How to plan, just incase

leiela

I work for a very small IT firm and although i'd like to think my job was safe, who can really be sure?? i know the company's is just about keeping it's self afloat and my boss was made redundant last week, although i've been asured that it was for a reason other than the fact that the company's struggling i've learn't that in this company alot go's on behind the scene's and the employee's rarely know the truth.

Im the main provider for my family and my husband works in banking (another at risk job) at the moment with both incomes coming into the house we are afloat, not well off by any stretch but we are ticking along and managing to set aside some money each month to make overpayments on some of our debts.

This said if either one of us where made redundant we'd be in alot of trouble VERY VERY fast, i've only been in my job for 12months so i wouldn't be entitled to a redundancy payment, and my husbands company only give out the minimum of 1week per year, so he's get 7weeks worth.

I'd like to think if my husband was made redundant we'd manage, 7 weeks pay would be enough to pay off some debt lowering the monthly payments just enough that i could just about cover the bills till he found work again.

However if i was made redundant as the higher earner we'd be pretty much up the stream without a paddle, and im really not feeling very confident right now. We are a tiny company only 11 employee's and atm the management are in and out of meetings like there's no tommorrow there is something going on and we all know it. One of the blessing's or curses of a small company i guess.

Sorry for the waffle ..... so what can i do to "prepare" for the worst?? atm we've reigned in our spending and are trying to pump every last penny we have into our debts to try and clear them while we can, im also concidering stockpiling food and household supplies just incase.

Anything else i can do???

i figure it's better to prepare and not need it, than not prepare and need it.

maninthestreet

Do you have mortage payment protection insurance in place?
How will stockpiling food and household supplies help?

leiela

maninthestreet wrote: »

Do you have mortage payment protection insurance in place?
How will stockpiling food and household supplies help?

Well hopefully if the worst happen's we'd be able to save money on food etc for a while by living on the supply's. Less money out each month while we find another job has gotta help right?? we can't stockpile everything, but things with a good shelflife should be ok.

Yes we have morgage protection but it's only for my husband, if i was out of work we wouldn't get it, the morgage is in his name as i was a housewife when we took it. Could i be added??

Numpty_Monkey

If you put your figures in the SOA calc for how you are now , and each scenerio it make help you see ways to cut back and my try for a month living on the waste case scenario
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

maryjane01

There is usually a qualifying period for mortgage protection insurance, and also they won't pay out if you suspect you might be made redundant when you take out the insurance.

You could still take the insurance out now in case you don't get made redundant now, but do so in another 12 months, but to get a decent amount of cover it could be quite pricey insurance so you might want to think whether it is money well spent if yuo are worried about being made redundant in the near future.

READ THE FINE PRINT on any insurance policy as insurers may be looking for loop holes not to pay out.

leiela

This is how we'd look worst case

atm we use alot more on petrol, childcare etc but if i wasn't working we wouldn't need those as much so i've taken them off. It's also worth noting that the "internet and sky Tv" is a package that we are currently tied too so it can't go right now... as you can see it's quite dire without my wages.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 730
Benefits................................ 220
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 950
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 231
Secured loan repayments................. 292
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 153
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 79
Electricity............................. 73
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 11.92
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 23
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 70
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 28
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1590.92

Assets
Cash.................................... 200
House value (Gross)..................... 90000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 94200

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 35000....(231)......3.3
Secured Debt.................. 15000....(292)......3.3
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7000.....(153)......9.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 57000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA...........................3000......27........3
Barcleys.......................5000......100.......0
Total unsecured debts..........8000......127.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 950
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,590.92
Available for debt repayments........... -640.92
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 127
Amount short for making debt repayments. -767.92
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 94,200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -57,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,000
Net Assets.............................. 36,200
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

maryjane01

Are you on a repayment mortgage and could you go interest only if you get made redundant?

Try looking through the debt free wanna be board for ways to cut back, and do an SOA now and start making cutbacks nowbefore you NEED to. eg cut subscriptions to sky tv and change to supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi if you don't shop there already. We swapped to Aldi for our main shop before christmas. It doesn't have everything that sainsburys had so we may have to do a small top up at Sainsburys but we are defintely saving money

In my worst case scenario, I would be prepared to sell our car (we live near by to good public transport so not an option for some people if you need a car to look for work) and go interest only on the mortgage. In the meantime we are furiously paying off our debts and over paying our mortgage so interest payable will be lower.

leiela

This is how we currently look... which doens't look to bad tbh...

Currently we are making good progress paying off our debts, we are currently making quite a few overpayments on our credit cards.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1520
Partners monthly income after tax....... 730
Benefits................................ 220
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2470
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 231
Secured loan repayments................. 292
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 153
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 79
Electricity............................. 73
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 11.92
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 23
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 170
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 90
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 28
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 150
Total monthly expenses.................. 1960.92

Assets
Cash.................................... 200
House value (Gross)..................... 90000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 94200

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 35000....(231)......3.3
Secured Debt.................. 15000....(292)......3.3
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7000.....(153)......9.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 57000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA...........................3000......27........3
Barcleys.......................5000......100.......0
Total unsecured debts..........8000......127.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,470
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,960.92
Available for debt repayments........... 509.08
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 127
Amount left after debt repayments....... 382.08
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 94,200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -57,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,000
Net Assets.............................. 36,200
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

maryjane01

Sorry, postings crossed. It looks like a lot of your out goings are debt repayments. Cut up the cards now and OVERPAY, OVERPAY, OVERPAY.

Remember try to keep up payments on secured debts and if you can't pay something don't pay the cards.

leiela

tbh im not sure what the morgage is ... * looks ashamed * my husband works for the back so it's all in his name, i think it is a re-payment but tbh it's not very high anyway, the same with one of the secured loans the interest on both is pretty low im not sure they'd lower it more.

leiela

maryjane01 wrote: »

Sorry, postings crossed. It looks like a lot of your out goings are debt repayments. Cut up the cards now and OVERPAY, OVERPAY, OVERPAY.

Remember try to keep up payments on secured debts and if you can't pay something don't pay the cards.

Yeah i know we sat down and looked at the "finances" in jan, and we realised how much we were paying just in interest it was a "light bulb" moment we've got rid of them already and overpaid almost £300 last month, and plan to do the same again this month,

we've also reigned in our 500-600 per month shopping ... eeeek to just £200 ish (i've put £250 because we are currenty clearing out the cuboards and i suspect thats how much we'll need long term)