How close are you to losing it all?

EnglishMajor03 · March 2010

Okay, maybe not losing it all, but at least having to make a drastic change to your life if something happened like a lay-off or totaled car...something like that.

We have five months worth of DH's salary in savings plus deposit about $200 a month extra. We also have a pretty good amount in a CD. I recently totaled our car and, long story short, we're just getting back our old VW from my sister.

If that didn't happen, though, we would have bought a $3,000-$4,000 car. Obviously makes a bit of a dent in the savings, but not too bad. Plus, we'd make it up eventually.

Still, I can't help but think how fragile this situation is for us. It seems like someone could blow and it'd all turn upside down.

Chrisy-Wyobride · March 2010

1-2 yrs if we couldn't get any jobs at all....our lifestyle could easily be modest enough that we could keep our house/food on the table, etc. on 2 minimum wage jobs. Private school would have to go though, which would be fine since we live in a good school district. But DH's Mom would help us out indefinitely if need be...and there are 2 houses in NC sitting empty (& paid off) that we could just have free anytime we wanted (DH's late grandparents & MIL's uncles)...we just don't want to live there & neither does DH's brothers so they just sit empty.

ToBeMrsT · March 2010

We have about 8 months worth of expenses in a savings account and then other money in money market accounts. Dh's job is very secure so we don't really worry about that. If we totaled a car we'd take some of our savings and put it towards a new one and then finance the rest. We'd much rather not have a car payment (like now), but we could afford one if we needed to. We also have a second car that we could use that isn't being used and it only has 40,000 miles on it.

ali-1411 · March 2010

Hard to say. We don't have a huge amount of cash...we'd maybe last 2-3 months with absolutely no income. But we also don't have much debt. The cars are paid off, no credit card and no student loans. Even our mortgage payment is pretty low. If we had to, we could manage with two crappy jobs for awhile.

But I'd like to have more financial security, which is why I'm kinda looking for a job and really thinking about a Masters program.

JOEBunny · March 2010

We are pretty comfortable. I think we could go a number of years without losing everything, if we were careful and knew it would be a long time. The hard part would be knowing when to let go of things like the house. We have a rental property with a low mortgage we could live in, but we would have to sell our current house, and it would be hard to pull that trigger. If something happened to DH, I would do that though.

axr8111 · March 2010

I think we'd be ok for a long time when I look at our savings, however, I guess you never know what could happen that could turn a life upside down in a heart beat. So try not to worry too much. Do your best at saving and putting away to help during those hard times.

gatogrrl · March 2010

I'm not sure. We have a little over 6 months in emergency savings, but then we also have retirement savings we could tap into in a pinch. Losing the 10%, or whatever it is that the government takes out, would be preferable to losing our house. Just doing nothing, we could live for several years on that.

If neither DH or I could find a good job, we'd probably make some radical changes. It would be the chance to do something really new, and DH and I each have some hidden talents. We could form a band and sing on a cruise ship, DD in tow -- something crazy like that. We could join a commune. I have no doubt we'd land on our feet somehow.

HarrietNJMommy · March 2010

Given our lifestyle now - 1 year. If my DH were laid off, he has a nice severance package (he negotiated this when he was hired). After the year, we'd need some type of job to be able to live in our home and put food on the table.

Daisy77 · March 2010

Quite a ways. We'd need the IL's to fall off of the Earth before we were truly screwed. We have some debt, but a lot of it is owed to ILs. After that we have vehicles for our businesses that would be sold off and they'd pay any remaining debt and would be our "cushion" until we had another source of income.

cactus5 · March 2010

A job loss or a total car would be fine. We could continue our lifestyle for about 3years (without severance), but that would drain all of our savings and there would be no way we would ever continue to live the way we do. If something drastic and very costly happened, we would cut where we could and I am sure we would be just fine.

JDCSKF · March 2010

We are pretty close to losing it all. We are trying to milk our POS car for another year until we get our other car paid off. We can't afford two car payments. My inlaws have 4 cars (2 boats and a RV, but that's another story) so we could probably borrow a car from them if we needed one right away.

If DH did get laid off, the company would have to pay out his stocks (can't be share holder if not empoyed there), which would hold us over for a couple months.

The plan was to always "scrape by" without incurring any more debt while being a SAHM. Unfortunately, our plans for a big family haven't happened, so I will be going back to work in the next year, provided we can't have any more children.

jenifairies · March 2010

We'd be in trouble if DH lost his job. With his experience/skills it wouldn't be hard to find something new, and I could get a job as well, but we have very small savings currently. Like, a month or two bare bones budget.

However, we have been hardcore with paying down old debts (mostly stuff that DH racked up while he was active duty and then couldn't pay on his civilian salary) and we've also got a plan for savings that should have us 5-6 months of our "new house" (we're going to buy a house late this year, and it will be a 300$ jump in rent) budget and out of debt by the end of the summer.

Sorry about your car. That really bites.

lms_bride · March 2010

We have over 1 year of savings available right now, without making any major changes to our lifestyle. Yes, I am thankful for this.

mandymack · March 2010

Such a great post, even though it's a grim topic to discuss, it's a reality for so many families in this economy!

When MIL passed away, we were left a substantial inheritance and not only paid off all our consumer debt (credit cards) but paid off our student loans, and both vehicle loans. We also hired an Estate Planner to help set up our Living Trusts, Wills, put Dual-Power of Attorneys in place, bought a burial plot for our family and set aside enough cash for Emily to go to college into several high-yield savings accounts. The last thing we did was put 2x DH's salary into several separate high-yield savings account (to ensure all our money was FDIC!) and purchased Term and Universal Life Insurance for us both. We never would've been able to afford to do all this otherwise without years of saving so, we felt it was the best use of our money at the time and now, we don't have to worry about anything... at least for 2 years!

So, to answer your question, we could survive for 2 years living the same lifestyle; however, we could stretch it to 3 years if we cut back to the bare minimum. Both of our vehicles have low-mileage (less than 30,000) and are less than 3 years old and are paid off as well as have 10-year warranties so, I'm hoping that means we don't have to worry about them for a long time to come!

EveryNameIWantIsTaken · March 2010

If dh lost his job, we'd be screwed. Hate to say it, but it is true. This was the issue before I left work though (I watch a child in my home that makes up the lost salary minus daycare) so really me staying home has made no difference.

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How close are you to losing it all?

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