3 ms·

Divorce or family illness are two things you can't plan for, either one of which could wipe you out no matter how much you saved.

• x0x0 8y ago
  It's easy to say crap like have 6 months of savings. My partner was laid off during an industry-wide crash. She was unemployed for a year, and it took her 7 years (a complete career change) to regain anything like her former earnings. Very few people have the savings to be out of work, or earning 1/4 of what they used to, for years on end. Meanwhile, you've accumulated a life dependent on a certain income level. That's true even if you live within your means; going from making $200k a year to $40k a year requires a different apartment, a different (or no) car, a different gym, etc etc. People on here should ask folks who lived through the dot com crash in sfbay what that time was like.
  • throes_death 8y ago
    > a different gym Perhaps no gym?
    • gtirloni 8y ago
      You picked the easiest in the list. Try selling your house for a fair price and see how long it'll take.
      • EADGBE 8y ago
        Try getting out of a gym contract! I'm only half-kidding!
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  • nicolas_t 8y ago
    This is why it's very important not to let your spendings increase with your income... As my income increased, I went from saving 30% of my income to saving 80% of my income... I did increase my spendings by a bit but not nearly as much as my income increased. The other important thing to have is a good insurance. The main reason I'm doing this is that I want to make sure I can retire at 40 but working toward that goal is a great way to protect oneself in case of setbacks.
• maerF0x0 8y ago
  his divorce was in his 20s. Alimony couldn't be longer than 10 yrs (note he's in Canada, so Canadian law applies), similar for health care.