If you lost your job and only had $100,000 cash, how long could you maintain your current lifestyle?

Monthly expenses:

Rent: $700

Cable/utilities: ~$70

Food: ~$500? Not sure. I guess with no job I would cook more and save some money.

Car ins: $60

Phone: $50 Need to get pay as a I go

Gas: Probably wouldn't drive much w/o a job, say $40

Incidentals: $300??

Health insurance would be big. If I lost my job I would lose that. I will assume that I magically keep it. I guess I'll also assume that I put no money towards retirement in this scenario.

That's $1720 a month in total expenses, so $100k will last 58 months or close to six years.

Indefinitely because with 100k I would make a million in about 10 months.

>10 years. If I could change my lifestyle to make it last longer I could probably last ~20 years while still living pretty comfortably.

might be wejo wrote:

Monthly expenses:

Rent: $700

Cable/utilities: ~$70

Food: ~$500? Not sure. I guess with no job I would cook more and save some money.

Car ins: $60

Phone: $50 Need to get pay as a I go

Gas: Probably wouldn't drive much w/o a job, say $40

Incidentals: $300??

Health insurance would be big. If I lost my job I would lose that. I will assume that I magically keep it. I guess I'll also assume that I put no money towards retirement in this scenario.

That's $1720 a month in total expenses, so $100k will last 58 months or close to six years.

Don't forget about the $300 in clothes that you apparently need to buy every month in order to get laid, as was claimed in another thread.

umm like 5 years

Indefinetly. My sugar mommas job covers all our expenses.

dfgreagdf wrote:

Don't forget about the $300 in clothes that you apparently need to buy every month in order to get laid, as was claimed in another thread.

Huh? Are you confusing me with someone else? Not counting running clothes I probably spend between 0 and 100 dollars on clothing each year. I also have no idea what thread you are talking about.

Also, the point was to keep your current lifestyle. If I was trying to make the $100k last as long as possible I would cut my expenses a fair amount.

might be wejo wrote:

dfgreagdf wrote:

Don't forget about the $300 in clothes that you apparently need to buy every month in order to get laid, as was claimed in another thread.

Huh? Are you confusing me with someone else? Not counting running clothes I probably spend between 0 and 100 dollars on clothing each year. I also have no idea what thread you are talking about.

Also, the point was to keep your current lifestyle. If I was trying to make the $100k last as long as possible I would cut my expenses a fair amount.

I was referring to a previous thread. Someone was trying to claim that a person couldn't survive on ~$50,000 a year because of necessary expenses, such as $300 a month on clothing. This wasn't an outlandish amount to spend on clothing, he claimed, because this amount needed to be spent in order to "stay fashionable" and get laid.

Oh sorry, my bad.

I would look for a new job immediately. Assuming I'd have to pay taxes on the $100k, I'd have a little over a year to find some income. Although I'd probably be a little bit more careful with my money given the circumstances.

I'm spending ~2500/month between my wife and I, so that would last us around 40 months.

I have a beach umbrella, two pretty large coolers and a lawn chair that I don't use much because I work six days per week. I'd get a simple business vendor's license with a portion of the $100K, for a beachfront community, buy soda, and water in bulk and have it on ice, for sale, as I sat and enjoyed the beach and chatted up the people I would come to know. I live in an area where the beaches have snowbirds even in the winter, so it's pretty much a year round opportunity.

I'd make enough money to pay my utilities at home, which counting tv and internet are less than $500 per month. People fish at these beaches in the morning and typically have one more caught than they need and would trade for a drink or two. I have a small cooler, that I could put ice in, to keep the fish fresh till I got home.

At night, I'd run along the beach, go home, and relax, with most of the 100K, perpetually. From time to time, I'd do odd jobs with my car (delivering flowers the days around Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, etc., and packages around Christmas). The tips are good enough to cover insurance/registration/maintenance for the year with about ten well chosen days in the tip flow. If cash/food were a bit short, I'd deliver pizzas a busy evening in the week, and have some extra food for reheating during the week.

The 100K is enough to lead a life of relaxation, with occasional shifts of delivery work if the beverage sales are slow, or insufficient.

My current approximate monthly budget...

Rent + Utilities+internet ~$450 / month

Food ~$250 / month

Gas+Car Insurance+Repairs ~$150 / month

Phone ~$50 / month

Incidentals ~100 / month

Total ~$1000 / month

I'll assume a 1% interest rate on the $100,000.... 100 months; so ~8 years, 9 months.

Let's assume I just don't get health insurance if it isn't supplied by my job (Or the government supplies it), or this.... changes. A lot.

my lifestyle would not suffer - i could live on other income indefinitely without surprise expenses

my wife and kids, however, would be most unhappy within a year

I average $6,723 per month in spending, although that number is skewed since I bought a house a few months ago. If you factor that out, I spend closer to $5,000. So approximately 20 months.

Assuming we can't change any spending habbits and my wife also loses her job, we would run out after ~2.5 years.

If we made subtle changes like cheaper groceries, going out a little less, drop 1 smart phone, less on gas (because no normal commutes), and drop the cable subscription, we could probably stretch to 2.75-3 years without living significantly differently.

If we made significant changes like sell a car (only one is paid off), drop both smart phones, move to a smaller apartment/move back to our hometown (we're only living on the east coast b/c of my job), stop eating out at restaurants, etc. we could stretch to over 5.5 years.

I shudder to think how much those numbers will change when we have children. Losing your job while you have kids would be a nightmare.

2-3 years.

Mortgage: $1200

Gas: $100

Elec: $50

Internet/Cable: $50

Gym: $50

Auto Ins: $150

Gas: $200

Groceries: $400

Cell Phone: $100

Student Loan: $400

That's $3000, plus about $500 per month on discretionary expenses (dining out, travel, etc).

This assumes that the 100k is for my expenses, not my spouses also. Most of this stuff is split 50/50 by the two of us (the above being my half).

I would make it about a year and a half. Mortgage payments are a bitch.

d8d8 wrote:

Assume you keep your same house, family, cars, phones, etc. If you lost your job and were given $100k, how long could you maintain your current lifestyle? Assume you have no money in the bank and no investment money to tap in to.

About 1.5 years. If I also did prudent things like cutting back on unnecessary expenses, selling one of our cars, stopping investing for retirement, then I could stretch that past 2 years.