED that house, but we lived there for 10 years. It did feel good not to worry too much about making the payments.

OP, is there anything you can do nights/weekends to help build up that emergency fund? We recently got our 6-month emergency fund in place and it's SUCH a good feeling. Visit the Dave Ramsey forums to see if you can find ways to either cut down on expenses or increase your income with a side-job. It really will help with your anxiety, which I totally understand btw. Good luck to you.

The first thing the bank will tell you if you ask for help is to rent out rooms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Often. I have a pretty good savings cushion but I am a single parent so if I lose my job there is no backup. My company is volatile. I would look for something else but they allow me incredible work from home flexibility and I'm not sure how I'd manage in a traditional office setting. So I just keep saving, but it never feels like enough.

+1 I'm single too. If I lost my job I'd go into short term survival mode, cutting all extras and rent out my basement. If things didn't look good for a job around here within 6 months I'd sell my house, move back to where I grew up and use the equity from the house to buy a townhouse and get what ever job I could.

I've thought about renting out the basement as a last resort. Does your basement have a kitchen? Would you allow renter access to your home? How would that work?

Not pp, but unless it is someone you already know very well, it would have to be a walk-out basement.

I certainly worry about money, but not losing my home. If you have a 401k you can use that to fund your mortgage if push comes to shove. I have also seen many people rent out extra rooms in their homes to ward off foreclosure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Often. I have a pretty good savings cushion but I am a single parent so if I lose my job there is no backup. My company is volatile. I would look for something else but they allow me incredible work from home flexibility and I'm not sure how I'd manage in a traditional office setting. So I just keep saving, but it never feels like enough.

+1 I'm single too. If I lost my job I'd go into short term survival mode, cutting all extras and rent out my basement. If things didn't look good for a job around here within 6 months I'd sell my house, move back to where I grew up and use the equity from the house to buy a townhouse and get what ever job I could.

I've thought about renting out the basement as a last resort. Does your basement have a kitchen? Would you allow renter access to your home? How would that work?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Often. I have a pretty good savings cushion but I am a single parent so if I lose my job there is no backup. My company is volatile. I would look for something else but they allow me incredible work from home flexibility and I'm not sure how I'd manage in a traditional office setting. So I just keep saving, but it never feels like enough.

+1 I'm single too. If I lost my job I'd go into short term survival mode, cutting all extras and rent out my basement. If things didn't look good for a job around here within 6 months I'd sell my house, move back to where I grew up and use the equity from the house to buy a townhouse and get what ever job I could.

^^ Should say single mom

Anonymous wrote:Often. I have a pretty good savings cushion but I am a single parent so if I lose my job there is no backup. My company is volatile. I would look for something else but they allow me incredible work from home flexibility and I'm not sure how I'd manage in a traditional office setting. So I just keep saving, but it never feels like enough.

+1 I'm single too. If I lost my job I'd go into short term survival mode, cutting all extras and rent out my basement. If things didn't look good for a job around here within 6 months I'd sell my house, move back to where I grew up and use the equity from the house to buy a townhouse and get what ever job I could.

Anonymous wrote:Never. I am lucky to come from a long line of people who are well off, and we own our house outright.

Yeah...that's my fantasy too

I worry about long term money periodically (are we saving enough, can we afford college, etc). I don't typically worry about the house payment as we are a 2 income family where both people have stable and secure jobs and decent emergency funds.

Often. I have a pretty good savings cushion but I am a single parent so if I lose my job there is no backup. My company is volatile. I would look for something else but they allow me incredible work from home flexibility and I'm not sure how I'd manage in a traditional office setting. So I just keep saving, but it never feels like enough.

Never. I am lucky to come from a long line of people who are well off, and we own our house outright.

In the same boat. We've had some big repairs recently that depleted some savings. We could probably cover 6 months out of work if we're careful. My job security has recently become questionable and I've been looking, but it's so stressful.

For me, it's all the time. I can only afford my house payment as long as I stay working and recently my job has been threatened. I'm scared as hell that there will be a gap in employment and I have very little savings (less than 2 full months worth). I assume most people are in the same position as me...right? I know it's ideal to have a year worth of expenses saved, but I'm just not there yet....not even close. So I worry about this all the time.