To ask how big your financial "safety net" is?

[PageStillNotFound404]

Having been made redundant twice and being in private rental, this is something that I worry about at 3am think about from time to time. We have roughly the equivalent of three months' salary in savings. If my job went tits up the small amount of redundancy I'd get means we could, with some strenuous belt-tightening, eke it out to four, possibly even five months. We are trying to save more but can only afford to put a tiny amount away each month - it will take about 18 months to save another month's salary.

It's certainly better than nothing - and I have been in the position where I had literally no savings or safety net at all - but it's not much either, in today's world of 200+ applications for a single job. AIBU to ask how you'd fare if the plug was pulled on your regular income?

[Daytona79]

We both work in oil industry which has been in crisis for 2 years so we have been preparing well

We have insurance that would pay our mortgage for 12 months plus we could survive for 3/4 years with no jobs which is a possibility in the current oil climate if we lose our jobs, we have been stashing cash for 2 years now.

To survive that long we would be paying bills and having no treats/holidays/meals out etc. Just bills and food but it's manageable. This would take in redundancy pay etc too as well as our savings.

[listsandbudgets]

We would last about a year but it would be pretty miserable... no treats. We'd cover the basics

[Grassgreendashhabi]

Zero.

[DamsonGinIsMyThing]

Zero.

[redhat]

We have an interest only mortgage which is helpful. It means that if disaster struck we could actually reduce our payment right down to the interest element (which would reduce the payment to a tenth of what we ordinarily pay).

We then have some money in ISAa which is intended for retirement but which we could use if we had to. We are high earners and so whilst it is only about 4 months' net income it is a fair amount in real terms. It should last well over a year.

The school fees are what would cause us a problem.

This is a real possibility for us if recession is imminent. DH's work disappears in recession. We are therefore already keeping a tight grip on the purse strings which feels really odd (and a bit tight) when disaster hasn't actually stuck yet.

[Palomb]

We could probably last a year or so but it wouldn't be pretty.

[HermioneJeanGranger]

What safety net?

[Flisspaps]

This is it

[londonrach]

None sadly as we just bought first house and escaped the rental trap. Im back to saving but it takes ages. Really hoping nothing happens..that reminds me must look into insurance...

[Madbengalmum]

We could last a year and a half as normal on savings and if we wanted to eek it out with not going out or hols etc it would be a couple of years i suppose.

[megletthesecond]

A month. Even that's been chipped into lately.

[redhat]

My aim is to pay off our mortgage asap so that we don't need to worry about that side of things. We should be there in five years' time (unless we go into recession)

[PurpleWithRed]

In the process of discovering the depth of our safety net as my freelance work has dried up. Scary, but it's OK so far.

[panegyricS1]

We've redundancy and critical illness cover for the mortgage and about £80k between us in savings/shares. We feel secure in that, it's a lot more than average I think.

We work in a very precarious industry so like the poster who works in the oil business, we've had to get prepared.

The downside of careful saving and my job being very part time is that we've poor pension provision - our joint projected pension income is about £22-23k gross at today's rates. We are over 40 already, so we might need to do something about that.

[moosechops]

Zero

[UntilTheCowsComeHome]

Zero

[BishopBrennansArse]

Non existent.
On disability and carer benefits you aren't able to have one.
We also still have a large overdraft from when DH was made redundant, we didn't get out before we had to become carers.

[Grassgreendashhabi]

Fliss - you reminded me, I got one of those so not zero maybe £5

[JanTheJam]

Right now maybe 18 months. This is entirely down to good luck though - we sold our house at auction and received miles above the asking. We've paid down the mortgage of our now house by not quite half and have the rest in savings.

In our case it's ENTIRELY luck.

[CmereTilliTellYa]

About a year. That's thanks to DH who has always been a saver. I'd like to spend the money on home improvements but I see the logic in saving more so we aren't left with nothing after we do them.

[KittiesInsane]

Honest answer is I don't know.

I have an ISA aimed to back up my titchy pension savings, but if everything went tits up, that would have to go. At least what goes in the pension stays in the pension, even if losing value.

[MyBreadIsEggy]

We don't have a safety net.
It's a constant cause of worry and stress for me!
We have £0 in savings, purely because we can't afford to put anything in savings most months....and then what little we did have saved got spent when our car broke down a few weeks ago.

[Gottagetmoving]

I think anyone is lucky to be able to have a safety net. I have managed to save £2,000 in case I lose my job, which is a real possibility at the moment. It won't last long.

[MardAsSnails]

Our biggest problem is our house is provided by my company, so lose my job and I get one month to move out.

The other downside is both working in the same industry so if there was a big downturn, it's more than likely we'd both lose our jobs.

We also live in a country where we'd need to leave if neither had a job and visa.

If we were to leave, we've got plenty for the export of our dogs, and to live in our holiday home which is owned outright for probably a couple of years without issue - without treats too, but we'd be fine if we cut back to basics

[yummycake123]

Zero. I worry about it every day, but I can't afford to save right now, I'm trying to pay off debt first. It's just my salary so if I lose my job were screwed....