If you were to lose your job tomorrow, how long would your savings last you?

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  • Mnd
    Mnd Posts: 1,699
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    Alexland wrote: »
    I wouldn't need to draw upon my savings as I would be happy for my wife to keep me. Perfect excuse.

    That's what I'm doing, I throughly recommend it
    No.79 save £12k in 2020. Total end May £11610
    Annual target £24000
  • Snow_Dog
    Snow_Dog Posts: 690
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    Bit of a vague question I think. But will join in the fun. 2.5 years at no significant reduction in expenditure.


    Figure that will skew the results a teeny bit given the average household in the country probably runs at less than 6 months.


    Reading the rest of the answers on the thread MSEers are truly FinSavvy.
  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,384
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    edited 10 November 2018 at 7:15AM
    This is a disappointingly vague question from an organisation that should have a better understanding of the complexity of individual finances and life-choices, but I’ll bite!

    Assuming no redundancy payments, no other external support and wife also loses job on same day and under same assumptions...

    I could spend at current levels for 3.5 years.

    However, I would be more likely to retreat to core expenditure, at which I could maintain an acceptable, but frugal, life-style for 7.5 years.

    A statutory redundancy payment would add probably 7 months to the first scenario or 15 months to the second.

    EDIT: Just to make it clear, that the above periods are not due to any great wealth, but rather because of a preference for simple pleasures and a careful approach to finances!
  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 23,062
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    At current levels, I could live off:

    cash reserves: about 2 years
    low risk investments: about 4 years
    higher risk investments: about 20 years
    At that point I could start taking income from my pension and then my Lifetime ISA and retire, but it would not be an ideal outcome as I'd have depleted a lot of the money I'd want to supplement my state pension.
  • Lomcevak
    Lomcevak Posts: 1,023
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    Unless we're constructing doomsday scenarios, forever:


    - We save more than 50% of joint income, so could live at current expenditure without any problems

    - I put a lot of effort into ensuring i'm employable, so I have very few concerns about finding another job. I (intentionally) work in areas where the demand for critical skills outstrips supply, have a good network of contacts, and put a lot of effort into keeping my skills current, so if I lost my job then I've done as much as I can to be able to pick up the phone and find something else.

    In the doomsday scenario where Mrs L. gets fired on the same day and there are no jobs anywhere to be seen...

    Cash would carry us through about 6 months at current spend rates, maybe twice that if we cut back expenditure hard. Then spending down the S&S ISAs would run another three years or so, assuming that shares hadn't collapsed in the zero-employment apocalypse. If neither of us found work in those four years then we'd have to downsize the house to carry us through to pension age, at which point we'd be frugal but comfortable.



    TL;DR - i've got 99 problems, but this ain't one...
    £40k-in-’23#18 £78,628.29/40,000 (196.57%)
  • System
    System Posts: 178,077
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    edited 10 November 2018 at 9:41AM
    Assuming absolutely no income whatsoever from anywhere, 18 months without altering my lifestyle at all.

    Assuming entitlement to benefits would extend that considerably. There would be a period where I'd not qualify for income based benefits until my savings dropped sufficiently but then topping up state benefits and taking into account lower costs for things like dental care, prescriptions, no longer commuting 17,000 miles a year to work then they'd probably do a decade.

    Fortunately though being a truck driver with over two decades experience I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I could leave a job on Friday, pick up the phone and be employed somewhere else on Monday such is the demand so the only reason for me not to have a job is ill health. As for self driving trucks, self driving vehicles are something I have an interest in and going on the state of some of the tech needed which is already fitted to the truck I drive,, which only this Thursday turned itself off because there had been a downpour with a lot of surface water and the spray preventing the sensors from working, it isn't going to be ready for use in this country until after I reach retirement.
  • The rest of my life.
  • Depends.

    Savings alone: 2 1/2 years

    Savings + guaranteed income (e.g. child benefit, bank interest): 5-6 years.


    Increase both of these by 50% if you would include some cutbacks such as no longer paying into private pensions/charity donations e.t.c.
  • Alice_Holt
    Alice_Holt Posts: 5,918
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    Tarambor wrote: »
    ... but then topping up state benefits and taking into account lower costs for things like dental care, prescriptions, no longer commuting 17,000 miles a year to work then they'd probably do a decade......

    I'm afraid that many people will be surprised by just how limited state benefits can be.
    Job seekers allowance (and Universal Credit) is £73 a week - and contribution-based JSA is limited to 6 months - a total of £1,900.
    After that the household is subject to means-testing and if the partner is working more than 24hrs a week, no further payments are payable.
    Help with mortgage interest is deferred for 39 weeks, and now is a loan chargeable on the property to be repaid on sale.
    For those having to exit the labour market due to ill-health, the outlook on current benefits is very bleak. If found unfit for work (here is the assessment - https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/employment-and-support-allowance/start-the-esa-test ) the claimant will receive a contribution-based payment of £73 a week for one year.
    Alice Holt Forest situated some 4 miles south of Farnham forms the most northerly gateway to the South Downs National Park.
  • A calculator I found said 20 years for me, assuming saving rates keep with inflation.
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