Without my paycheck? We could go from now on. Just not be able to do many of the things we are used to but we could pay bills, keep a roof over our heads, stay clothed and eat. And the occasional extra.
If we're talking about just ME losing my paycheck, we wouldn't really even notice, haha...If we lost DH's income for a significant amount of time, I guess I'd have to go out and get a real job.
We are on baby step #2 so not very long at all. A week or two at most.
We would be fine at this point in our lives-but go back 30 years and it would be a different story. And we weren’t living above our means-just paying a mortgage, car payment-dealing with unexpected house repairs.
My heart goes out every one dealing with this-I can only imagine the stress they are dealing with right now.
Exactly. When my husband and I bought our first home (35+ years ago), we were right on the edge. With our dual income, we could make our expenses just fine, but it was tight. We ate a lot of bean burritos (as in every day ....and it was made from scratch because a pot of beans was cheap and it was what we could afford). If something had happened then (say a car accident that put either of us out of work for any length of time), it would have been all over for us and we'd have been in some deep doo doo very quickly. We bought because it was cheaper than renting. So, renting or owning, we would have gone under quickly.
Today, my life is wildly different financially. I feel very badly for anyone who faces the loss of a paycheck through no fault of their own.
Some would say you should have never put yourself in that position all those years ago. Or that maybe you bought your first home above your means.
Those two statements may be true but, right or wrong, thousands of people in this country put themselves in that position when they are starting out. I know I did. There wasn't a cheaper house that I could have bought than the one I did (had a mortgage of $757) and it was tough. I think there are just times in your life when you are starting out that you take a financial risk knowing it won't be forever, but man, if something goes wrong during that time it's all over very quickly.
Some would say you should have never put yourself in that position all those years ago. Or that maybe you bought your first home above your means.
Those two statements may be true but, right or wrong, thousands of people in this country put themselves in that position when they are starting out. I know I did. There wasn't a cheaper house that I could have bought than the one I did (had a mortgage of $757) and it was tough. I think there are just times in your life when you are starting out that you take a financial risk knowing it won't be forever, but man, if something goes wrong during that time it's all over very quickly.