Natisse said:

aww hun, sorry to hear that

prb said:

you'll be ok hon, hang in there you know where I am if you need to talk xoxo

JerseyKRS said:

no you don't, i have dandruff.

anyway, i know i'd be freaking out about finances if that happened, but it wouldn't break my heart. i would not miss the work i do, i would not miss where i work and i would not miss the people i work with. it would be a crisis, but at the same time there would be an element of freedom to it. i wouldn't have a hard time finding that open window next to the shut door.

Natisse said:

u 2 sweetie

Graycap23 said:

3 to 6 should be fine.

And there's no reason why most people can't have that amount saved up, other than irresponsibility.

truefunksoldier said:

we kept the newspaper from the day my son was born, 10 yrs ago.

wages havent increased by much, but rentals have skyrocketed.

and this was b4 our country introduced a GST


id love to save, but cant

truefunksoldier said:

prb said:

that's actually very interesting and very maddening

CarrieMpls said:

Doesn't it, though?

I'm filing for unemployment tomorrow because I'm between jobs and because of school, I gotta pay fees soon

My husband has been a saver since the first day I met him. Even when he was single and had no responsibilities, living at home with his parents, he saved a percent of his pay check. He continues that to this day, it is his obsession to save atleast part of his paycheck "for a rainy day" It is always been me who wanted to spend spend spend, thank god he never let go of his obsession with saving. Because of that, we have always had a nest egg. Now, in these scary times I am thankful for him, not giving in to my ways.

PaisleyPark5083 said:

I've always saved as well. I'm doing reasonably well now, but I've certainly had times in my life (like everybody else) where things were very lean for me, and even then I always saved at least 10% of my net pay. I know there's a multitude of factors that play into what people can save, but I really do get confused I hear so many people say they can't save anything. I may get my head torn off for this, but to me it just comes down to discipline. I monitor my incoming & outgoing cash very closely & try to ensure I save at least 60% of my net pay every four weeks. If I don't make that figure (not including unexpected emergency expenditures), then I cut back next month. It may be a dreary way to live, but it pays dividends.
[Edited 1/28/09 2:21am]

After surviving a RIF this past summer, if there's anything good to come from our economy hitting the shits, those petty things that wore me out day to day at work now mean nothing to me, I'm just thankful to be where I'm at. My employer is refraining from bonuses this year, and likely raises, but I'm not really sulking about it because they're securing our jobs in the long run.

What i do now is not what i trained to do, if i lost the company (God forbid because we have built for a rainy day within the business) i would still have 2 trades i could fall back on, either electrical design engineering (MIEE) or i could go really old skool and pick up my tool box and go contracting. I have before and i can again.
Since i started work i have not had 1 single day unemployed, dont get me wrong i have lost jobs but i ALWAYS was working the next day. I take my responsibility to provide VERY seriously.

damosuzuki said:

I think there are a lot of reasons. Some of us were never taught to save. It can be as simple as that. My parents to this day have money problems on occasion and my mother borrows money from me from time to time. I don't know what will happen when they hit retirement and are on a fixed income, but there you have it. I just got a savings account for the first time about a year and a half ago.

And 60% of your pay goes into savings??? You must make a lot of money, have a low standard of living where you are, or both. I simply could not get by on 40% of my income. 30% goes to rent alone and that's not uncommon (though last year at this time it was closer to 35-38%, I got a promotion this year). I've been putting 5% of pre-tax pay into 401k since I was 21 (which my company matches, so that's nice, but I lost a third of what I had in there this year ). Over the last year and up until the promotion, I was putting away an additional 5% each month in that savings account, I'm now putting 10% away, but as I stated above, something always comes up.

JustErin said:

??

PaisleyPark5083 said:

Your husband is a very wise man to save a percent of his paycheck like that, because some people don't. When they lose their jobs, or an emergency situation comes up and they need money, they don't have funds to pay for it. So they wind up charging it, and have to pay not only what they charged, but also interest as well. Been there, done that, it's not a good situation to be in. Luckily, I don't charge much anymore, only what I know I can afford to pay. When the bill comes, I pay it off in full. Learned my lesson the hard way.

Anxiety said:

Didn't mean to laugh, but that made me chuckle.

Slave2daGroove said:

Sorry to hear, Chris. If you need any networking help, please let me know.

My plan was to go on unemployment, look for another job and draw on my 401K if I had to. A couple of months ago, back when all those banks started going under, my job said they have put a freeze on all 401Ks until 2011. Now I have to come up with another plan.

JuliePurplehead said:

A freeze on contributions but if u are let go, u can get that money.

truefunksoldier said:

I'm laughing at what you said.

damosuzuki said:

Congrats on being a saver also! I wish I could take the credit for our nest egg, but it is because of my husband.

CarrieMpls said:

It is as simple as that, some people have not been taught to save. My husband came from a very very poor childhood. He was dirt poor as a very young child in Mexico, with a family of 8! As he grew up, he had a plan, he worked 2 jobs, and started saving. All of his siblings are like this also, they never charge a thing, pay cash for everything. And live below their means. Thank god my son was born with the same saving gene, he is 25, and has himself a nice little nest egg.

I don't know if it's been said but I've been temping for over 2 years now and even though I don't have vacation time with this or benefits, I need to pay the bills and I recommend temping as something you can do till you find a permanent job. For all you know, that temp job may become permanent.

I also found that its best to ask for "Temp-to-Perm" jobs better in case I liked the job and they liked me. It would be a win-win situation.

psychodelicide said:

We never charge anything, his number one rule. If we can't pay cash, we can't afford it.

CarrieMpls said:

This really made me look at where my money is going. 50% of my income goes to what I consider absolute necessities - rent, phone, internet, electric, netflix (as I don't have cable), and groceries. About 10% goes towards paying off a loan I have (maybe a bit more, I pay more than the minimum) and 10% goes in to savings. That leaves me around 30% of my income on everything else including clothing, shoes, housewares, travel, eating out, CDs, going to the movies, etc.

I can't even afford a car. Or, I could, but goodbye everything else.

I'm not a material person and do NOT have a lot in the way of posessions, and I'm quite frugal with what I DO have. I just bought an iPod for the first time this week. I play music at home on my cheapie dvd player through my tv speakers and through my laptop. I only eat out maybe twice a week if that and again, I'm fairly frugal.

And yet with the amount of money I make, I'd be considered pretty well off for a woman my age who's not a college graduate.

This is not to say I couldn't get by with less, only to illustrate, many of us simply don't have the income to put it away and live any kind of comfortable life.

prb said:

rentals & home prices. That's part of why the real estate market tanked, because if wages don't increase at the same rate, who will be able to afford houses?

You can give credit, but it has to be payed at some point. If people don't make as much money as they are spending it just can't work.

But I do agree that most of us could be more responsible, and save something.

JustErin said:

Why's that?

truefunksoldier said:

Because I think what you said was stupid.