Open a new 0%interest credit card and put everything you can that is not the mortgage and childcare on it.

This is an emergency and you and DH need to tag team of it by one of both of you bringing in income immediately. You can work nights and weekends with the car. Drive Uber or get a night sift job while you apply for work during the day. DH can tutor. One of you should be working at all hours. This needs to be immediate brainstorming for how you can

make money in the interim all hands on deck. Otherwise, how would you even pay off a loan if you can’t cover your basic expenses? I’m not saying a HELOC isn’t a solution, but you owe the interest-only payments and you’d need a way to cover that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you or DH take a 401k loan or IRA distribution?

DH will get a pension so we can’t borrow against that

My 401k doesn’t allow loans

We don’t have IRAs I don’t think.

Are you 100% sure. No offense OP but if you don't even know whether you have an IRA, I'm not confident you are fully aware of all of your retirement plans. I know that some state government pensions DO allow you to borrow from your pension. Look it up, call, e-mail them to double check this.

Also if your husband is a professor he might have a 457b plan he can borrow from.

Either one of you should qualify for a hardship withdrawal from your retirement accounts. That's what I'd do no question.

She's already said that isn't an option.

I don't see that anywhere.

If the line of credit doesn’t already exist, will the bank grant one with the job loss noted?

Why has this thread already gone on four pages? OP is basically asking the following: “Is it OK to dip in to my $700K pile of cash to cover a $20K emergency?” The correct answer is, “No shit, Sherlock.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your job? What kind of salary do you earn and does DH earn? If you give some sort of numbers about what your income is now and what it expects to look like if you work, we can give better ideas.

I think you should sell the home. Taking out another loan now and then having to pay that back and having your savings already wiped--not a good place to be, even if you find a job.

Op here. Selling simply doesn’t make sense. Even if it did, I’m not going to. Our interest rate is 2.25%. Housing costs have gone bonkers. We could sell but we’d still have to live somewhere.

You’re right. Selling makes no sense. But you said your DH’s salary can cover the mortgage. Cut your childcare. Cut your streaming and anything unnecessary. Reduce your utility consumption by using heat and air as little as possible. Eat at home 100% and act like you’re a poor grad student. Rice is cheap. Ramen noodles are cheap. Lots of other stuff is cheap. Don’t eat out. Don’t buy shrimp or steak. Buy cheap toilet paper. Do free activities. $10k per month beyond your mortgage means there is a lot of lifestyle to cut.

As to how to get through after you change your lifestyle, easiest is credit cards and zero interest balance transfers. Also get you utilities and mortgage company to work with you. Other than mortgage everything can be done on credit cards and you only have a minimum payment. There will be costs for the three months but you can minimize them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See if your credit card has a zero interest cash advance.

Op here. We get balance transfer offers but the cash advances are never 0%.

Since DH is still working, have him open a new credit card. My new BOA credit card has a zero percent cash advance for a year and many new credit cards have similar incentives, so shop around.

Look into Upstart for a personal loan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you or DH take a 401k loan or IRA distribution?

DH will get a pension so we can’t borrow against that

My 401k doesn’t allow loans

We don’t have IRAs I don’t think.

Are you 100% sure. No offense OP but if you don't even know whether you have an IRA, I'm not confident you are fully aware of all of your retirement plans. I know that some state government pensions DO allow you to borrow from your pension. Look it up, call, e-mail them to double check this.

Also if your husband is a professor he might have a 457b plan he can borrow from.

Either one of you should qualify for a hardship withdrawal from your retirement accounts. That's what I'd do no question.

She's already said that isn't an option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't qualify for any kind of loan (though if you use your house as collateral, maybe that works, then you pray you get a new job by the end of the year?) what about renting your house out since it's in such a good neighborhood. You will probably have to rent it for a year, but if you get 4K for the house and pay 1K for a rental, you'll get out of the hole pretty quickly, and have some runway to get a new job, and get your life back on track. And you'll still own the house with the good mortgage rate.

On what planet do you envision rentals suitable for families are available for $1000/month?

One, I thought she said they aren't in the DC area. Two, it was more a percentage situation. If it's such a good area, maybe she can get 5K in rent. Beyond that, I am always amazed at people who get themselves in a bind, and keep perpetuating the situation. Rent a 2 bed apartment. Why does she have to have a "suitable house"? Also, with all the layoffs happening, what is to say she will get a job by the end of the year? What if this goes on longer and their debt just keeps growing.

And I only mention it at all because she is expecting a perfect solution when there really isn't one. Just a lot of bad choices. Seriously, what if she can't get a loan? What if she can't get another job quickly? She won't give up child care, she won't sell the house, she has nothing else to sell, she won't get a side job....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't qualify for any kind of loan (though if you use your house as collateral, maybe that works, then you pray you get a new job by the end of the year?) what about renting your house out since it's in such a good neighborhood. You will probably have to rent it for a year, but if you get 4K for the house and pay 1K for a rental, you'll get out of the hole pretty quickly, and have some runway to get a new job, and get your life back on track. And you'll still own the house with the good mortgage rate.

On what planet do you envision rentals suitable for families are available for $1000/month?

No, but they could sell the house and probably find a rental for something like 2500 a month.

I mean they could find a crappy, small rental and pay for the differential in "sweat equity" or "inconvenience equity."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't qualify for any kind of loan (though if you use your house as collateral, maybe that works, then you pray you get a new job by the end of the year?) what about renting your house out since it's in such a good neighborhood. You will probably have to rent it for a year, but if you get 4K for the house and pay 1K for a rental, you'll get out of the hole pretty quickly, and have some runway to get a new job, and get your life back on track. And you'll still own the house with the good mortgage rate.

On what planet do you envision rentals suitable for families are available for $1000/month?

No, but they could sell the house and probably find a rental for something like 2500 a month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you or DH take a 401k loan or IRA distribution?

DH will get a pension so we can’t borrow against that

My 401k doesn’t allow loans

We don’t have IRAs I don’t think.

Are you 100% sure. No offense OP but if you don't even know whether you have an IRA, I'm not confident you are fully aware of all of your retirement plans. I know that some state government pensions DO allow you to borrow from your pension. Look it up, call, e-mail them to double check this.

Also if your husband is a professor he might have a 457b plan he can borrow from.

Either one of you should qualify for a hardship withdrawal from your retirement accounts. That's what I'd do no question.

Anonymous wrote:If you don't qualify for any kind of loan (though if you use your house as collateral, maybe that works, then you pray you get a new job by the end of the year?) what about renting your house out since it's in such a good neighborhood. You will probably have to rent it for a year, but if you get 4K for the house and pay 1K for a rental, you'll get out of the hole pretty quickly, and have some runway to get a new job, and get your life back on track. And you'll still own the house with the good mortgage rate.

On what planet do you envision rentals suitable for families are available for $1000/month?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have a million dollar house and no savings? Start driving uber.

Op here. $1.5 million, but yeah. We had savings but it’s been wiped out in the last few months.

So, you live in a $1.5 million dollar house and living pay check to pay check. Good luck with that. Sell the house and move into something 1/2 that. You are living over your means if one emergency wiped you out.

Op here. I mean, yeah we are house poor. But we bought our house in April 2020, got a screaming deal on it, and it was a fixer upper/foreclosure. Our interest rate is 2.25%. We poured our sweat equity and our hearts into it, our area absolutely exploded (even more than other places-like not even just our city but our specific neighborhood went completely bananas the last 3.5 years). We paid $800k, it’s worth $1.5 mil now.

We want to do whatever we can to hold onto the house because of the interest rate.

Nope. You need to sell your home and rent a way less expensive place.

If you don't qualify for any kind of loan (though if you use your house as collateral, maybe that works, then you pray you get a new job by the end of the year?) what about renting your house out since it's in such a good neighborhood. You will probably have to rent it for a year, but if you get 4K for the house and pay 1K for a rental, you'll get out of the hole pretty quickly, and have some runway to get a new job, and get your life back on track. And you'll still own the house with the good mortgage rate.