Originally Posted By fxntime:


I had 2 choices maybe 10 years ago, bust my ass and make more, thereby wearing out my body completely by retirement time, OR, cutting back spending, closely budgeting, not going into hock for ANYTHING, and keeping my decent pay a bit higher but my stress level lower.

I chose the second and don't miss a single toy, payment, and I have more money put away then I likely would have had if I had killed myself working all the time. One of the guys who went the first way hard is having some serious health and stress issues now and he's well over 10 years younger then me. He'll be dead by my age unless he changes how he spends. [and giving expensive shit like a Beemer SUV to his useless daughter who is an adult]

People wold likely laugh at my living costs per month, if I spend a month on all monthly expenses minus stuff like car insurance and house insurance and auto tags, it's well less then $1000 and that includes property taxes because of how long I've lived here. And I live far better then one may think off that.

Originally Posted By olivers_AR:
No guarantee that big companies won’t have layoffs either, see UPS and any large tech firm.

Originally Posted By bowmanch:
SHTF come in different forms, don’t act like some of my co-workers

I work for a small startup company that is still dependent on outside investor funding.  One of our investors was scheduled to give us money in November, instead they choose to not to give us the money.  That lack of money caught up with everyone when the company tried to make payroll on January 15, we didn’t have the money to pay everyone and the board of directors was not able to secure a bank loan.  This lead to no one being paid.

We are told some individual investors will loan the company some money to make payroll, but it won’t hit the payroll system until the 23rd, so a nine-day delay getting paid.  There have been numerous conversations discussing the payroll delay and in some of these discussions co-workers are sharing how this is impacting them.  

I am blown away on how many people can earn over $100,000 (and a lot of these people have a working spouse so I would have no doubt their household income is north of $175,000) and are so short on money that having a unforeseen nine-day pay delay is causing people to miss loan payments, get charged late fees for missing bill due dates, have to debate if they are going to skip a mortgage payment, pull kids out of day care, overdraw their checking account to buy “necessities”.

Just doing some basic stuff like; have an small emergency fund  and / or two months of expenses in the checking account and / or keep a full pantry of food so you can skip a grocery store trip; all would go a long way to keep this pay delay a minor inconvenience instead of putting your family one step away from financial ruin.  I would hate to hear the stories if we had to buck up and completely forego that paycheck…


Small update Jan 23 2024...

The loan came through and everyone's payroll was funded.  It is interesting to look through LinkedIn and see how many co-workers are marking their profile as "Open to Work" and openly asking other community members about job openings in other companies.  Guess I am going to get to see first hand on how the 2020's trend of "quite quitting" will impact an organization.  Also curious if my company is going to ask these co-worker their motives / seriousness on leaving the organization.  As many people have pointed out in this thread, not real shocked people are looking for a more stable job, just a little surprised about doing it directly in front of their current employer.

Originally Posted By stanprophet09:


How many Lay offs have you gone through already?

Originally Posted By NAK:
Back to the OP's original point...The number of families making $100K - $175K, or more, that are literally paycheck-to-paycheck.  

I think that is the rule, not the exception with the majority of folks.  As a society we have been conditioned to spend beyond our means...after all, the government does it too.  Bigger house, newest smart phones, private schools, expensive cars, boats, RVs, big vacations, weekend cabins, study trips aboard for kids in school.

My wife's job involves working with and assisting employees with financial emergencies.  Some of what she tells me is crazy.  Two income households, with $40/hour jobs, that are seeking assistance because their Overtime got cut last week. Employees in danger of foreclosure on their home, with $400/month cell phone bills and $1,600/month in car payments, yet they are still working.  Employees that burn their Vacation and Sick Leave as soon as they earn it, then get in a jam when they are out sick for a week without pay.

Lots of bad decisions get made by folks making that kind of money and being paycheck-to-paycheck.


I've been through layoffs, companies that went broke, and God knows how many mergers.  Being prepared, spending below our means, no debt, and savings were key.  The wife and I have never been in the top 10% on income, yet our retirement savings puts us in the to 5%.  That has not been through luck...its because of good choices that included sacrifices.

Originally Posted By bowmanch:
SHTF come in different forms, don't act like some of my co-workers

I work for a small startup company that is still dependent on outside investor funding.  One of our investors was scheduled to give us money in November, instead they choose to not to give us the money.  That lack of money caught up with everyone when the company tried to make payroll on January 15, we didn't have the money to pay everyone and the board of directors was not able to secure a bank loan.  This lead to no one being paid.

We are told some individual investors will loan the company some money to make payroll, but it won't hit the payroll system until the 23rd, so a nine-day delay getting paid.  There have been numerous conversations discussing the payroll delay and in some of these discussions co-workers are sharing how this is impacting them.  

I am blown away on how many people can earn over $100,000 (and a lot of these people have a working spouse so I would have no doubt their household income is north of $175,000) and are so short on money that having a unforeseen nine-day pay delay is causing people to miss loan payments, get charged late fees for missing bill due dates, have to debate if they are going to skip a mortgage payment, pull kids out of day care, overdraw their checking account to buy "necessities".

Just doing some basic stuff like; have an small emergency fund  and / or two months of expenses in the checking account and / or keep a full pantry of food so you can skip a grocery store trip; all would go a long way to keep this pay delay a minor inconvenience instead of putting your family one step away from financial ruin.  I would hate to hear the stories if we had to buck up and completely forego that paycheck


Small update Jan 23 2024...

The loan came through and everyone's payroll was funded.  It is interesting to look through LinkedIn and see how many co-workers are marking their profile as "Open to Work" and openly asking other community members about job openings in other companies.  Guess I am going to get to see first hand on how the 2020's trend of "quite quitting" will impact an organization.  Also curious if my company is going to ask these co-worker their motives / seriousness on leaving the organization.  As many people have pointed out in this thread, not real shocked people are looking for a more stable job, just a little surprised about doing it directly in front of their current employer.

Originally Posted By Marie:
I did a thread in GD recently, asking people what they would cut from their budget if their finances went south. The responses were surprising.

Originally Posted By Marie:
I did a thread in GD recently, asking people what they would cut from their budget if their finances went south. The responses were surprising.

Originally Posted By Marie:


https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/What-would-you-cut-from-budget-if-things-went-south-/5-2704908/

One guy said something along the lines of he realized he had a problem when he spent more on expensive liquor than he did on groceries the same day.

I have one credit card left I’m paying off. Will be done by later this year. Work is weird so I’m paying the minimum and stash cash in savings. That way when work things are better I can just pay it off in one fell swoop. With it being just me, I am more comfortable than the $1K emergency fund Dave Ramsey recommends. I’m throwing $800 a month in 401K and it’s doing nicely.

I have a 2018 base model Escape that’s paid off. 118K miles on it (I drive a lot to dive). I really want a Subaru Crosstrek or Outback, but I’ll wait a couple of years as long as the Escape holds out and buy a Subaru that’s several years old.

Originally Posted By lumper:

Just wondering how the interest rate compares between they two?  It may be advantageous to hold off adding to the savings as long as you have that account funded, and pay on the card as you can rather than waiting to pay it off at the end.  The credit card interest will still be compounding while you save and wait to have the full payoff amount, correct?

Originally Posted By Marie:


I’m adding what I would otherwise be paying on cc to savings due to work weirdness. Would be bad to have no debt, but also no work and no savings. I’ll deal with the accumulated interest to have money in the bank.

Why I haven’t moved to another job is that every place I’ve talked to wants to pay me $15K-$25K LESS than I’m making now. That would put me $5K LESS than I was making when I was laid off in March 2020 due to the plague.

Originally Posted By Marie:
I rent, I don’t own. I doubt a bank would give me a LOC without owning.

Originally Posted By bowmanch:
SHTF come in different forms, don’t act like some of my co-workers

I work for a small startup company that is still dependent on outside investor funding.  One of our investors was scheduled to give us money in November, instead they choose to not to give us the money.  That lack of money caught up with everyone when the company tried to make payroll on January 15, we didn’t have the money to pay everyone and the board of directors was not able to secure a bank loan.  This lead to no one being paid.

We are told some individual investors will loan the company some money to make payroll, but it won’t hit the payroll system until the 23rd, so a nine-day delay getting paid.  There have been numerous conversations discussing the payroll delay and in some of these discussions co-workers are sharing how this is impacting them.  

I am blown away on how many people can earn over $100,000 (and a lot of these people have a working spouse so I would have no doubt their household income is north of $175,000) and are so short on money that having a unforeseen nine-day pay delay is causing people to miss loan payments, get charged late fees for missing bill due dates, have to debate if they are going to skip a mortgage payment, pull kids out of day care, overdraw their checking account to buy “necessities”.

Just doing some basic stuff like; have an small emergency fund  and / or two months of expenses in the checking account and / or keep a full pantry of food so you can skip a grocery store trip; all would go a long way to keep this pay delay a minor inconvenience instead of putting your family one step away from financial ruin.  I would hate to hear the stories if we had to buck up and completely forego that paycheck…


Small update Jan 23 2024...

The loan came through and everyone's payroll was funded.  It is interesting to look through LinkedIn and see how many co-workers are marking their profile as "Open to Work" and openly asking other community members about job openings in other companies.  Guess I am going to get to see first hand on how the 2020's trend of "quite quitting" will impact an organization.  Also curious if my company is going to ask these co-worker their motives / seriousness on leaving the organization.  As many people have pointed out in this thread, not real shocked people are looking for a more stable job, just a little surprised about doing it directly in front of their current employer.

Originally Posted By Mooseless:

Not necessarily true, I had a LOC well before I ever owned a house. If you have at least some of: a reasonable-paying job, cash savings, investments, a reasonably long relationship with your bank, and especially a pattern of paying down debt on a regular basis (ie. not missing payments) you’re a prime candidate for a LOC. Even if not, you’re still a prime candidate for a loan which will be MUCH lower interest than the CC. Remember, banks don’t really want you to have no debt. They want you to have debt you pay off. They’d much rather have your interest payments than let it go to the CC company instead.

I really recommend you at least talk to them. The worst they can say is no, in which case you’re no worse off than you were before. You can’t possibly lose, and quite likely stand to gain.

Originally Posted By Marie:
I just got a substantial raise at work that was totally unexpected so I won’t be needing a loan.