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.)

[ListeningQuietly]

If you are not entitled to UC, either you have more than 16k savings or your income even at 30% of its normal amount is still a decent amount.
Indeed its the savings that scupper us

how stupid were we to actually save for our old age
even more stupid were we to set up businesses so that we have to cover all of our pension contributions ourselves
in fact so dumb to be entrepreneurs that we were barred from the furlough scheme

[Rundownoj]

It wouldn’t cover my council rent which is 500 a month.

So I’d be fucked which ever way you look at it.

[Jenasaurus]

I am saving 1000 a month and trying to live as if I am only getting a state pension, the money I save will be to help me when I retire in 12 years time, so hopefully have something to fall back on, unless I lose my job in the meantime.

[kirinm]

If DP lost his job we could live on my salary. If I lost my job, we would struggle to live off it for very long. If we had to cut down to 30% of our combined salary we would be able to afford to pay the mortgage and some bills but that would be it. We'd have to use savings for food etc which could probably keep us going for 6 months?

[Daisy12Maisie]

My Bill's are more than 30% of my income. I dont have any savings so 1 month ..

[delightfuldaisy19]

I could cover mortgage and bills - just but would very little/nothing left for food/petrol etc.

Life would be relentlessly grim.

[Skyliner001]

Approx five years.

[MarkRuffaloCrumble]

how stupid were we to actually save for our old age hmm
even more stupid were we to set up businesses so that we have to cover all of our pension contributions ourselves hmm
in fact so dumb to be entrepreneurs that we were barred from the furlough scheme

Many entrepreneurs did benefit from the help available during lockdown. If you didn’t qualify it’s because you were apparently already earning well, and by having savings and paying into pensions were obviously doing well enough to put some aside.

I do think there should have been more limits on the furlough offering to employees who were high earners but at the time, speed was of the essence and administering that would have cost more than it saved.

The fact that millions were saved from poverty and destitution should reason enough to celebrate, just because a small minority of reasonably well off people didn’t benefit shouldn’t be a reason for sour grapes.

[ListeningQuietly]

If you didn’t qualify it’s because you were apparently already earning well
No. Its because we are the directors of the company and to furlough ourselves would have meant closing it or lying
by having savings and paying into pensions were obviously doing well enough to put some aside
being in our mid 50's and not wanting to rely on just the state pension ....

[Notthetoothfairy]

Indefinitely (assuming no savings) but it would be tight!

[Thehop]

2 months. Which terrifies me

[OnTheFencePaint]

We remortgaged recently and borrowed more so we have a cash buffer that could see us through a year or two if we both got made redundant.

It’s a bit of security in one way, and didn’t cost too much in interest, but on the other hand it’s a worry to have the cash sitting there in case of deflation or if the base rate were to go negative.

[zaffa]

DHs income is now around 30% as he has taken redundancy and is retraining as a teacher (and working as an LSA in the meantime). I've been on mat leave so we saved up quite a bit but now I will return early. He's also had a fairly good settlement through the redundancy process.
With my income, his at roughly a third and the savings and no other changes to outgoings or incomings, we can survive three years with cut backs to our lifestyle but still allowing some living.
We may stretch to four years if we completely cut out any outings and only had free days out (which we are not planning to do)
He will take around six years to retrain so we must find some alternatives in the meantime!

[CountFosco]

A third of our household income is still slightly higher than the average household income (and we'd get child benefit!) so in theory it's enough to live on but with 3DC and a large house our outgoings are high as well so we'd use our savings to make things easier and that would last for a few years. We would also reduce the amount we save each month which would free up a big chunk (We currently save about 1/3 of our income). If it was a case of only one of us losing our job the other would go back to FT work which would take us up to ~ 60-70 % of our current income which is completely liveable on. We have an income in the top 5-10% though and live in a relatively cheap area.

OP, so if your DH earns just over £50k you are on just over £20K? Do you have DC? You will now be eligible for child benefit and possibly other benefits, have you checked? Can you increase your hours or opt out of your pension scheme temporarily? Not sure if you want help making your money stretch? In which case this thread isn't the best way of doing it.

The vast majority of people would be in a worse situation than you are but on MN there are many of us who have a high income and in particular families like mine where both parents earn above average and so the loss of one salary is not catastrophic. But we don't represent most people so does it help to know about us?

[Zenithbear]

Probably forever as we plan to retire in the next two years. But as we were planning to save for these two years it wouldn't be the lifestyle that we hoped for in retirement.

[Wineiscooling]

OP that sounds really tough. If our household income dropped to 30 % of what it is now we would last 1 month. Our bills/ mortgage is 40% that's not including food and we have little savings.
If it was one of our incomes and the other still earned the same we might just manage but would be really tight, we would have to rethink our whole lifestyle.
Times are so tough for some and you do have my sympathies, I hope it gets better.

[2bazookas]

Indefinitely.

We've lived very economically in the past and could easily do so again.
No mortgage; so our only essential costs are CT, fuel and food.

[Megan2018]

0 days

We have just spent all our savings covering my maternity leave! There is £0 in the pot. There was about £15k before that.

[MulberryPeony]

Hi OP, sorry to hear of your predicament. Not sure I fully understand but MSE have a debt free wannabe board and even if you don’t have debt there are often posts very like yours where people comment on your household budget (statement of affairs) and help to minimise outgoings. I think it’d be helpful doing one and looking through others’ even if you don’t want to post.

[delilahbucket]

If my partner still had his job then three years. If he lost his job but we still had 30% income, probably 18 months. I work from home, self employed, so if I lost my job we could sell up and downsize if I didn't need a workroom.

[Inaquandry19]

Indefinitely. I have a low salary but low outgoings and lots of savings.

[MoreListeningLessChatting]

@houselikeashed

I am assuming then that your partner earned 70% of household income and you the remaining 30%.... he is getting no income and you still work? No benefits so perhaps you are earning more than benefit threshold.

Is that correct or completely wrong?

I feel for you with such a massive drop in household income. Can he take temporary jobs or anything really to earn some money?

[PiataMaiNei]

Somewhere between 18 and 24 months depending how careful, and if we used up kids savings pots too. We have a reasonable chunk of savings plus quite low living costs.

[ListeningQuietly]

Can he take temporary jobs or anything really to earn some money?
Ha ha
You do realise that about a million extra people are job hunting at the moment

[MoreListeningLessChatting]

If he was self employed - were you able to get the SE grant based on past years net profits?