If you were canned

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Thecodont's picture

What is the minimum amount you could get by on each month?  That incudes rent/mortgage, food, debt payments and everything else and assuming no drastic lifestyle changes (i.e. keep phone, cable, internet, blah blah)

Me, I would estimate 5k per month +- 10%

former trader's picture

2.5K per month

Location is an important variable in this survey.

cleverCFA's picture

guessing USD7500.  60% of that is mortgage though, so would be putting the house on the market pronto if I lost my job. 

itera's picture

what currency are we talking about?  That would swing the answers drastically.

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.

ohai's picture

What is the duration of unemployment? 

“I’m a CPA! I got money b***h!”

Thecodont's picture

Currency is USD converted from local.  duration is unknown but no drastic lifestyle change assumption means you tightened you belt but you feel a job could come “soon” so you have not stopped feeding the cat but your not buying a new car either.

CFAvsMBA's picture

5k a monf, 7.5k a monf!  good grief!  I’d live easily on 1.2k a monf.

Rent is dirt cheap.  Loans are almost paid down.  And I’m a value eater.

Thecodont's picture

Ahhh but I have a wife, a two year old, a car payment (new SUV for the kiddos stuff) and a mortgage.  Grocery alone is like 400/mo.

time of year would be big for me.  It snows and gets very cold in winter.  I have to buy 4 cords of wood to feed the wood stove for the winter and thats and easy 1k.  Though it beats running the furnace (400/mo avg)

CFAvsMBA's picture

My bad. I’m a single guy. A family is a whole new world. 

cleverCFA's picture

Yeah, if I was alone, no wife and kids, no childcare costs ($120 a day, 4 days a week!), 1 car only or even no car, renting, and eating the way I do when I was single (i.e. really simple cheap stuff), I could get away with WAY less.  

I don’t even know if $7.5K covers it now that I think about it.  It’s totally ridiculous. 

These are estimates:

$4.5K mortgage (house prices in Oz are ridiculous, and interest rates high)

$2K - childare

$500 - 600 - back of the envelope guess for running 2 cars, insurance, repairs, gas

$1500 - Food (it’s expensive here, I go to the store and get dinner and get odd thing or two and I’ve spent $65)

$500 - Phones, internet, electricity, water, council taxes

$500 - petty cash for stuff that always comes up that you can’t avoid. 

These are just estimates, in my experience, it’s ALWAYS ALWAYS more.  Like when you get your credit card statement and you’re already dialing the credit card company to report a mistake and then you start looking at all the numbers and they all start to add up.  

The Righteous Hacksaw's picture

Today I could get by on a 1k a month living in Asia like a king.

Family?  Nah.  No family.

Formerly ChickenTikka - Member of the Order of the Righteous Rusty Hacksaw

itera's picture

oh yea, you really get rap*d on daycare costs.  Maybe I should start one and make a bucket of money to fund my investment in syn diamonds idea 

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.

higgmond's picture

^ The dude that owns the daycare that my daughter goes to has the nerve to park his nice new 6 Series convertible right infront of the school with his “Goddard” license plate.  Everytime I see it I want to grab a bat and smash the hell out of it.  I don’t like shelling out $1,400/m to begin with, but then you rub your brand new beemer in my face, the one I’m paying for?!?

You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.

FrankArabia's picture

you guys are some true ballers……

Sweep the Leg's picture

Here in America we don’t have to pay our mortgage so it’s not that bad.  I’d say about $1000 cash would do it.  No car payments, no childcare…wife stays home anyway.  Just the essentials…cable tv, internet, beer, food, electricity, gas.  Out of the $1000 I’d set aside a couple hundred a month to be sure I could still get the newest iPad and iPhone.

CFAvsMBA's picture

^respect

bchad's picture

Does anyone pay for health insurance?

You want a quote?  Haven’t I written enough already???

itera's picture

Thecodont wrote:

Ahhh but I have a wife, a two year old, a car payment (new SUV for the kiddos stuff) and a mortgage.  Grocery alone is like 400/mo.

time of year would be big for me.  It snows and gets very cold in winter.  I have to buy 4 cords of wood to feed the wood stove for the winter and thats and easy 1k.  Though it beats running the furnace (400/mo avg)

400/mo on groceries for 3 people is pretty good..  oh but that’s probably not 3 meals a day right?

prepared food you might buy around work is probably extra on top of that

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.

Turd Fergeson's picture

Sweep the Leg wrote:

Here in America we don’t have to pay our mortgage so it’s not that bad.  I’d say about $1000 cash would do it.  No car payments, no childcare…wife stays home anyway.  Just the essentials…cable tv, internet, beer, food, electricity, gas.  Out of the $1000 I’d set aside a couple hundred a month to be sure I could still get the newest iPad and iPhone.

Brilliant!  Here in America we also pay people not to work, so you can “earn” that $1,000 from the comfort of your own home!  The American Dream, live it.

KISS MY CONVERSE.

CFABLACKBELT's picture

Sweep the Leg wrote:

Here in America we don’t have to pay our mortgage so it’s not that bad.  I’d say about $1000 cash would do it.  No car payments, no childcare…wife stays home anyway.  Just the essentials…cable tv, internet, beer, food, electricity, gas.  Out of the $1000 I’d set aside a couple hundred a month to be sure I could still get the newest iPad and iPhone.

Lol!  This.

krazykanuck's picture

Being just out of school, with no debt, no family, and a paid for car, I could probably live off of $1250 a month. I also live in a very inexpensive part of the country.

If I were to lose my job, I have enough in cash and investments that I could live for probably 2 years and keep my current standard of living.

bodhisattva's picture

Me too, I hit some hard times in life and got used to living poor, so its easy to go back to that.

1500-1600 a month for me.

Thecodont's picture

Yes,  but my wife went today and I asked how much and she said 120 and I have only eaten out once in the last week.  So, I think if we really tried we could make it on 400/mo

Thecodont's picture

This got me thinking and I went and looked up how much we spend on non essentials.  For example, I play tennis competitively so, court fees, lessons with the pro, team fee etc can run 200-300 a month.  If I was canned I would drop that real quick.  Plus I am sure there are others so maybe I am less than the 5k I thought

Supersadface's picture

I think perhaps I could get by on like $1,600, but that’s a pretty tight estimate.  That includes rent, food, metrocard, phone, power, internet.  I didn’t budget for insurance, which (even if purchased cheaply) would probably push it up a few hundred more per month.  With $2,000/month I could get by fine (and did in fact do that back in 2010 for a couple of months).

econgirl's picture

My rent is $350/month. 

My horse is $1500/month.

Zesty's picture

Location: Washington, DC

Minimum Monthly Spending: $2,600

Being Born Wealthy > Being Jewish or WASPY > Born Pretty > Top 5 MBA > CFA > Avg MBA > Born middle class > Born lower class > Born in crack house > Working in IT but looking to switch to buyside

blackomen's picture

Location: Los Angeles (suburbs)

I can get by on $1500/mo.  I have no debt, an old Honda Civic, and share an apartment.  My portion of the rent is only $600 and I don’t often eat out.

Blake McCallister's picture

Location: CA Bay Area

I rent a house with a friend.  PPO health and dental plan with no deductable.  No car payment.  I would estimate $2300-2500 a month

~~~~~Live. Laugh. Love.~~~~~

chibwack's picture

In Calgary AB, I’d need probably $2500 for my current lifestyle. Of course if I lost my job I could move to the edge of town and save a lot on rent, and my car and student loans are both almost paid off, so that number will soon be dropping to ~$1700/mth

purealpha's picture

I figured out once that I could live for like 150 years in China without ever working again.  But it gets complex because you have model it out taking into account life span and changes to that region over time, inflation, etc.

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