My checking account alone has a $1,000 buffer in it. I have another $10,000 in a savings account for emergencies, like failing appliances.
It wasn't hard to build up that kind of cushion. I just spent less than I took home in my paycheck, for my entire working career.
The last 4 years cost my family our savings. Kept dipping into it to make up for 28 hour work weeks.
It happens.
6 trillion in new obama debt
My family has weathered this recession/depression pretty well, but we were very hard up in the late seventies. I can remember one week after buying groceries and paying the bills where we had 18 cents to spare. We pretty much ate peanut butter, hot dogs, and eggs for months after reaching that 18 cent balance just to try to give ourselves some cushion. But it was tough. I feel for a lot of these folks - of course some of them are young and have parents who might bail them out if they got in a jam. But my guess is most of them are just regular folks living paycheck to paycheck and they'll have to use a credit card if the hot water heater blows or the car breaks down.
The good thing is once they've lived through sparse living and their income starts growing, they'll save some money before they inflate their lifestyle. I know we did and what a blessing it's been.
A few year ago I got tired of being “poor”. I quit spending money frivolously. My wife died 11 years ago and our daughter moved out and married. My income is 35K a year and I am now debt free with 16K in a savings account.