What's your current financial buffer?

[Wyndru]

Our savings would last us maybe 1 year, or longer since without a job we wouldn't need to pay for day care or gas.

Aside from that, selling our house and downgrading or renting would last us a few more years. We could sell one of our cars too if we were really in bad shape.

 

[Svnla]

ATOT is so ahead of the curve. While the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck ATOT has 5 years worth of cash stashed away and that's not even tapping into the 401k that's been maxed out since they started their 250k a year job they've had since the day they left college.

Sigh... I really hate to see what your lives are really like outside of making shit up on the internet. What a sad existence.

Some of us just have the disciplines and desire to spend less than we make. It also helps a lot of you live in a low cost of living area, single with no kids and no bad habits such as smoking and drinking excessively.

For example: my rent (all by myself, no room mate) is less than $800/month in a nice neighborhood, even if I want to buy a house, I can get a nice house for about $200K. I cook at home and my meal is about $2/each or about $5/day or about $150/month. My car is several years old, is paid for so no car payment (and cheap insurance too) and I am going to drive until the wheels fall off. I don't have any cable tv bills, only $20/month DSL broadband. I pay about $30/month for cell phone service. I live close to work (5 miles or so) so I only fill up the gas about once a month for about $45, and on and on. I can say I can live with a budget about $1100 to $1500/month easily (good luck with pay the rent for that amount at places such as LA, NYC and such).

It is not how much money you make but how much you are able to save.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Bout 5 years on my retirement.

 

[ponyo]

I've always had a large buffer because I've been self-employed most of my working life. There's no unemployment insurance if Im out of work. I've fairly large cash reserve along with lines of credit. Im also debt free including the house and business. I could retire right now if I was willing to move to some third world South Asia country.

 

[spidey07]

I've always had a large buffer because I've been self-employed most of my working life. There's no unemployment insurance if Im out of work. I've fairly large cash reserve along with lines of credit. Im also debt free including the house and business. I could retire right now if I was willing to move to some third world South Asia country.

I've actually had a few co-workers that just cashed out and moved to Ecuador or costa rica and open a bar near the beach. They're living like kings.

 

[Eos]

Some of us just have the disciplines and desire to spend less than we make. It also helps a lot of you live in a low cost of living area, single with no kids and no bad habits such as smoking and drinking excessively.

For example: my rent (all by myself, no room mate) is less than $800/month in a nice neighborhood, even if I want to buy a house, I can get a nice house for about $200K. I cook at home and my meal is about $2/each or about $5/day or about $150/month. My car is several years old, is paid for so no car payment (and cheap insurance too) and I am going to drive until the wheels fall off. I don't have any cable tv bills, only $20/month DSL broadband. I pay about $30/month for cell phone service. I live close to work (5 miles or so) so I only fill up the gas about once a month for about $45, and on and on. I can say I can live with a budget about $1100 to $1500/month easily (good luck with pay the rent for that amount at places such as LA, NYC and such).

It is not how much money you make but how much you are able to save.

What meals are you making for $2?
200 miles per month on your car to work, plus the grocery store? That's it?
I see no budget for basic utilities, entertainment, clothes, vacations, car maintenance, etc.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I could INCREASE my standard of living, have 5 kids, buy a new home, and take a cruise around the world on my yacht while doing hookers and blow every day for the rest of my life even if I were to lose my job now. DO I WIN?

j/k shit would be hitting the fan within a month or two, if that

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I'm just curious. We are still in this recession.

Financial buffer meaning that if suddenly you (or immediate family as a whole) have zero income coming in, how many months would your current reserve of money last you?

I could pay my mortgage, utilities, and feed my family for 10+ years if I lost my job today. Granted, I would have to sell most of my investments by the end of that time period, but I would hope that the job market recovered by then.

 

[D1gger]

For us, it would be about 2.5 years without dipping into retirement accounts or selling assets. If I decided to retire today, we could probably go about 30 years.

 

[Exterous]

On cash/regular savings - 8 months with 0 income between the two of us. If only one of us lost a job or we got unemployment we could last a lot longer.

 

[Svnla]

What meals are you making for $2?
200 miles per month on your car to work, plus the grocery store? That's it?
I see no budget for basic utilities, entertainment, clothes, vacations, car maintenance, etc.

I went grocery shopping last night. Pork chops for $1.59/lb, one pack with 8 pieces for about $8, 1 pc per meal plus rice or noodle and veggies ~ $2/meal. I can get cheaper meals with chicken legs or thighs for $.80/lb or chicken breasts for $1.25/lb. No need for ramen noodles and spam meat only.

Basic utilities are build in with the rent payment. Entertainment/clothes/vacations/car maint./etc. and other stuffs are in the upper range of what I said previously ...."about $1100 to $1500/month easily". It is doable, just have to plan and stick with it.

 

[pcgeek11]

I only need 4k/month or 48k a year. That would be 200k for 4 years.

I can guarantee you plenty of posters in this thread have that much and more and you will as well if you're young and you save. You can tell in the way they calculate how much they need to live regarding retirement, they've already run the numbers.

I guess that is the difference. I'm talking liquid savings, without touching 401K, Roth IRA etc.

I think most in here are talking about tapping out on their retirement accounts, stocks bonds etc, selling the house...

Pure savings I could go about 18 - 24 months if I didn't change a thing. If I cut back on unneeded expenses I could go 3 - 4 years. Tapping into retirement funds way longer.

 

[Evadman]

With absolutely no money coming in (no public assistance, no unemploymentm, etc) it would be 14 months.

 

[vi edit]

I just came off of a pretty extensive home construction that took a big dent in cash reserves. Right now it's about 3 months if both of us lost our jobs(not counting retirement). We would manage if I lost my job...probably have to sell off a car to get rid of a loan. But all bills would be paid.

If my wife lost her job we'd be a in a world of hurt. We'd have to sell the house, pocket the sizeable amount of equity and then either pay for another much more modest place in cash or bank it and rent until we could save up enough to buy another one. I couldn't sustain our quality of life on my income.

So goes the lifstyle of households with huge discrepency in incomes between spouses.

 

[spidey07]

I guess that is the difference. I'm talking liquid savings, without touching 401K, Roth IRA etc.

I think most in here are talking about tapping out on their retirement accounts, stocks bonds etc, selling the house...

Pure savings I could go about 18 - 24 months if I didn't change a thing. If I cut back on unneeded expenses I could go 3 - 4 years. Tapping into retirement funds way longer.

Sounds like you're in a good place then. But don't discount posters that have maxed out retirement and focused on building wealth outside of retirement.

 

[bart1975]

$0 I live check to check.