To answer the question, we would be in a tight spot if I lost my job and we didn't want to pull from savings/e-fund. We would probably actually decrease DH's 401(k) contributions to increase our takehome, since we would also have to start paying for health insurance. We would cut way back on groceries, eating out, other entertainment costs, but we could probably float things enough to make it work for a finite period. I'd need to find a job after a year, though, because at that point, all of the annual expenses that we've paid already would start becoming due again (insurance, taxes, etc.).
As far as e-funds go, we could probably draw from that to supplement DH's income and make this work indefinitely if there was a dire situation where I couldn't work or couldn't find a single job to bring in anything.
DH was the main breadwinner but he left his job and went to work something making 1/4 of what he made. Luckily with my income we are still able to afford the house (it's been 2 years now), but we really did cut back on things like dinners out and just spending in general.
I am the breadwinner. We sort of went through this when the Government shut down last year and we were in limbo of when will we go back to work and will we be paid for when we were out.
We would cut everything non-essential. Probably cut cable and just use prime since it's already paid for. DH would be working a ton of OT. I would be sellling things we don't need and couponing like a mad woman.
Daycare would probably be the biggest question mark. If we leave, then we're stuck on the waiting list. Not going to lie, would probably keep it, give ourselves 2-3 months and then pull her.
MH makes like 10% more than I do, so while it would suck, and we'd lose out on half of our savings, I think we could make it work. It would be tight for sure though and I'd probably have to cut back on 401k contributions etc.
I don't work right now, but if my husband lost his job, I don't think too much would need to change for a long time. We rent and live somewhat modestly already. We could probably cut back a little on food, clothes, and preschool/kid activities, but I'm not sure we would. We would stop investing. We would be able to coast for several years before touching retirement, and in that time one or both of us would be pounding pavement and/or we/I would start a firm. He is contacted a lot, so I don't think he, at least, would be unemployed for long.
We would be pretty damn screwed, but I think we could pay all of the bills and last maybe 4-5 months. We would of course pull the kids from daycare so that would help some.
Thankfully I'm in the federal government so the chances of me losing my job with zero warning is pretty damn remote.
We have a healthy retirement if the worse happened.
DH not going out to lunch everyday would save us quite a bit!
oh man, when I was good at this, it was a HUGE MM win.
And then we had a kid, I got de facto promoted, our office had huge attrition, and ... yeah. But hey, new job, chance to get back into it?
DH and I talk about how much we could save by bringing lunch to work ($8-10/day * 2 people * 5 days/week, ok, only 4 days/week for me), but neither one of us wants to pack it, and I don't want to eat sandwiches every day, and we are generally lazy about this stuff, so we call it the 2-working-parent tax and move on.
After cutting out all of our unnecessary expenses (housekeeper, lawn, eating out, etc.) and minimizing retirement savings, I think we would be okay because my H has really bridged the income gap recently. We have almost 2 years of my salary in cash and investments so I want to say that we could go for maybe 5 years. I would be in panic mode after 6 months though. That's just my nature.
Post by sillygoosegirl on Sept 23, 2014 9:23:48 GMT -5
We earn the same and currently live on one income. So we'd be fine indefinitely and with minor adjustments could even still save (would probably stop paying extra on the mortgage, stop saving much for retirement, and stop eating quite so many lunches out). Though it would be a bummer as the other spouse wouldn't get to reduce his/her hours after the arrival of the baby, as planned.
We would have to cut back on some fun items, eating out, etc, but outside of the mortgage we can pay all our bills with my salary. We have 12 months of mortgage payment in our e-fund.
We could pay the mortgage and basic expenses on either income, but we would have to stop all saving and either pull the kids out of school or dip into savings for tuition. If H's job was the one to go, we would have to find health insurance elsewhere, which would probably also require dipping into savings. We would be okay for quite a while, though.
MH makes slightly more than me, but neither of us could support a household totally on our own salary. Things would be really tough if either of us lost our jobs. We could manage, but it'd be tight.
Either of our monthly salaries could pay almost all the bills, and unemployment could probably cover the rest. We have about five months' worth of cash in savings. We have an investment account that we could pull from.
Lifestyle changes: Cut Netflix, possibly cut cable. No shopping and pretty much no fun stuff. Switch to a cheaper pet food and cut back on groceries. Sell a car if one of us got a new job accessible by walking or public transit. Try like hell to get a PT or freelance job.
Offhand I know of one or two people we could ask to move in with us and pay us rent, but that would be a last-ditch effort.
Post by delawarejen on Sept 23, 2014 9:46:29 GMT -5
I am the only person in my household (and therefore the only breadwinner).
I have a 1 month buffer for budgeting purposes.
If I was eligible to cash out vacation time or use PTO, I would have another 2 months of income.
My current E-fund would cover 7 months of my income (take-home pay minus Roth contributions). So it should last at least that long with no lifestyle cuts (other than not saving for retirement), or longer with lifestyle cuts.
I have some sinking funds I would also liquidate, and that would cover another 6 months at the current balances.
After that point I would be withdrawing retirement savings, starting with my Roth IRA contributions that are >5 years old, and that would last me another year at least.
If the primary breadwinner in your household lost their job, what adjustments would you make to your monthly expenses?
With your current e-fund, how many months would that last?
Since I'm a SAHM, I'd have to go back to work. We'd have to cut out anything and everything 'extra' (tv, internet, cell phones, eating out) but even with all that we'd be OK for a while - about 2 yrs if we really only spent what we budget for. If we didn't cut everything we'd be OK for a year roughly. However, any unexpected expense would set us back significantly.
We don't have a huge efund, but we do have a secondary non employment related income coming in which would offset our expenses.
ETA, we could sell our current home for a nice profit and move in with my family temporarily if it got REALLY bad. I probably wouldn't cash out his 401k, but who knows, particularly since we wouldn't have a good health care plan any more... In the town they live in, we could buy a small ok ish house with the profit from our house.
@missy1 - Thanks! It's been coming slowly...you know, that feeling where you care slightly less everyday. I finished my last project about 6 months ago and haven't even thought about starting another. And I love doing projects and research!
We work way too much...like 80-100 hours a week. Sometimes more if we have deadlines to meet and have to work weekends. We take turns getting up in the middle of the night to keep an eye on the markets because the commodity markets are opened 23 hours a day. For the most part, we're just tired. I want a normal 9-5 job...hell 8-7 is fine too. H wants to fly airplanes lol.
RockNVoll & @choco - We enjoyed it but it's getting old. We want to enjoy our lives, not spend it working all the time. We love to travel and I want to visit every country in the world. It's been 4 years since our last real vacation. So we've pretty much just had enough. We thought we could do it for 20 more years then retire and do all the things we want but life is too short. I don't know, I could just be over-glamorizing it for myself.
I am the primary breadwinner so we would be ok but we would have to pay health insurance under DH's plan (which sucks bawlz) or look for CA covered.
We cut out most frivolous things like the housecleaner, my make up purchases, DH's gold prospecting stuff, our CSA box. We would probably do more gardening so we could save $$ at the store. I would go to cheaper grocery stores such as Grocery Outlet/ Bargain Market or the 99 cent only store (they actually have a decent selection of local fruits and veggies)
If we were desperate, we would sell DH's Honda (all of our cars are paid off) for the extra cash.
What's that saying, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans? It's great that you guys aren't afraid to make a change. I don't think I realized you were working quite so hard (i.e., getting up in the middle of the night). How long have you been doing this again?
I'm sure you guys will find the right balance and wish you lots of luck! Keep us posted.
Thank you!!
4 years for me since we started the firm. H started trading our own accounts during our last year in college and was doing equities before that. So 7 years of commodities but 11 years of trading total for him.
We're scared haha, but we survived on $8/hr just 7 years ago and I've never stopped being stingy so it shouldn't be hard. I'm just sad that I have to share my fun car with H now. Every time he drives it, I swear the car gives him an attitude lol.
Well right now, we'd be fine if either one of us lost our jobs. I make a higher base throughout the year, but DH (should, FX) make a higher overall salary with his bonus, as his comp is largely bonus. It would be hard if I lost my job b/c we'd be down to the lower base, but we'd be OK, as we have savings and could probably go a couple of years, though we'd have to cut things.
Post-house closing in 1 week? Um....probably bad if I lost my job. With DH's base, we could cover the mortgage month to month, and probably food/basic utilities, but we'd have to cut 401(k) contributions and anything extraneous and run a deficit/hit savings until DH got his bonus, so not exactly MM. If DH lost his job, we'd be OK on my salary indefinitely, though we'd have to cut a lot as well.
Post by flygirl22 on Sept 23, 2014 10:48:00 GMT -5
If I lost my job we would be in more trouble than if DH did. I make only slightly more but carry the insurance so that would be the big hit. Either way, I think we would be fine for several years without my income. We would have to cut back on nearly all extras, but we could do it. I think I would be able to find something to cover the deficit pretty quickly (even with a 75% pay cut) though. DH is easily employed, so him losing his job would be very short lived.
oh man, when I was good at this, it was a HUGE MM win.
And then we had a kid, I got de facto promoted, our office had huge attrition, and ... yeah. But hey, new job, chance to get back into it?
So you took the new job? Congrats!
Yeah. The new job is not a promotion ... it's just that since my boss quit in May I've been a lead in role but not in title. I'll go back to being an IC in my new job, but they seem excited to have a developer who actually wanted to manage people.
I actually checked this for the first time in a while. I always assumed we couldn't live off of DH's salary. It would be crazy crazy tight and we would have to pull DS from preschool and eat carefully but we could cover our bills and possibly not have to get rid of our cell phones.
I'm single and don't have much to cut. If I cut what I could, I'd have 6-8 weeks. My real plan is that if something happens I will move in with my sister. She and her husband know this and are cool with it. My parents would help if needed.
Post by everafter07 on Sept 23, 2014 11:54:37 GMT -5
If H lost his job, we'd quit eating out totally and cut out any other unnecessary expenses (good coffee, convenience foods (TJs freezer stuff mostly, clothes). That's about all we could cut, honestly. We're locked into our bundled cable contract for another 6 months, just got a reduction in our car insurance, have a reasonable data plan, try to cook a lot of food one-two days a week so as not to use the oven a ton, buy in bulk...)
I would also pick up more hours at my part time job or doing freelance.
We have 12 months of basics (mortgage/car payment/internet/food/insurance/gas/utilities) in the efund.
Post by jeaniebueller on Sept 23, 2014 12:05:20 GMT -5
We make very close to the same salary, but I make a bit more and carry our benefits. If I lost my job, we would mostly have to make lifestyle accomodations, e.g., cut cable, cut almost all fun money/discretionary spending, stick to a strict budget/couponing for groceries/baby stuff. Our mortgage and regular expenses would be manageable but we really would have no room for any extra spending and every purchase or tank of gas would be a big deal.
Post by bettyfinn on Sept 23, 2014 12:26:35 GMT -5
This has been very interesting to think about. My H makes more, and I carry all of our benefits and deductions like health and dependent care FSAs so my take home pay is a lot less than his. I can easily figure out the sorts of things that would need to be cut but the problem is that I may not be able to cut them out. Ex: preschool and nanny - we send our kids to preschool and then have a nanny for the rest of the day. I already paid preschool for the year and I'm not sure I could get a refund if I pulled them out. I could let the nanny go but if H got a new job I would need her again. So I think we would stick to smaller line items that we can control - cut out eating out, shopping, kids' activities that haven't been paid for upfront for the year, house cleaner, lawn care, pool guy, etc. We farm out a lot of things that H could do himself if he wasn't working.
As far as savings, we'd be fine for at least 6 months, more if we are just talking bare basic bills we can't avoid.