Comments on: How Long Could You Last Without a Paycheck?

By: Slinky

Slinky — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 15:39:29 +0000

Assuming only one of us lost our job, indefinitely. 🙂 We can get by on either one of our incomes. We’d have to rein in some discretionary spending a little, but we’d be fine and even be able to keep putting 10% away for retirement. We’ve spent a long time working our way towards this with an ultimate goal of my husband switching careers and becoming self employed. We’re hoping to make that change in the next year!

By: Executive Mom

Executive Mom — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 15:17:06 +0000

2 months if we had absolutely zero income and didn’t change any of our expenses. This is just liquid savings that doesn’t require us to ransack our 401ks or equity in our house. We could obviously last longer if only one of us lost our jobs, since we are a 2-income family right now.

Regardless of all of those caveats, we are trying to rebuild the savings fund after we bought a house, had a baby (and took parental leaves), and then were hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

By: Liquid

Liquid — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 08:22:00 +0000

It’s important to save even in the good times so that we can be prepared for the unexpected 😐 Keeping an emergency fund around works for a lot of people, but it also depends on each household’s unique situation. Luckily I have a little bit of passive income via dividends and since I live alone my expenses aren’t that high. I could last for 2 years without any work income, then I’d have to sell stocks and other investments which would last me at least another 3 to 5 years, but I hope it never comes to that lol.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 01:25:09 +0000

5 mo based on savings alone (kids college fund would be gone, but b/c it doubles as our emergency fund its not in a 529). Could stretch to about a yr, maybe 1.5, if consider running up our (currently no balance) credit cards and utilizing our (no balance) HELOC.

By: ND Chic

ND Chic — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 01:05:12 +0000

We could make it about 6 months or so without my income. I think that government employees often feel more secure about their jobs which leads them to have less of an emergency fund.

By: Becky

Becky — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 20:36:21 +0000

We could survive for about 6 months without pay, based on our savings account. We’ve worked really hard to get it to that place, and it’s comforting to know it’s there.