ECON How long will you last if you lose your job?

I know it's easy to be smug here that we're prepped and all but I wonder just how long the average Timebomber will last if they lose their total family income............say..........next week?

If the economy collapses as bad as they are predicting how can any company survive? Won't they all be closing their doors?

How long will you be able to stay in your home?

How long will you be able to pay your utility bills?

How long will you be able to take your prescription drugs?

Are you really prepared for TEOTWAWKI?

It just really depends. If the gov't doesn't fail and FDIC actually pays, then we should be fine. If they don't, then nobody is fine including us.

About 2.5 to 3 months bill wise. I have a few guns in reserve that I could sell if it came down to it. After that revenue ran out I could always move back in with my Grandmother and my Fiance' back in with her parents. My GMs' house is paid off so no worries there. That would suck a big one, but it is doable.

Indefinitely, the house is paid for all I have to do convince the wife to live without the power grid and we will get by just fine and it not going to be a easy adjustment but I think I my self can get over it and get on with life faster than she will.

2 to 3 years, perhaps even more. The only thing I need cash for is the electric bill, propane, internet access and of course ground rent (taxes). I can live without electric, propane and internet access so the ground rent is the only thing. Fortunately taxes around here are not too bad and having a small footprint I've really been able to minimize my cash needs.

Do you think the intenet would really survive a worldwide Depression?

I listen to a local radio talk show every morning. The stock in their company is now down to 35 cents they said. They fear their job will be over at any time. I wonder how many other companies are in the same boat? How long can they keep payroll going? Will I turn on the radio one morning and nobody will be there? Television? Internet?

What about taxes? Will we have to pay them? Will there be anyone to collect them?

How about gasoline? Will the trucks still deliver to the stations? Will the stations close up? How will you get around?

I just wonder how many of us are really thinking about what all we can lose and what we could possibly face.

Oh, I've been thinking of that all day. Not that we have a "job", but our small dairy farm does require regular inputs of various items, in the multiple thousands of dollars per month worth...

And if we don't get a milk check... they aren't getting paid either.

We CAN go "Amish"... and a great deal of my preps have been to ensure that it would be possible. And thankfully, we have no debt, except the month to month bills.

But we also have no cash on hand, because we just finished building a new barn for youngstock- paid for, but it depleted our "reserves" pretty much completely.

As far as "losing jobs" goes... if it goes as bad as things appear right now, NO ONE who is retired is going to see their pension payments for long. And I suspect Social Security will be vanishing as well. Or, they'll keep paying it, but in depreciated dollars.. a month's SS will pay for a hamburger- if you're lucky.

This is really tragic... so many people are going to suffer from this. My heart is SO heavy tonight. I'm watching my country die. I'm watching an entire way of life die. Yes, it was based on false pretenses, false values, massive greed... but it was awfully good while the illusion lasted.

I especially grieve for the children, and the ones who didn't make bad choices, but who will be dragged down with everyone else.

Oh, I KNOW what we can lose. It's going to be horrific.

Summerthyme

ya loon,

that is a good question.

How many.. "little links" to the grid to we each have that we take for granted?

How many of us have really gone "cold turkey" for any extended period of time? I think more of cities like Seivo where people still survived, at least there was some form of human contact. I guess I do think of movies like Mad Max and the Post Man were some form of civilization clung to the rocks. I think your question is: "how many of us could really survive if all the roots were removed and we had to start over again"

I am not sure if I am that strong. But if I get to pick a team, my family and my preps... I will make a run at it.

HeliumAvid

HeliumAvid said:

ya loon,

that is a good question.

How many.. "little links" to the grid to we each have that we take for granted?

How many of us have really gone "cold turkey" for any extended period of time? I think more of cities like Seivo where people still survived, at least there was some form of human contact. I guess I do think of movies like Mad Max and the Post Man were some form of civilization clung to the rocks. I think your question is: "how many of us could really survive if all the roots were removed and we had to start over again"

I am not sure if I am that strong. But if I get to pick a team, my family and my preps... I will make a run at it.

HeliumAvid

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Great words.

When computers start acting as crappy as real life, the economy, etc. I reformat them and start over.

I think if it gets that bad, you WILL POSSIBLY see the equivalent "action" worldwide.

And yes, it will indeed be the NWO at that point...

Reboot civilization/economy/finances worldwide...everyone starts from scratch with what you have at that point...if we're lucky. No harm, no foul, clean start. They pump x amount of the "new money" into everyone and everything to get the gears unstuck and away we go. It will be sold as THE SOLUTION.

Kris

Kris Gandillon said:

When computers start acting as crappy as real life, the economy, etc. I reformat them and start over.

I think if it gets that bad, you WILL POSSIBLY see the equivalent "action" worldwide.

And yes, it will indeed be the NWO at that point...

Reboot civilization/economy/finances worldwide...everyone starts from scratch with what you have at that point...if we're lucky. No harm, no foul, clean start. They pump x amount of the "new money" into everyone and everything to get the gears unstuck and away we go. It will be sold as THE SOLUTION.

Kris

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Kinda' like the Georgia Guide Stones' teach.

Loon said:

How long will you last if you lose your job?

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http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=70261


Howdy, Folks!

From the above(when I did lose my job):

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Former co-worker I went out with last night was astonished, and concerned. Not too concerned for me, but for himself; he's in our IT department(weathered several rounds of layoffs, so it looks like he'll do okay), which is certainly not a field to get laid off from these days.

No...reason he was worried about himself:

'If I were in your shoes, I'd lose my house and possibly my car about a week after my last paycheck.'



What IS it with people these days?

This guy's SMART, he gets it. Still, he's like so many others out there, leveraged out the A$$.

Weird to me, especially since he's not married, and no kids. You gotta wonder...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taking stock of the situation(and if Missus Shimoda doesn't lose her job), I can sit @ home and do nothing and maintain for 8 years, if I stretch it. This won't allow for any extra purchases(building materials for the house come to mind), so figgering those in I'm guessing more like 2-4 years. If The Missus loses her job, we could "maintain" for prolly about 2 years(she's got way more exensive health issues than I do).

If I wanna take a 50% pay hit, I can get a job today in state gub'mint; there are several out there right now that are literally going a'beggin'. That'd get me bennies, and keep me from dipping into savings/preps.

However, dunno if'n I wanna go that route. Besides, thery're the kinds of jobs that'll be there in two years, if I don't create or find sompin' else to my liking."

So, there it is...I'd still say about 2-4 years.

[I did get another job after I got laid off, BTW. It was offered to me about 3 days after I got laid off. I'm still doing it - 5 years as of October 3, 2008. I go in tomorrow for my yearly evaluation, and I've already been promised a raise.]

Good luck to all...

We could last a long time...the house is paid for so I dont have to worry about that.....may not have a lot of cash, but I think we'd do ok. I work for myself so dont see me completely loosing my job but sales could become very slow (though I would say I've been BUSIER the last couple months than ever before) The kids also get some support $$ each week from their dad (well, I get it....) so maybe he'd still have his job?? That little bit he sends helps out a lot, I normally use that for groceries.

Nine years.

The bad part is I'm just finishing up my eighth year without a full-time job, and I've only managed 11 months of part-time work over the eight years. Oh well.

I'd have made the 12 1/2 years I needed if a tree hadn't fallen on the house, and if I hadn't had to pay out some dollars to the doctors.

Screw it. I might trade the house to a neighbor for a motor home and a couple grand.

If I had to, I'm sure I could survive for quite a few years, as long as that magic "full faith and credit" thing hangs in there...

I'm almost 57, had alot of years to "put something away for retirement". If I do make it to retirement, I should "have it made". SS ain't much, but it does cover a nice chunk of "the nut", considering what I expect to be spending then. Between that, and what I "should have" "in the bank", I think I'll be OK..

But before that happy day comes, I keep enough "hard cash" to pay a couple months worth of bills, including the rent. Between my local checking account, and things like ING savings, I've got enough for a few more months worth of bills. After that I'ld need to break into my "CD ladder". I've got 12 1-yr CDs, each payable the third week of each month, that more than covers my current monthly expenses, so that's another year+. Then, I guess I'ld need to look at my IRA, which is things like some longer term CDs, I-bonds (technically a 5 year minimum), a couple muni bonds, stuff that usually has an early penalty... And no, it's not all at the same bank...

Then it would be down to my gold. And believe me, I never, ever, ever, want to part with my gold. I'ld work at McD's before that happens...

dunno, with a bit of stretching possibly somewhere between three and six months. Although two months is also likely.

All rather frustrating to be honest. Granted I was more than a bit stupid with the credit cards several years ago and zeroing those out has been my primary 'prep' focus since I joined the forums here. The household should have all but two zeroed out in about two months if all goes well. Did I say frustrating?

Luckily my job is pretty secure, not totally of course but I've been working on ways of becoming more, I guess the phrase would be 'desired employee' in my unit. There's only six people in my unit, maybe. One of the more senior took a new position and nobody knows if she's still with the unit or not (kinda weird but I don't ask). Which may be good for me since there's only one other in the unit with less seniority than me. I'm the only one in the group willing to work extra hours without paid overtime. I generally keep that quiet since the unit as a whole is trying to add another person to our ranks. According to the others doing that isn't helping but I don't think they see the bigger picture with whats going on out there. With a little luck I'm hoping to be valuable enough that I might be able to worry less about seniority if they start excessing any of us.

We are working hard to get lean and mean. Small, paid for home in small town MO. All of our utilities should drop like a rock. Two miles from work and 16yos will homeschool again so no gas for him. Taxes and insurance on the house will be a fraction of what they are here, so will the auto insurance.

Lord willing, the financial sector will hold until we can close on both houses, do a little remodeling and restocking. It makes me very nervous to have an empty freezer, but it would be difficult to move a well stocked freezer.

If either DH or I lose our job and the other keeps theirs, we'll be fine, just tighten our spending a lot. If we both lose our jobs and can't find others, we can last a few months. Beyond that, if we can't work out a barter with the landlords, we can move in with his parents (not that any of us would be happy about it, but we could do it).

Straycat said:

If either DH or I lose our job and the other keeps theirs, we'll be fine, just tighten our spending a lot. If we both lose our jobs and can't find others, we can last a few months. Beyond that, if we can't work out a barter with the landlords, we can move in with his parents (not that any of us would be happy about it, but we could do it).

Click to expand...

2 weeks. I'm still pulling myself out of debt, and am in college.

DrexHex said:

2 weeks. I'm still pulling myself out of debt, and am in college.

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Keep pullin' homeboy. You'll be fine.

I've been prepping for retirement which means getting ready to live on 25% of the money we are used to having. If we lost ALL income next week, about the only thing that would be out of reach would be the electric bill and cigs. The house is paid for, so are a couple of rental houses so if we could keep them rented, that would be some income. I need to quit smoking anyway so that would be a unwanted blessing. As for loosing electric, it would be sad to loose the comforts of the computer, TV, electric oven, etc. but we've lived without them before and we can do it again if we have to.

I have battery lights and a solar recharger so we would have minimal lighting. We heat with wood so that wouldn't be a problem. We could pull the electric pump from the well and put the hand pump on. We'd have a lot of physical labor to do to get water to the commodes, etc., but we could do it. I have a solar shower that would be work to fill and use, but at least we could take showers, just not as fast or as often as we'd like.

I have 200 gallons of propane in storage to use for emergency cooking with a camping stove and oven. That would let us cook until we got the outdoor "pizza oven" built (I have the materials in storage), and the small wood stove set up for outdoor summer cooking. The wood heater in the house would be used for winter cooking. I have a non-gas camper oven to use on top the wood heater in addition to the propane camping oven to use in the beginning.

It wouldn't be fun, it would be a lot of work, but I think we would do ok if we lost all income for a few weeks or even for a few months or forever. I've been a "pack rat" most of my life and have several sheds of items that could be sold or bartered for things we might need (lots of antiques and other things that would be desirable to DGI's). I have lots of books from back in the old days that tell how to make farm implements from scraps of wood we have stored in the barn.

I have meat on the hoof, seeds, fruit trees, and enough food stored to last several months or maybe even a year or more depending on if we ate normally or rationed it.

I've had to go without power out here several times. DH might have a problem adjusting to it, but for me it wouldn't be all that bad. Overall, I know it would be hard, but I'm pretty sure we'll be ok.

We own our home outright, and we have a few months stock of food and water, so..outside of paying my tax bill..if we cut off all other services, we'd be fine as long as food held out. I would HATE to cut off electric though, for the simple reason that without internet..I'd be seriously bored.

I am already bailing out two daughters, and dressing 3 grandchildren. Because of the high cost of gasoline and heating oil.

Shame is that in my day, we could leave high school and "make it" on our own. Any manufacturing job paid enough to support an apartment and a car, insurance, gas and utilities. A quick waitress job part time would buy a fabulous Christmas, a transmission, or a whole room full of new furniture.
NOW, 2 grand is not enough to solve a problem. and service industry or under employment is about all you can find in the labor markets.

Now, its necessary that at least two incomes support a home just to maintain lower middle class standard.

Two career incomes just to meet the minimum of upper middle class

How will I last?

Same way I have for the last 4-1/2 years. The only difference is instead of working for money, I'll likely be working for food or other "barterables."

My problem is now that I have a "real" job, I'm still getting calls from people to fix their electric, fix their washing machine, fix their lawnmower. (I'm good at fixing things.)

It's nice to be in demand but hey, I gotta mow my own lawn SOMETIME.

Best,
Joe

I can last 4-5 months. Longer if I get a paying roommate.

I'm fortunate that I live a mile from work(virtually no commute costs), and I work in a fairly stable industry (prison system). I'm also a "supervisor" so my chances of getting laid off are slim, but if I do, they'll want me to be a guard until office jobs open up again. If times get really tough, I can do that for the interim, as distasteful as that is.

My rent is affordable, and I have prepped as best I can being recently divorced. I have a side-job (cash under the table) that pays the rent. If that job doesn't "go away" I could probably last for the duration.

I'm just continuing to prep as much as I can, and am networking with friends who have gardens. I'm offering to do gardening work in exchange for produce, and letting folks know that if the worst happens, that I have a room for rent.

Close to early retirement, (not planning right now to take it) sooooo...

1-) 9 months Unemployment Compensation (there's a 13 week extension in right now)

2-) Severance $$'s and 18 months paid health insurance if permanent layoff.

3-) Move to reduced pension 18 months from now.

My pension plan is solvent at this time and well managed. Garden, farm, hunting, fishing, preps, family, extended family and many friends in neighborhood.

With luck, should do OK.

lectrickitty said:

I've been prepping for retirement which means getting ready to live on 25% of the money we are used to having. If we lost ALL income next week, about the only thing that would be out of reach would be the electric bill and cigs. The house is paid for, so are a couple of rental houses so if we could keep them rented, that would be some income. I need to quit smoking anyway so that would be a unwanted blessing. As for loosing electric, it would be sad to loose the comforts of the computer, TV, electric oven, etc. but we've lived without them before and we can do it again if we have to.

Click to expand...

Just a quick note on the cigs. A year or more ago the price went up again and I'd been noticing the stink from the cheap cigarettes. So I tried doing the roll your own routine solely and decided to use filters this time. Before, occassionally when my lungs were bad, I'd get a small bag of tobacco and only use about half of it before it got too stale.

I'm about a pack a day smoker. Without it, I wheeze, cough, get a sore throat and low fever, and am generally miserable. Tobacco is soothing and opens my airways. Without it, I'd probably have to smoke other herbs and inhale pine needle tea all day. The only problem is it is too easy to smoke too much. I don't see the tobacco as any more dangerous than doctors and steroidal or other lung medicines. Tobacco is much cheaper. Great grandmother smoked from her early teens into her 90s and quit when she fell asleep and burned a spot in her rug. She stayed away from doctors and died when she fell down the stairs at age 97.

The little Top cigarette roller was only a couple bucks. A bag of Midnight Special tobacco with a couple packs of papers and three bags (300) of filters right now is coming to $13 something. Every couple months I get a pack of Top papers. The bag of tobacco lasts about two weeks. So for the price of a carton of cheap cigarettes that reek, I get about a month of nice tasting cigarettes.

Some days I smoke 30, some days it's 16. If my lungs are clogged, I smoke more. If breathing is easier, I smoke much less. Fairly cheaply.

I got laid off Monday. I'll have another job soon, but looking at, it...I could last pretty much indefinately in today's circumstances.

It is interesting that some of you are counting on banks staying solvent and government agencies to deliver. If the government is seriously broke and closes all offices then how would things like social security and unemployment work? If banks shut their doors then how to you access your CD's and Money Market accounts?

Does anyone see how inter-connected we all are and even though we feel we are independent...........we really are not.

Think back to when this country was founded. Folks got off the boat and built their own homes from scratch on land they squatted on. They might have brought some seeds with them from their home country to begin a garden with but they pretty much relied on themselves to hunt, fish and gather their food. There were no banks. There were no government run agencies to go to for anything. There were no stores..........at least not in the beginning. Bartering was probably one of the first forms of trade there was.

I posed this question to get us all thinking about the unthinkable. What if we woke up tomorrow and all we had was ourselves and our ingenuity to survive on. Hopefully, we can try to make some adjustments in our preps to allow us to survive better and longer for what I hope doesn't happen.

If you don't own a piece of land somewhere and you have some money try to think about cashing in on the bargain basement prices on real estate that are coming. There are auctions out there now but the prices will get lower.

I knew a lady years ago who bought 25 acres of land for back taxes during the Depression. She and her husband lived in a tent for a period of time till her husband could build a garage. They moved into the garage and then worked on building a home. They both worked. Many decades later they were able to sell that land for an enormous amount of money and it is today prime real estate land in Livonia, Michigan. She died a very wealthy woman and all her needs were met in her old age because of that investment.

Think of ways to improve your situation for the long term while you can. It is all coming down fast and there isn't much time left.

Long time

We can last a LONG time here on the ol' Doc1 Homestead, but I wanted to address the tobacco issue that's been raised on this thread. I enjoy tobacco, but can do without it if need be. Done it before many times and expect to see tobacco scarcity in the future.

The important thing to remember is that tobacco is one of the best possible barter items. We store it for both personal use and barter.

In the aftermath of Katrina, the local daily paper did a story on the barter economy that immediately sprang up amongst the ruins. What do you think the most desirable items were? In no particular order they were:
* Cigarettes (tobacco)
* gasoline
* beer

You will notice that NONE of these things are essential for life, yet in the midst of chaos, they were the items most in demand!

Some of you will recall that we evacuated with two small diesel trucks and a full-sized diesel school bus that was loaded with preps. We never came close to being reduced to bartering for anything. Still, every prepper should understand that barter is likely to become very important and make arrangements for it.

Long before anyone is reduced to bartering for dry beans and rice, people are going to want "comfort" items like, beer, cigs, cosmetics and other items that some might consider to be trivialities. Understand that I'm neither endorsing or condemning these types of products, but am addressing reality. Certainly, most of the people who wanted a cold beer in the sweltering heat and devastation of hurricanes weren't alcoholics. They wanted something enjoyable, cold, familiar and, well, comforting. In the case of alcohol, which has obvious psychoactive and sedative properties, enough consumption will allow you to sleep better in uncomfortable and stressful situations (think heat, humidity and biting mosquitoes). Things like cosmetics are purely psychological comfort items.

I think it's important to keep a healthy stock of these potential barter items, both for your own use - if you indulge - and for trade purposes. I suspect that the trade value of even a carton of generic cigs, which currently might cost $20- $25, would easily go to $100, up to several hundred dollars in 2008-valued dollars! Things like instant coffee, sugar, sweeteners and other things we take for granted should similarly skyrocket. Additionally, you should think of the trader's advantages inherent in having these things. If you are dickering and trying to close a deal, you might be amazed how the ability to say something like, "OK, let me get you a cup of coffee (or a cold beer) and let's close this deal" can strengthen your position against other traders who cannot offer these things.

What shouldn't you barter? First on my list are firearms and ammo. Sure, in today's environment I might go to a gun show and buy, trade or sell a firearm without too much concern. In a collapsing society, the last thing I want to do is trade away something that might be later used against me! I won't barter my fuel, except under extreme circumstances. If the money goes, the fuel goes, but few people make this connection. I'm not too worried about fuel being used against me, but am aware that my stocks may become impossible to replenish. Guns and fuel? Maybe - and it's only a maybe - could be traded amongst close family and a friend or two, but not lightly!

There's lots more to think through, but long term viability in a collapsing society is going to take a lot more than beans and rice.

Best regards
Doc

LongCount said:

I got laid off Monday. I'll have another job soon, but looking at, it...I could last pretty much indefinately in today's circumstances.

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Evidently 3 days, lol. Got another job today :P

Loon said:

It is interesting that some of you are counting on banks staying solvent and government agencies to deliver. If the government is seriously broke and closes all offices then how would things like social security and unemployment work? If banks shut their doors then how to you access your CD's and Money Market accounts?

Click to expand...

Yah but...The question posed is job loss, Hon.

If you want to change the original question, I'll change my answer.

If I lost my job, but the "system" stayed up and running... several years.

If I lost my job, and all other incomes sources, but the system stayed up enough to enforce an eviction - 6 months give or take a month.

If we're talking total financial meltdown, and everything except the churches closing their door... too many variables to say. I would like to think until I was old, considered wise, and had grandchildren, but then again I might get picked off the first the mutant zombies came through pillaging.

Not Long!!!!

most of our savings when to medical bills, etc. when i was laid off in early June.

sorry, dupe

I'm in a two income family. As long as only one job was lost, we'd be miserable but ok. If both jobs were lost, we'd lose our house and have to move into the very small camper on the deer lease. It would be miserable times 100 for me. The men in the family wouldn't be bothered by it near as much.

I've often thought that buying a bigger and nicer camper would be a good prep investment. I would always talk myself out of it thinking I was just using prepping as an excuse to spend money. I may rethink the new camper idea.

ceeblue said:

Just a quick note on the cigs. A year or more ago the price went up again and I'd been noticing the stink from the cheap cigarettes. ........

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(thread drift) from Altria

State and Federal Cigarette Taxes have been raised 88 times since the year 2000 - increasing the average price of cigarettes 93% a pack since 1999.

Congress wants to raise cigarette taxes 156%! It just doesn't make sense in tough economic times like these.

Tell Congress they are going TOO FAR

www.stoptheFETincrease.com
1-866-527-4494

Thanks to your support and action


Congressional leadership recently decided not to call for another vote this year on a $35 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that would have been funded by an increase in the Federal Excise Tax (FET) on tobacco. This included an increase in the cigarette FET of $6.10 per carton.
The current SCHIP program is funded through March 31, 2009, and it is expected that lawmakers will again consider an increase to the Federal Excise Tax on tobacco products when they revisit the program next year. We will keep you informed as the issue develops.
Thank you for your continued support. To stay active on tobacco legislation in Congress and in your state, please visit www.pmusalac.com.

W/No FDIC, probably 2 years. W/ FDIC coverage of the money in the bank, closer to 10.

The house is paid off and I prepaid the property taxes for 2009 so we're good until 2010. Between the stored food, the garden and the neighbors food isn't a problem. Neither is water - well, stored gas, generator, and river down the hill from us. Plus it rains constantly up here.

The only money needed would be for heat, elect, phone, and medical. Medical is by far the biggest worry out of these.

Tweak

My Life has already become more intersting for my family. On 8/31, a inattentive driver totaled our only vehicle. No injuries, they were cited, Allstate paid $1000 for the 86 Trooper. Since I've been working 4mi from home, I just started riding my Gary Fisher to work. 2 weks ago, I got laid off from my temp-to-hire assignment, which would have been irritating enough since then I would have to start commuting to OKC again for other CDL assignments. But wait! No car now.. So, I'm employed, but no income. Good thing my wife started working at Mazzios 2 weeks ago. However, with the lack of a car, she either pays a taxi $5.25 ea way or gives her sister $ to take her. The day after I got laid-off,I sucked it up, rode to the DHS office and applied for food stamps. On the upside, no need to pay for car ins, zero fuel costs, and I'm getting great excercise on the bike. we have no phone,cable or internet. It's real simple with rent, utilities and food. I'm hustling for work within a 5mi radius and if I can land a truck job at the local dairy, that pays $15.80 and things will be looking much better. If we continue at current levels, the ducks and geese at the OU duck pond are fair game!