POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

I should have made the question a poll because of how personal it is:

I know one person who can pay her mortage for 6 months with the money she has in savings. JUST her mortage. She and I have debated this- IMO, that is not a "6 month cushion" because there are other bills that need to be paid- realistically, I think she has a 2-3 month cushion.

Anyway, if something happened right now and you were without an income, how long could you continue to pay your bills?

Message edited 6/20/2007 9:46:41 AM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

I used to calculate my cushion based on the number of months i could cover my bare minimum expenses without drastically changing my lifestyle. Before I got married i think i had about 28 months saved up.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

Barely 3 months with rent. And we don't spend exorbitantly (sp) and don't live paycheck to paycheck. But we're both in grad school and have very small stipends, so we can barely save. I can't wait until we're done!

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

If we wanted to liquid assets we have with our financial advisor (not 401Ks) then we would have about 1.5 years of savings, if not I would say about 1/2 year in a regular savings account.

ETA - this is after buying the house, right now we also have our down payment/closing costs saved.

Message edited 6/20/2007 10:28:17 AM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

We are basically month-to-month thru the end of the year after buying our home. Once I get my bonus in January, we will have a cushion of about 6 -7 mos w/o changing our lifestyle (not including retirement accounts). I will feel much better about everything then...

Message edited 6/20/2007 1:45:39 PM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

with what we have in our savings, we could pay the rent and other bills for about 6 months.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

With just our Savings, not a anyother 401k's or Cd's i would say 2 years

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

we could pay our mtg for 6 months..
but god forbid both of us are out of a job for that long.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

we have NO cushion, if my husband misses 1 week of work we are in trouble, we have tons of bills, what goes out monthly is obscene If he misses 1 week, forget about it, we are behind a few thousand
ETA- he owns his own business so that is why if he doesn't work, we hav eno income while he is out.

Message edited 6/20/2007 10:51:46 AM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

If either of us are without an income, we would be ok for multiple years because of DH's union funds.

I wouldn't want to touch it because it's an additional retirement fund.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

it depends why we were out of work.

If it's just savings not including retirement accounts, about 6 months.

If we were unemployed and had unemployment insurance for 6 months, it would go further, same with a disability since we have group disability plans through work.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

right now, not much - this wedding is making me hemmroage $$$.

but when we get back from our honeymoon, we will have about 6 months of a cushion, not including 401k, retirement, and stock investments. and we will have no credit card debt after we get back either.

Message edited 6/20/2007 12:00:21 PM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

Right now, all bills and other living expenses (without altering our lifestyle) for about 12 months...

ETA: This is without touching our retirement accounts.

Message edited 6/20/2007 12:10:18 PM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

we'd be ok for about 2-3 years w/our savings ... but we have a baby on the way and that would wipe out our money to buy a bigger house and have more kids!!!

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

OMG, I totally forgot about our retirment finds, life insurance (which has a cash value), and our investments, in that case we could survive for about 1-2 years. Soon, I will step up and my income will be able carry us alone

Message edited 6/20/2007 12:13:09 PM.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

5-6 mos of savings for all bils. But that's if we both don't work. If I stay home we can cover the bills fine and vice versa, we just wouldn't sock away for travel, home improvement, fun stuff, etc.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

We have enough set aside to be OK for a year - but that's my SAHM with one day fund.

Re: POLL: to follow up my financial cushion question

At this point we are about to buy a house and have a downpayment saved. So I answered based on what we should have after we purchase a home...