Desert Rat Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I can do anything if I have to. Do I want to live on half? No. Am I preparing for that possibility in the near future? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry 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: Not all of them.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama2cntrykids Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 What one COULD do if forced (live without electricity, live on rice & beans, etc.) is entirely different than what one is comfortable doing. :D I was talking about this with a friend recently. When push comes to shove, I think many, many ppl would be shocked at what they could live without:). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebug42 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 At this point, we are in the process of paying off considerable debt incurred when we were young and stupid or not so young and just stupid ;). If our income decreased by half at this point, we would likely lose everything. We might be able to file bankruptcy to gain some relief but that will not help at all with two mortgages and a very large amount of student loans so we would still have that debt. We will have all of the cc debt paid off in about 3.5 more years and then we would be in a much better position if this happened to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veronica in VA Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I have been thinking about this. Right now, no. But by the end of the year, we are on track to be out of debt except for our house and the dc's college money is taken care of (except for books). At that point, I think we could. But I don't want to. I want to work on paying off our mortgage and enjoying being debt free finally. Veronica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 We could, which is good because we had to. Dh lost his job 18 months ago, and the best one he could find was just about half of what he made previously. It wasn't ideal, as we had no health insurance - used Medicaid for dd2's pg - and weren't able to save anything. So it wasn't sustainable in the long term. But we had money in the bank to cover us till he found his new job, and could pay most of our bills with the $1600/mo he brought home (the student loans and life/disability insurance, which we downgraded, we had to take out of our savings). We gave up cable and eating out - our main luxuries - but otherwise maintained our standard of living wrt to food and energy usage, were able to keep our cell phones, dsl, and a bit of personal money a month, and I was able to stay home. Now that dh has a new job in his field that is out of state, at his old salary level, we are able to pay for our house here and a place to rent there (needed as we are seriously underwater with our mortgage and nothing but foreclosures are selling anyway), while resuming saving for emergencies and retirement. Other than adding homeschooling supplies to the budget, we actually have no intention of changing how we live as compared to now - we're happy with it. I must admit that we would have been a lot worse off if it wasn't for the generosity of our parents. They gave us their old cars, they give us clothes, they gave us the money to replace our septic system and to put up our fence. But they were able to do that because they were frugal when they started out. As well, they benefited from the generosity of their parents, who themselves were frugal. I want to be able to help out my kids when they are starting out, and that means being frugal now - we can't expect to maintain our parents' current standard of living, achieved over several decades, when we are just starting out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 (edited) Well, we pretty much have been doing that since Nov/08. My husband has been on worker's comp since that time. We will be in this situation for a bit longer...hubby is having knee replacement tomorrow. Even still, we lived on much, much less 15 years ago when we moved here (NC) and were building a house in the woods (out of pocket). We (5 of us) lived in a travel trailer, grew food...like rabbits, chickens, vegetables, and shared milking a cow, (5 a.m. shift) just for the milk. At a gallon or two a day we made: butter, cottage cheese, yogurt and lots of custard... AND fed the chickens with the whey! Thank God for cows! The first 2 years our income was $10K and $12K, respectively (hey, it's the mountains...). During that time, we invested $800 a month into building our home. We used the rest for: gas, clothes, store bought items,etc. Utilities were extremely low, water was free and our electric ran $30 a month most of the year. We did use propane then for heat (@ .70 gal) and our...get this...5-gallon hot water heater. Military showers were our only option...wet down*water OFF*soap up*rinse off. Looking back, it seems almost impossible that we could have done it...but we did. It took us three and half years to build. Geo PS: I still garden, but NO chickens, rabbits or cows. Also, I seem to have lost my love for camping...hmmm? Edited July 19, 2009 by Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iwka Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 simply NO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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