mom2tbcnm Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Yes, we are also doing it right now. (not doing it right now--for all you sickos out there :) Dh is currently out of work and has been for 5 months. We are living on savings and our monthly expenditures are half of what they were when he was working. It is amazing what you can do on just a little money. We now know that we can live on a lot less than we thought we could. You really get to underdstand need vs. want. Katty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrid Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 No, not ours. But I could live on half of Suze Orman's income. :D Ha Ha Ha Ha........yes, I totally agree, EL! astrid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I know I could live on 1/2 of Oprah's income.;) We could take 1/2 of her 1/2 and split it in 1/2 and be living WELL!:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leseve Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Dh was laid off last October and out of work for 7 months. Umemployment was less than 1/2 his normal pay and we managed to triple our savings during that time. He started a new job June 1st that is exactly 1/2 of what he was making before. It is tough but we will make it work...Just thankful to have a job and insurance again. We have already cut out a lot in the past 9 months and are working on cutting our food budget even more. We were so thankful that we had started Dave Ramsey's plan a couple years ago so were on the right path already when he was laid off. Currently both my SIL's have been laid off in the past month. It is tough out there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Dh was laid off last October and out of work for 7 months. Umemployment was less than 1/2 his normal pay and we managed to triple our savings during that time. He started a new job June 1st that is exactly 1/2 of what he was making before. It is tough but we will make it work...Just thankful to have a job and insurance again. We have already cut out a lot in the past 9 months and are working on cutting our food budget even more. We were so thankful that we had started Dave Ramsey's plan a couple years ago so were on the right path already when he was laid off. Currently both my SIL's have been laid off in the past month. It is tough out there! I think it really depends on what you (general you) make. A family with an income of $50,000 could survive their income being cut in half much easier than a family at $25,000 already. Not saying it wouldn't be *hard* on the family, just that it is more doable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 (edited) Reading this thread makes me sad. No, likely we could NOT live on 1/2 our income. What makes me sad is that 1/2 half our income over $50K a year. There was a time, when my ex and I were married, that we lived on under 40K a year and had money to spare. Now, there is just NO WAY. Our mortgage and cars alone cost $3372 a month. However, this scenario makes little sense as dh is the only one in our family who works...so if he were to be laid off, then we would be up a creek, honestly. :( If I had to go back to work and could make what I made before I quit, then we would be at just over half of what dh makes alone. At times, I have been totally tempted to get a job, put the kids in school for a few years, and pay off everything. But alas, my heart just isn't in that as much as it is in being here for the kids. :) Edited July 17, 2009 by Tree House Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara R Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Dh had a 10% pay cut, plus they have everyone paying their own benefits now. Because health care is so crazy expensive, and our income was about average, the pay cut worked out to 33%. (And we can't shop around for cheaper care because it's a group thing.) Plus we are saving more diligently in case more cuts or a lay off is in the future. So we're getting pretty close to the 50% mark. We already lived very frugally (stockpiled groceries at rock bottom sale prices, make own bread, drink powdered milk when it's economical etc.). The reason why this is working is because we refinanced the mortgage from a 15 year fixed to a 30 year fixed, to lower the payment in case something like this happened. His pay got cut within weeks after closing. Otherwise our housing would have been 50% of our income, and health care would have been a big chunk of what was left. I don't see how we could have done it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Well, probably not with our current house, but if we downsize and have a very low mortgage, sure, we could. We would have to cut things, but we could do it......just not with this house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 No way! We just had to take a 30% pay cut and we have to spend close to 20% of our income on medical/health insurance - that's 50% right there! However, God is still good. We were about halfway through our Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover when this happened and now have $17,000 less in debt than we did last year! I can't imagine dealing with huge pay cuts and all that debt at the same time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaTanya Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 we WILL be living on half this year. However, that's what we lived on prior to this year. We doubled our income last year and paid down debt. Plus added the expenses of my working -- childcare, transportation, convenience items. We're heading back for our "normal" - with less debt! Now, if dh's salary was cut in half -- No. We couldn't do it. We have a mortgage and student loans and car payment and medical bills. We're still on the debt paydown plan, but we're not there yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Wisc Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 The bottom line after removing farm expenses was $0.00 for our yearly income. Half of that would not be any less, right? :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 The bottom line after removing farm expenses was $0.00 for our yearly income. Half of that would not be any less, right? :blink: Oh no! What did you live on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 We've almost always lived on half our income. We lived in a very volatile, energy based economy with interest rates that could spike from 20% to 100% overnight and a currency that's been repeatedly devalued. That will encourage extreme caution about any debt. We had to pay cash for our first apartment and all of our cars. Now that we live in the US, we do have a mortgage because the interest deduction is just too attractive to pass up. We still live on about 60% of our income because of the volatility of our investments and the uncertainty of depending on a single income. OTOH, therapy for our sons takes up a large chunk of what we do spend and if we had to, we could switch to ps services. I wouldn't be thrilled, but we could do it in an emergency. To state the super obvious, it's a lot easier to live on half of your income if your income is higher. If you're already close to the poverty line, it's a whole different story and I'd just ignore Suze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Wisc Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 (edited) Oh no! What did you live on? Well, the tax form allows for the depreciation of the farm buildings, so we actually did have a little income since we did not pay for that this year. My dh has a job now, so we get a pay check--but when you consider that we had $60,000 debt left over on our crop loan after the crops were sold, the bottom line very quickly turns into negative numbers. I suppose you could say we lived on our crop loan...which means we are further in debt this year than last year because we chose to feed the world. We rented the land out this year. We can't afford to keep planting soybeans and corn. Farming is for the rich. In our part of the country, the family farm has gone the way of the dinosaur. :crying: Jean Edited July 17, 2009 by Jean in Wisc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 We could, I guess. But I would have to quit sports and violin lessons for the boys. They would not have most of the homeschooling books we have - it would be borrow or do without. I wouldn't be able to do any 'extras' with them in terms of extra-curricular activities or vacations. We don't do fancy vacations, but I wouldn't even be able to use the gas to go on a field trip. I would not be able to let them do any traveling for their sports, which I really enjoy as special family time (and for us, this summer, is in lieu of any other vacation). They would not get to play in an orchestra or have a pool to swim at or enjoy an "enriched" homeschool curricula-wise. My kids get one childhood. I would not go in debt to provide the things I've listed above (except that our mortgate is a debt so in a way maybe I have). If my DH lost his job, I would cut them with sadness but resolution. They would be fine and grow up fine and it would be okay. But I am not willing to cut all those things if I don't have to, because they bring us so much joy and I want my children to have those things. Life is short. I'm conflicted about all of this. I wish we were saving more. I really stress about it sometimes. I'm not sure we are doing the right thing, but I am happy with the way our family feels in terms of activities and fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 OK, I thought about it some more. It depends what you mean by "live". Could we pay all our necessary bills? no Could we keep our house? yes If my dh lost his job, he would likely get about half what he is earning now. With that we could pay our mortgage and power. We would eat using food stamps. So we would have a roof over our heads and food. Continuing the private health insurance dh and I have would take up most of the rest of the money. The phone bill and some gas would be the rest. Dh wouldn't be driving to work every day so we would need less gas and we wouldn't go anywhere. Our dds would have to quit ballet unless a grandparent paid the whole cost of $100 a month. I would probably begin substituting again (I did it a bit back in 2007 when dh lost his job.) Whatever I made with that would go to pay our debts. Our creditors would not be happy, but you can't get blood from a stone. So, actually, I guess we could live on half, if you call that living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxMama Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 But I am not willing to cut all those things if I don't have to, because they bring us so much joy and I want my children to have those things. . I didn't watch the oprah episode but I think the point is being in a position that you can cover all the essentials on 1/2 your income. When I say we could live on 1/2 I mean that we will still be in our home, have cars necessary for work, still have healthcare, food on the table, etc. The extras/savings would just come to a end during that time. We budget so that no more than 1/2 of our income goes to the absolute essentials in life-housing,cars, food, insurance, utilities, etc. 20% for savings-retirement/etc. and that leaves us 30+% for fun/extras-cable,vacations, outside classes, eating out, movies, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 My husband is our only wage earner at $ 34,000 a year (before taxes) and we have 5 children still at home. I just read your full post and.....wow! I'm left feeling in awe of and inspired by you. I am a single mother with two children and I'm fortunate enough to make a very nice living, with an income considerably greater than your family's. When I read the title of this thread, my initial response was "No way!" Can I just tell you that 1/2 my income is still more than your family's annual? Even so, I do not have the 6 month cushion in the bank (not even close), still have a car payment, mortgage payment, a small amount of credit card debt, and am left with too much month at the end of the money far too often. Your post makes me realize that I definitely need to seriously reconsider my life. I don't live extravagantly, but honestly I don't want for anything, either. It boggles my mind that I make the income that I do and still cannot seem to get it together financially. :confused: I am an educated, professional, relatively sane person, and I'm a bit ashamed and embarassed by it. While I can't grow my own food and I'm not really willing to give up my A/C in the deep South, I could certainly eat out less, shop more carefully and frugally and actually stick to the Dave Ramsey program. If anyone has any other tips, other than growing my own veggies or hanging out my laundry (which, even if I wanted to my HOA forbids it), please share! Thanks, Momma2Many, for sharing your story. It really hit home with me today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Farming is for the rich. In our part of the country, the family farm has gone the way of the dinosaur. :crying: Jean Are you talking about farming as a living? My dh and I live on 56 acres that are attached to his uncle's 44 acres. Uncle farms for a living. We don't. We are not "rich" in any sense of the word, but we do manage to raise chickens and sell the eggs, grow veggies and have enough left for friends/family, raise pigs, etc and we do make some money off the farm each year. I can't even imagine trying to live off of farming in this day and age (as in growing and selling produce). Uncle has a produce stand and this year has been TERRIBLE for his business. It is pick your own and right beside the farm - for years, it was extremely busy and popular. With the economy the way it is now, people just aren't buying or paying the prices. I am not sure if they grow their own or just choose not to eat fresh produce?? Anyway, I agree with you. If Uncle wasn't retired (read...he does the farming because he LOVES it), I am not sure he could make a living doing it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 We are now because dh just retired last year. But we were prepared for it because it was planned for. And I think that that is what Suzy Orman was wanting people to do. Prepare while they still have a bit of a cushion. Think about how they can cut back and have time to do some cuts and modifications. And by cutting back now, they can start building their savings. Dh always insisted that while we were DINKS (double income, no kids), we live on one salary only and buy a house that 50% of the local population could afford. As a result, I could easily afford to quit my job when ds arrived and pay private school tuition, therapy for him and now medical for me. We did have an advantage in that we were older when we got married and ds didn't come for many years after our marriage. But we could have lived high on the hog as many other DINKS did and not be comfortable now. The problem is that most people contemplating her advice don't have the time advantage we had because it was our early decisions that made it possible for us to be in the situation we are now. We did have rough patches along the way. But Dh's early decision to do what Suzy is advocating is what makes things comfortable now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 No. We are paying just over 55% of take home in rent. The good news is we have no debt. So the other 45% can go to everything else. This is the price we are paying for living in an extremely high cost of living area. I am hopeful that he will get a raise in January. That would help the percentages a bit and increase our home buying fund. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in PA Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I was watching Suze Orman on Oprah the other day. And they were discussing money and the current economic environment. One of her suggestions was to live on 1/2 your income (whether you are single or a couple). This way you will be prepared (and have savings in the bank) if you or your partner were to be laid off. I have 5 people on my street who are currently unemployed. It got me thinking maybe this is not such a bad idea. Then I started thinking I might be eligible for food stamps if I only lived on half of my income. :confused: Ha, well seeing as we'd probably qualify for food stamps right now on 100% of our income, I certainly don't think we could live on half of it!! :lol: I think this is a suggestion meant for people who have a certain amount of disposable income. If you have it to spare, it sounds like a good idea. But we could not possibly do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Yes we can and have. For the first 5 years of our marriage we lived on maybe 1/3 of what we make now. So yeah. It's certainly possible. I might note we were still happy people then, too. Also, I could surely live on half of Oprah's income... heck, a small country could live on half her flippin' income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kari C in SC Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Long term - no. Currently - yes. My dh was laid off in May. He is getting a whopping $1260 a month in unemployment. We do have some rental income that helps. In essence we are living on half of our income. We could continue to do this for quite some time, but don't really want to. Now, when we lived in Florida it would have been very difficult because we had more expenses. We knew a layoff was in the future and planned accordingly. When he gets back to making his whole income, we will begin paying off debt and increasing savings until the next drama comes along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon H in IL Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Fixed costs determine whether living on half is possible or not. Buy a house that takes 1/3 of your take-home pay and you're not going to save half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Yes we could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 We could live on half our income....but we are not about to. But then dh is self employed. If things got bad, we would readjust our lifestyle however we needed to, down to whatever level we needed to, including living from our camper trailer if it got that bad. We have lived with nothing more than could fit in a car. We are putting away savings. Meanwhile, nothing has changed for us or anyone we know, other than a small downturn in business for gardeners and masseurs. Things don't seem as bad here in Australia. I feel for you guys over there, sounds like they are getting tough for many. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 For the first 5 years of our marriage we lived on maybe 1/3 of what we make now. So yeah. It's certainly possible. I might note we were still happy people then, too. . Exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Well, the tax form allows for the depreciation of the farm buildings, so we actually did have a little income since we did not pay for that this year. My dh has a job now, so we get a pay check--but when you consider that we had $60,000 debt left over on our crop loan after the crops were sold, the bottom line very quickly turns into negative numbers. I suppose you could say we lived on our crop loan...which means we are further in debt this year than last year because we chose to feed the world. We rented the land out this year. We can't afford to keep planting soybeans and corn. Farming is for the rich. In our part of the country, the family farm has gone the way of the dinosaur. :crying: Jean :grouphug::grouphug: I am so sorry! It just doesn't seem right that families can't farm anymore. More than 50 farms were devastated where I lived in NC when Pilgrim's Pride went bankrupt. They closed the local plant and kept downsizing flocks until they quit setting new flocks all together. Those houses cost so much and you can't do much of anything else with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeAnn Balbirona Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Our house payment is about 40% of our monthly income. Ignoring student loans and other debt (which theoretically could be deferred for a short time), our utilities (and I mean the necessary ones, not the cell phone and tv) plus food and gas (except we wouldn't be able to keep the cars!)would exceed 50% of our current income. Scary thought. If we were to try and live on 50% of our income, we would have to live with my parents--essentially zero money for housing and probably sell one car. The kicker would be, I doubt we could sell our house in this market--at least at a price the bank would allow! So many financial things I wish I'd been more prudent about 15-20 years ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaik76 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Well...four years ago we could (and did...we lived on about 1/4 of what we make now). But...if our income dropped fifty percent (or we were forced to live on half of it) we would lose our house. Now, I do wish we had been wiser in what we chose to borrow, etc...and we are working on that. One day it might very well be possible to live on half of what we make. Right now every dollar goes towards bills and food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestof3 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Wow -- how inspiring. :) Great job! My first immediate thought is I don't see how I could, I really don't, we are just squeezing buy on what we do make. My husband is our only wage earner at $ 34,000 a year (before taxes) and we have 5 children still at home. We do not get food stamps, Wic or any government help of any kind even though we could qualify, but his fulltime job (groundskeeper/landscaping at a state college) does give us really excellent medical benefits and free four year college schooling for all of our children and ourselves. With my oldest daughter's medical diagnosis (ovarian cancer) these medical benefits have been a lifesaver for us, as well as paying for all her college classes as she works towards her degree. We live on an 11 acre farm, we grow a lot of our own foods in our gardens and orchard, we live very simply, rarely eating out (once every other month), we shop thrift stores and yard sales, live on a strict budget and spend only $ 500 monthly for all grocery items including paper products, diapers, health and beauty, cleaning supplies ectera. We buy almost everything secondhand and we use the Dave Ramsey envelope system to cover our bills (no credit cards or loans of any kind, we pay everything in cash). Despite only having a very modest income and a large family of 7, we managed to completely fill our 6 to 8 month emergency fund, 15% into retirment fund, get ourselves debt free except for a small mortgage yet on the farm, and have put away money to fully fill sinking funds for car/tractor maintence, another used (read beater) car should either of ours break down, homeschooling fund, fixing roof fund, and home/farm maintence funds. We also put away money for property/school taxes, and a year ahead of money to cover car/home insurance and heating oil for the following year. When I think about it more, If I really had too and I cut all exspenses to bare bones, stopped filling additonal sinking funds, and lived on rice and beans and what we grow in the garden and orchard, we could probably survive on 3/4 of our income ($20,000 after taxes). But that would be really living tightly and a big hardship, but not impossible. We already have our bills really cut down, no cable/satelite, no cell phones just basic land line, no air conditioning, and I am going to start hanging our wash out on line next week, winters we keep the heat low, 2 vehicles and tractor were purchased used and paid in full. Yes, I could probably do it, it wouldn't be fun, but we could do it in a short term situation if we had too. Yet, when I think about it further, I am always very surprised at what we can do when we are put in the situation, so I am sure we could do it with team effort on everyone's part. Now that I re-read the original question again, I guess we did/do indeed live on half our income to put away the money for our emergency fund and all our sinking funds, I just never thought about it as living on half of our income. I just thought of it before as living very simply and squirrling away money "just in case". So yes, now I can say that I can do it and survive, because we are living it daily. See how my answer changed three times during my explanation <smile> as I pondered this question and thought outloud, I went from no, to maybe, to yes we can/did. ............learn something new everyday indeed ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 (edited) No. We feel we are being very smart with our money and I wouldn't want to deprive myself of the few luxury items we have such as cable tv, cell phones, and the children's education (K12 costs us $112/month). Now honestly, I do hate paying that amount as I could homeschool for much less, but my DH believes it is the best choice at this time. I like this answer! We figured it up. Technically, we could pay our bills right now. But sometimes you do NEED to buy new clothes, etc. Kids grow and pants/boots get worn out. Our van is paid off, but it could die. The roof and furnace are going to need to be replaced. I also rely on a lot of natural alternatives for health care and would hate to put all of those chemicals in my body/my kids body and ultimately make our health worse by treating symptoms just because government insurance would cover it. Edited July 18, 2009 by Lovedtodeath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestof3 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Yes, we could live on half of our income. We have been drastically paying down our house ($10,000 more to go) and paid off our van this year. And, since we our out of debt in all other areas, we could go back to just paying our regular mortgage. My husband is really wanting to cut back a little, so we are frantically paying down. He has very little down-time with the family after tending to his customer's needs and then fixing and maintaining equipment. Plus, it has been impossible to find decent help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 No, not ours. But I could live on half of Suze Orman's income. :D One of the central points of the book is that the authors found that people with wealth were those living on far less than what they brought in as income while many (perhaps even most) of those who were labeled as high income were living well beyond the income they had. In other words, the tendency of those with a higher income was to outspend even this high income. In other words, they found that millionaires were most often those of moderate to high income who lived well under their income, while the majority of high income earners lived a life that they still couldn't afford. They label this the difference between wealth accumulators vs. income earners. I read this book back when it came out in the 90's. I found that I got a lot out of re-reading it, especially the later chapters about the influence of financial gifting on creating a sense of dependency in the children of high income earners and the wealthy. They also have some interesting thoughts on the impact that living in an upper class neighborhood has on spending and the impact of sending kids to private schools. I don't think that the Suze Orman comments are intended toward those just above the poverty line so much at families that have plenty coming in but have made spending choices that mean they are saving little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 (edited) If anyone has any other tips, other than growing my own veggies or hanging out my laundry (which, even if I wanted to my HOA forbids it), please share! You can hang your laundry up inside the house! In a humid climate, it will work better in the winter when the heat is taking away some of the humidity. You could also hang every other load and dry some things that don't hang well or get crunchy like towels. (Or, do two loads in a row, let half of the first sit in the dryer and then hang a bit from the second and dry the rest together.) When we lived in Albuquerque, our dryer broke and I hung up everything in our bathrooms on the shower hangers--they were dry in hours except for jeans which took overnight. The book series "The Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn are great, get them from your library. Grocery shopping is also usually the most variable part of your spending, google "frugal recipes," also these threads: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67510&highlight=frugal+tip http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66791&highlight=money+saving+tips For money saving threads, there have been several lately, you could start another, here's a few: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61719&highlight=money+saving+tips http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8726&highlight=money+saving+tips You could also get your 8th grader working with you--have her help research and do the math on savings and pay her a percentage of the money she saves. For example, if you figure out your energy costs per dryer load (this website says 30 to 45 cents per load), if your actual costs were 40 cents, you could pay her 10 cents per load if she gets 25% of savings or 20 cents per load if she gets 50% of the savings. Edited July 18, 2009 by ElizabethB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly IN Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Well it depends on if you include the house payment. If house payment is included we are living on 2/3 of our income. If house payment is not included then 1/2 right now. When we were very gung ho on Total Money Makeover we were living on 1/3. It was DEPRESSING!! I never want to go back to that again. I can do 1/2 without the house payment included in the equation. Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma2Many66 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 I just read your full post and.....wow! I'm left feeling in awe of and inspired by you. I am a single mother with two children and I'm fortunate enough to make a very nice living, with an income considerably greater than your family's. When I read the title of this thread, my initial response was "No way!" Can I just tell you that 1/2 my income is still more than your family's annual? Even so, I do not have the 6 month cushion in the bank (not even close), still have a car payment, mortgage payment, a small amount of credit card debt, and am left with too much month at the end of the money far too often. Your post makes me realize that I definitely need to seriously reconsider my life. I don't live extravagantly, but honestly I don't want for anything, either. It boggles my mind that I make the income that I do and still cannot seem to get it together financially. :confused: I am an educated, professional, relatively sane person, and I'm a bit ashamed and embarassed by it. While I can't grow my own food and I'm not really willing to give up my A/C in the deep South, I could certainly eat out less, shop more carefully and frugally and actually stick to the Dave Ramsey program. If anyone has any other tips, other than growing my own veggies or hanging out my laundry (which, even if I wanted to my HOA forbids it), please share! Thanks, Momma2Many, for sharing your story. It really hit home with me today. The best thing we did was to learn about Dave Ramsey, develope a budget and then learn to stick to it. I give him tons of the credit for helping us learn to live on one income and prepare for our future, put money away for retirement, save for a rainy day and develope sinking funds to use for daily living exspenses and repairs/problems as they arise. Our next goal, finish paying off the rest of our mortgage. Truely, If not for Dave's system, we would have lost so much last year when our oldest daughter was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, my husband had to take off alot of days of work to watch and tend to our small children, so I could stay with her in the hospital and again tend to her when she came home and was recovering from the surgeries. There was so many oncologist visits, so many medical treatments, so many visits for bloodwork and testing. We had tons of bills that hit us all at once during that time, a broken water pipe that came to almost $3,500 dollars in repairs and payments. Then storm damage to our main barn which had to be taken down cost another $5,000 dollars and long hours of work by my husband. The time off work without pay, the added medical incidentals my daughter needed that insurance didn't cover, the co-payments and health aids, not to mention all our regular monthy bills and property taxes were due. The stress alone trying to deal with both a child with cancer and also surmounting bills, would have pushed us over the edge. But through it all, despite everything going on and how scared we were for my daughters health, we had this deep peace inside us that we were going to be okay finanically, which was one less headache in our lives. We had money set aside to cover these "just in case" issues, we wouldn't loose our farm, we wouldn't have to send me back to work and loose out on homeschooling our children and put them back into the public school system, we would make it through okay. Then we were better able to fully focus on her recovery and taking care of our family at the same time. Health issues that crop up suddenly throw you into such a tailspin and such shock that it is so hard to focus, to get your bearings and to just make it through each day. The financial peace we had was so wonderful, it helped us to hold onto something tangent when everything else was just storming around us. True, we don't have all the latest gadgets, all the newest things or go on fabulous trips around the countryside, but we have something far more valuable, we have peace of mind. That peace of mind is worth so much more then "things" that get broken and forgotten when the next new thing comes along. We are also very happy and content with our lives, our kids have a huge farm as a playground, they have good organic foods to eat fresh from our gardens and orchards, they have me home with them everyday to help them, to school them and to watch them grow. We are very blessed by God and feel The Lord's presence in our lives daily, through all the good and troubled times. Living our life today frugally, helps us prepare for tommorrow. It is how my grandparents always lived, my old italian grandmother lived through the hard times of the Great Depression and always taught us to prepare, just in case hard times came again, because they will come, they always do in some way or in some how. My grandmother's motto was "Have a today without, so you can have a tommorrow with". Which is very similiar to Dave Ramsey quote "Live like no one else so tommorow, you can live like no one else". My best advice is to hang out on the livinglikenooneelse message board, those posters really know their stuff and are a wonderful support system and read Dave's book "Total Money MakeOver" and then make yourself stick to it. Get the peace of mind and security that Dave's system inspires, it is so helpful when hard times strike and as we all know, it is only a matter of time until some hard time in our lives will strike. Be prepared and pray daily, start right where you are today, make the commitment, I promise you, you will be in awe of yourself and all that you can do when you set your mind to it ! Good Luck to you ! You can do it, you really can !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 We're getting by on 1/4 of our previous year's income! I stopped working, and DH took a lower paying but less risky job. I am accepting living at this level now, although it will take me a few more months to get used to it. We used to have a very, very large annual income, but never bought flashy cars, clothes, furniture... Now I'm very glad we never lived a lavish lifestyle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Yes, we could, but I sure hope we don't have to. :( We bought our current home so that we could live on 50% if necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill- OK Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Yes, we could, but I sure hope we don't have to. :( We bought our current home so that we could live on 50% if necessary. We did do it, for a while, when dh was searching for a job, and like you, we bought our current house using that income as a guide. I wouldn't do it (live on half of what we make) as a matter of course, but I think it's smart to structure your housing, etc., so that if you *have* to, you can pay for necessities with a drastically smaller income. (Obviously, if you're barely getting by as it is, that's not an easy thing to think about.) Living well below your means, house-wise, would be the biggest step towards accomplishing that, I would think. Making a lifestyle of not carrying debt, etc. would be another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Yes. But instead we're doing our job stimulating the economy.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phathui5 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 No. With dh currently underemployed, we're barely living on our whole income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2abcd Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 No. We're living on less than $20,000 a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 One of the central points of the book is that the authors found that people with wealth were those living on far less than what they brought in as income while many (perhaps even most) of those who were labeled as high income were living well beyond the income they had. In other words, the tendency of those with a higher income was to outspend even this high income. In other words, they found that millionaires were most often those of moderate to high income who lived well under their income, while the majority of high income earners lived a life that they still couldn't afford. They label this the difference between wealth accumulators vs. income earners. ....... I don't think that the Suze Orman comments are intended toward those just above the poverty line so much at families that have plenty coming in but have made spending choices that mean they are saving little. Thank you for explaining! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 No. My last bi-weekly paycheck was less than $550. Other household incomes add $600/mo at most. Rent is $1040/mo, our last electric bill was pushing $300. People who say things like that on TV sometimes have no clue who is watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amber in SJ Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 We are finding this out right now! DH took a 60% paycut four months ago and the living is exciting. Before the paycut he made a comfortable living so I could stay home and we had a budget that allowed us to buy shoes and pay the electric bill in the same month! We paid off our student loans within 5 years of graduation and we don't have a car loan. Our home is our only debt, thank goodness, but my kids continue to eat and grow. We have really cut our spending but it is frustrating to watch the savings we worked so hard to build slowly bleed away. Amber in SJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moni Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Yes. I mean, I don't think we would actually "die" on half income status. :seeya: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 One of the central points of the book is that the authors found that people with wealth were those living on far less than what they brought in as income while many (perhaps even most) of those who were labeled as high income were living well beyond the income they had. In other words, the tendency of those with a higher income was to outspend even this high income. In other words, they found that millionaires were most often those of moderate to high income who lived well under their income, while the majority of high income earners lived a life that they still couldn't afford. They label this the difference between wealth accumulators vs. income earners. I read this book back when it came out in the 90's. I found that I got a lot out of re-reading it, especially the later chapters about the influence of financial gifting on creating a sense of dependency in the children of high income earners and the wealthy. They also have some interesting thoughts on the impact that living in an upper class neighborhood has on spending and the impact of sending kids to private schools. I don't think that the Suze Orman comments are intended toward those just above the poverty line so much at families that have plenty coming in but have made spending choices that mean they are saving little. I totally agree with this! We are not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we lived better on less than we do on more now! Yes, the kids have more opportunities for lessons and experiences that we could not afford before, but the stress level is so much higher and we end up spending more on things because price is not as big of a deal these days and we want 'it' whatever that is. It is pathetic and we are working on changing it. After I buy cirriculum of course. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly IN Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I saw that somebody mentioned the Millionaire Next door book. It is a MUST read!! My eyes have been opened big time on this. It is shocker. I thought Drs and lawyers really do have it made but according to the book they are up to their eyeballs in debt and live way above their means. :001_huh: We are adding this book to our children's reading list for Economics. It is a must read for all kids before they graduate from high school. Dave Ramsey as well.... Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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