If your income halted tomorrow, how long could you go before things started to become problematic?

If we stayed in our current house, took the kid out of daycare, and tightened up the budget significantly, we could live off savings for at least a year, maybe two (assuming spouse also loses job in this hypothetical). If this happened and new income prospects were not available or working out, what would happen in reality is we would sell our house (which would net another 100K+ into the coffers) then move in with my parents. Then I would probably start working retail/service industry or something...or gray market weed/shrooms dealing...or both!

I'd be good for 20-30 minutes at which point I would need to start looking for another job.

If we continued with our current expenses, we could last 20 months before savings ran out. If I actually lost employment with no foreseeable work in the future, we would definitely sell our vacation home/cottage which (when equity and lower expenses) would allow us to last 4 to 4.5 years.

Age: 33.

50 years, well past possible lifetimes. My wife and I are in our 70s and retired. If our social security stopped, my wife's pension stopped and our investments stopped producing income we could go 50 years without adjusting our life style. This is the result of hard work in two renumerative occupations and luck.

Single

Still rent

High rate of income

$340k to last

Went to vegas recently and put 3 dollars in a slot machine, came up to $5.50 very quickly then I cashed out. That's control.

One of these days I shall put down on a condo or house. But I am still living and learning...

How long would I survive if fired? I wouldnt die if fired.

Technically about five years if we continue living our current lifestyle with the same expenses, but we plan to upgrade our living situation in the next couple years and that will eat up a good chunk of those assets

64 yrs old. Move to a tax friendly state, liquidate some assets (2nd home) and shed those expenses. Live modestly, probably go until I die UNLESS government comes in and confiscates existing assets. Based on current administration and their ability to “f” things up, I’m guessing the invaders from the southern border and our willingness to “accommodate” them will screw us all.

Around 20ish years. Sounds long but 3 cars paid off and 1 is new. House is only 400k left to pay off and I have about double that in savings/retirement and a 500k inheritance from a 100 yr old aunt who likely won't live too much longer. About 300k from parents who I'd be surprised if they lived another 5 years with all their health problems and their property is worth another 400-500k to be split among 4 of us. MIL is around 90 and also not long from passing and she has about 200k to pass on to my wife who is her only child.

Don’t count on that income Coloradoclimber. Long term care, nursing home @$8k/ month will drain your expected inheritance. Hopefully not for you and your family but it gobbles wealth faster than any debt you’ve ever incurred.

I'm married, so I'll answer your question assuming both my husband and I lost our jobs simultaneously.

We have three kids, so we'd panic immediately. We could actually go easily a decade without income . . . but only if we made immediate changes. If I anticipated the loss of income was permanent, we'd need to act fast. Cutting private school and our nanny would be critical. (I'm assuming since we're not working, we don't need childcare. If we still needed childcare because we'd become disabled or something, that would be rough, and we'd have to find something cheaper.) If loss of income was permanent, we'd look into selling our house and moving from our current VHCOL area to somewhere less expensive.

Source?

I don't believe this. I believe this could be true of *many* Americans, but not most.

moneygeek.com

Average Personal Savings of Americans

@money_geek_com

The average American savings balance varies across demographics, including age, income, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, and household structure.

Link:www.moneygeek.com/financial-planning/a...

"The average savings account balance in the United States was $41,600 in 2019, while the median account balance across the country was only $5,300."

never. home and both vehicles paid for. married. my wife does not carry a balance on any of her cc's. i have only one cc and rarely carry over a balance. i would go on unemployment and milk it for all it's worth and just piss away that money.

I no longer need income other than from my investments. Those of you still working can get there too.

Well, I have a roth with $10k and just started a money market with $6k, putting in $1000/mo and earning 5% currently. I'm 22. I'd be okay for maybe 4ish months, I guess. Once I realized how set I could be in 10-15 years with those accounts, though, I think I'd rather lick toilets for a job than pull money out of either of them.

So, if I lost income right now, I'd immediately start flipping burgers. Realistically, there is almost no scenario where an American is FORCED to live on savings (excepting retirement/disability, etc.). There are so many job openings in America, you could get fired in the morning and start at Taco Bell that afternoon. Literally no excuses.

Depends on my state of degeneracy. I do have multiple sources of income that range from reliable to unreliable. It's not like losing an only job/income source like most of the system bound individuals would have to deal with as the matrix unfortunately designed for them. The matrix also designs it so most live check to check despite many of them working their tails off. I work my tail off too, but refuse to sucumb to an oppressive system. So I would conclude that if I wasn't allowed to make any money and was in a state of pure degeneracy, I would run through money at a rate of a million dollars per year. But then again, if I knew I was not making money, I may not be in a state of pure degeneracy unless I believed my life timeline to be excessively short. It's an ambiguous case.

At least 7 years or so, if some medical emergency doesn't happen.

Brokerage account is $200K. 401(K) and retirement accounts are over $600K. Over $500K in equity in my home.

The responses on this thread are not a realistic sample of U.S. adults. The majority of the posters basically are saying they will turn dividend reinvestment off, problem solved. Most U.S. citizens will miss mortgage or rent payments immediately.

Most Americans who are going to immediately miss payments probably aren’t proud enough to declare that on this thread.

the responses are skewed because people care too much about what society thinks of them. and in a capitalist, materialist society that values money above all else, people without it don't say anything. a sad reflection of humanity all around.