Cash on hand, liquidating retirement, and selling the house? But no jobs? 3 years (we have no equity, but rent could be considerably cheaper than our mortgage).
Sorry, but this is a dumb question given the recent stipulations. Why would you ever go homeless if you had assets such as retirement accounts just sitting there? I don't get the point.
It was question coming from many American perspective. It is true that we have many assets/families etc, in our power to use. Stripping that away (which makes homelessness a real possibility), how long?
I don't think its dumb. So there.
I read the OP's question as:
How long before you are homeless with your current savings? (as it stands today, you can't sell anything for more income)
I don't think it's a dumb question at all. Many Americans don't have retirement funds or equity in their homes/cars. So if you don't count those assets you would get a better comparison to the paycheck to paycheck people.
Taking into account investments and retirement, maybe 2-3 years? We also own a rental, so if we had no income coming in related to that we would be forced to sell at a loss. Not taking into account the above, maybe a few months?
How long before you are homeless with your current savings? (as it stands today, you can't sell anything for more income)
I don't think it's a dumb question at all. Many Americans don't have retirement funds or equity in their homes/cars. So if you don't count those assets you would get a better comparison to the paycheck to paycheck people.
How you read it, it is not a dumb question at all.
But OP then clarified that "I was thinking no retirement, no assets. (its sad but many americans have neither)." So like many others (including me), how you initially interpreted it was not as it was intended, and in light of the clarification, it is a silly and/or pointless question.
Hmm. Not long, I guess. I assume we'd sell a lot of our stuff, including our cars, before we'd reach that point - but our cars aren't really worth much beyond what we owe on them, and neither is the house. I don't think I can pull from my retirement since it is all a 403b and I still work at that employer (well, I guess if I have no income I'm not working, so I could cash that out then...but IDK how much I'd have left after penalties and losing the 20% that isn't currently vested).
We don't have enough savings to get us far. I guess we could rent a cheap place for a couple of months using our savings and what we were able to get from selling things. So maybe 6 months? Maybe longer if we were able to access my retirement?
Thankfully the likelihood of both of us losing our jobs, being unable to collect UE, and having no family to help us out is pretty much none. Our families are great and worst case scenario would loan us some money or let us move in with them. I can't see us ever ending up on the street thanks to the support system we have in our families and even in a few friends.
How long before you are homeless with your current savings? (as it stands today, you can't sell anything for more income)
I don't think it's a dumb question at all. Many Americans don't have retirement funds or equity in their homes/cars. So if you don't count those assets you would get a better comparison to the paycheck to paycheck people.
How you read it, it is not a dumb question at all.
But OP then clarified that "I was thinking no retirement, no assets. (its sad but many americans have neither)." So like many others (including me), how you initially interpreted it was not as it was intended, and in light of the clarification, it is a silly and/or pointless question.
It was question coming from many American perspective. It is true that we have many assets/families etc, in our power to use. Stripping that away (which makes homelessness a real possibility), how long?
I don't think its dumb. So there.
I read the OP's question as:
How long before you are homeless with your current savings? (as it stands today, you can't sell anything for more income)
I don't think it's a dumb question at all. Many Americans don't have retirement funds or equity in their homes/cars. So if you don't count those assets you would get a better comparison to the paycheck to paycheck people.
But what does "current savings" mean? We have non-retirement savings in money market accounts, mutual funds, bond funds, individual stocks, etc., all of which we could access without liquidating retirement funds or selling or home or cars. But those things are assets, and many Americans don't have them, so as I understand it I shouldn't count them. But if I don't count them, then the answer is "as long as it takes the bank to foreclose."
If the point is to somehow draw a comparison between people on this board and people living paycheck to paycheck, then it seems you have to consider assets. If you don't, our answers will be about the same as those living paycheck to paycheck, and we will have learned nothing interesting other than that it takes income, assets, or both to stay on your feet, which we already know.
If the question is really "how long could you live on your emergency cash reserves," then I am guessing most people's answers will be somewhere in the 3-12 month range, since most of us seem to try to keep our emergency funds somewhere in that range. To the extent that any of us could survive on cash reserves for much longer than a year, it just means we are likely under-invested.
Post by sillygoosegirl on Oct 31, 2012 14:25:43 GMT -5
Perhaps the question should have been: "How many breasts do you have? (Assuming you are an average American, and not taking into account your gender.)"
Perhaps the question should have been: "How many breasts do you have? (Assuming you are an average American, and not taking into account your gender.)"
Post by MadamePresident on Oct 31, 2012 16:38:21 GMT -5
We own our house, so we wouldn't have a mortgage or rent. With just savings we could live for several years assuming we would cut back on any unnecessary spending..
we have enough non-retirement savings/investments to make it 25 months on our current budget.
if SO lost his job though we would definitely get a cheaper apartment and cut out all extras, so I'm guessing we could stretch that closer to 3 years before we'd be begging his parents to let us move in. I'd also want to cash out retirement before I'd want to move in with his parents.