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Bracing...

February 9th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

DH is starting to sound like I did the week before I quit my job (3 years ago, not a recent thing). I keep crunching the numbers to see how I can keep the damage to a minimum. Hopefully Tuesday brings good news on the job interview he had.

Its complicated because on one hand, if I know this is going to be a long term unemployment, I would stop all the retirement savings and drop to minimum payments on the debt. On the other hand, since I don't know, I am still keeping those up.

The debt repayment isn't really a big deal since I can always run the debt back up if I had to in a worse case scenario. Retirement savings are a bigger deal since they can't be accessed once paid out. This right here is why I eventually want to have an EF that covers a year of salary. Unfortunately, we haven't reached that point yet.

Without adjusting the budget, I can make it out til June 1st. But if I adjusted the budget immediately, we could make it another 3 months. Grrr, so hard to predict.

Course, the reality is that we could technically go indefinitely without his income, we just would have no retirement savings, no debt repayment (just minimums) and no fun. But I really shouldn't be complaining because at least we could survive. There is a lot of people who can't. Doesn't make this situation any less stressful though...

Posted in Budget Info | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Bracing...”

  1. whitestripe Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 12:39 am 1234226343
    1234226343

    maybe you could put the retirement savings into your EF until you KNOW its not a long term thing. then if you need the money you can access it, but if your DH gets a job you can whack it all in your retirement fund and you'll probably only be damaged by a bit of interest. i think having more money in the EF with the HOPE of putting it in retirement, sounds better than unaccessable money in retirement and racking up more debt!

  2. swanson719 Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 01:06 am 1234228005
    1234228005

    I would go with minimums on debt until you know he will have a job again. Keep the retirement account up, and put the rest into savings. If you know it will be a long unemployment, then stop the retirement if you have to. Worst comes to worse, he can start delivering pizza's and working at McDonalds. At least it's income.

  3. LuxLiving Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 01:26 am 1234229179
    1234229179

    I wouldn't count on MickeyD's. They are cutting employees hours like mad (at least in my area).

  4. whitestripe Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 04:00 am 1234238418
    1234238418

    apparently macdonalds is one of the companies that have posted a huge profit during these times, because people see it as 'cheap' food.

  5. Caoineag Says:
    February 10th, 2009 at 03:05 pm 1234278359
    1234278359

    Thanks guys, I am not counting on a minor job for money, simply because everyone is cutting back. As to paying just the minimum, I have never done that in my entire life. I am not sure I am capable of paying just the minimum but I could cut back to just my normal payment. As to the retirement, I feel a lot of excuses come up and its easier to keep socking it away so it doesn't get spent elsewhere. I think I will keep plugging along at my current pace and if he does end up without a job, I will cut back to what is needed to last indefinitely on one income.

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