How long could you live on 30% of your income?

[houselikeashed]

Just that really. If your industry was shut down overnight with no warning. If your job was never going to end without a years notice period to save up in. How long would your immediate savings last you?
(You are not allowed to assume you would be eligible for any gov help schemes or UC.)

[houselikeashed]

sandysmam dh is (was) self employed and earned slightly over the £50k cut off limit.

[MsEllany]

30% of my income would cover mortgage, food and utilities - just. But I wouldn’t be able to pay any of my personal debt so would end up in trouble there. But at least we’d keep our home.

Only £1000 savings which wouldn’t go far.

[blue25]

2 or 3 years I reckon

[rvby]

I would survive indefinitely, I suppose provided the income I received was indexed to inflation. I'm a top 3%ile earner though.

The scenario you describe happened to me 8 years ago, when I wasn't a high earner yet to begin with, household income went from about 75k, to barely 18k including state assistance. We made it through (18 months or so) but it hurt, especially psychologically, poverty is so destructive to your mental health. I'm sorry you're going through this.

[LakieLady]

About 3-3.5 years, 4.5-5 or more if DP's BIL were to pay back a large-ish sum we lent him to complete a project. Plus another 3-6 months if we had a year to save up.

But we're very lucky, we've paid off our mortgage and are debt-free.

[ListeningQuietly]

we have coped on that since lockdown started
can probably last till the end of the year
but when Brexit bites I have no idea what we will do

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

I can't disengage from lockdown circumstances because we've currently taken in several infirm friends and family who are in no position to contribute to the actual costs of being with us.

The uncertainty about lockdowns etc. is making it difficult for them to make hard decisions like returning home. Eg, MiL's job has gone and it's difficult to think she'll find another suitable one at her age (80s, negligible pension because she and her husband were victims of pension fraud back before it was protected and her state pension is negligible because of the Married Women's stamp).

Family member with dementia was financially scammed so she no longer has the resources to live independently and purchase carer visits.

If we were reduced to 30% of our income with our continued increased outgoings then we would probably be living off the skin of a rice pudding and be lucky to make it to a year.

[yelyah22]

30% of my wages pays (my half of) the rent and bills. So I would last as long as you can survive without food. I have no savings.

We have been living off my salary minus my partner's since February and we have got until various payment holidays end and then we are going to be homeless. He is eligible for £8 a week UC.

[JamesArthursEyelashes]

30% would pay our mortgage and some other outgoings but not all. We’d be ok for about 3 years with 30% of wages plus savings if our outgoings stayed the same, there’s lots we could cut back on though.

[cyclingmad]

I could do it but it only covers mortgage and bills so anything like food etc is out os savings. I'd rent my spare room to help me out and try to avoid using my savings

[crazychemist]

At the moment, we’d be ok for a while because we’ve been saving in preparation for maternity leave and increased childcare costs (in other words, planning for a huge drop in income as I’m the main earner). With no end in sight.... that would be tough. I doubt many people have enough savings to last indefinitely. Frankly, even though we do have “rainy day” savings, we are hoping not to need them and to be able to eventually spend them on an extension.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

A couple of years maybe....

[MrsAvocet]

We could live indefinitely on 30% of our income because we have paid off our mortgage. It would be a very different lifestyle to what we have now, but we wouldn't starve.

[mrsbyers]

Forever

[Devlesko]

Since March, so far.
Money is tight but it usually is as we are low income. we aren't starving.

[ginsparkles]

If we still had DH's income we could survive without mine. We would have to make some radical changes but we'd survive.

[ginsparkles]

If we were on 30% of household income we wouldn't survive. We would have to find some for of work. We could sell assets to buy us time.

[Devlesko]

I never realised how rich people were on here
Savings to bail them out too.
Why is there such a fuss about redundancy, and/or losing money due to the virus, are people just greedy then?

[MadameMinimes]

We’d be ok. Our income is relatively high (we each earn north of £50k) and our outgoings are low. We don’t have children and have never been interested in a big house or expensive cars or big luxury purchases so we live well below our means. Our income could drop to 30% and cover our bills and mortgage. We have savings that we could dip into too. We might have to watch our spending in a way that we don’t at the minute but we’d still be able to afford some luxuries. I’d imagine that’s quite unusual though. People tend to have outgoings that correspond to their income. Higher earners tend to have higher fixed outgoings and low earners who are only just getting by at full salary would never be able to afford a 70% drop.

[JellyfishandShells]

Dh was in a secure job which in reality would have had a years notice period


A year’s notice ? ? Really ?

[henben]

I am trying to survive on 25% of my usual income. Not eligible for any support at all. For others in the same position check out ExcludedUK ... they are campaigning to try and get some assistance. But it is awful. I have had to get myself in debt, borrow from family. I am not even sure how I will cope when I can get back to work normally because I can not afford childcare.

[Cloudyroom]

3 years but all savings would be gone.

[SayakaMurata]

I'm down to less than 50% of pre Covid as I'm a supply teacher.

I've cut down my spending and can manage with my lovely DH stepping in and paying for pretty much everything.

If my DH loses his job (he's a government scientist so if there are big cuts to public spending then it's possible) then we can manage on savings if we cut back a lot. We don't have a mortgage so that helps a lot.

[CloudsCanLookLikeSheep]

Weird question, but if we could sell property and move into a hovel, a while

[GeorgianaD]

Very fortunate to say that we wouldn’t even notice that much of a drop. We are in the top 1% of earners.