Are you currently living beyond your means?

[ThomWV]

Poll question: Are you currently living beyond your means?

I mean the question to say exactly what it does. Are you currently living beyond your means. Currently, meaning right now, this month or so far this year if you like. Beyond your means, meaning are your monthly outlays greater than your income - are you going into debt or tapping savings?

[Lost in CT]

1. Are you kidding a cardboard box under the bridge is about my true means.

I basically keep having to float and juggle and hope for better times ahead.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. We're within our means,

but I will have to tap the IRAs (again) to pay the IRS. That's kind of a never-ending cycle...every year, we owe (since I'm self-employed and refuse to pay quarterlies), so every year we have to take money out of the IRA which then has to be reported as income the next year. You can't win.

But we are very fortunate in that our duplex tenant pays about 2/3 of our mortgage (although we pay her utilities), my husband has a defined pension and I just started receiving social security in November. It's not a lot of money, but we have modest outlays.

[HereSince1628]

3. I'm not sure 1 and 3 are exclusive of each other...

I am living within my means, but I am also living on what comes in.

[marions ghost]

4. yes

that category's not quite there is it?

I was looking for it....

[DesertFlower]

5. we live way below our means.

[The River]

7. Same Here

If my job goes (and it might) I could live a few years
on what I've saved.
Being a "minimalist consumer" is an ecological / moral decision.
Just because I can afford "shit" doesn't mean the Planet can.

[DesertFlower]

8. hubby has almost 40 years with

the company. he's entitled to a pension and is 1 year away from social security (age 62). i'm not saying that we don't spend money. we eat out several times a week -- nothing expensive -- chinese or italian. no fancy restaurants. good food doesn't have to be expensive. he drives a porsche. i drive a mazda miata. we also have a 2001 pickup truck. all the cars were paid for with cash. we built a custom home in 2002, but put a big down payment (saved for years). only mortgaged $120,000. we pay extra each month and the principal is down to $76,000.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

6. 8 years of self-enforced austerity

After losing a job in 2000 (for which I had moved all the way across country) and cashing in a 401k to finance the return to Oregon, I've spent eight years living within my means. Thanks to this self-training, today I own a house, keep my checking account two or three paychecks ahead, and actually sleep at night. I have considerably more appreciation for the merest extravagance, and I certainly appreciate more the things that I already have. I feel like my own personal recession has made me better able to handle the slings and arrows of our current misfortune.

[JDPriestly]

9. When it comes to personal finances, liberals are the true conservatives.

For the most part, in general, we are not overly optimistic about our personal financial futures. That is why we tend to believe in safety nets and the idea that each person should put a bit in the pot to help each other, Social Security, universal health insurance, public schools, public utilities, public etc. We are not as likely as political conservatives to buy into the myth that today's prosperity will never end or that we can get rich quick. There are exceptions, but most liberals are careful with their own money.

[DesertFlower]

11. that is so true. nt

[Silent3]

10. I put 5% down on construction of a new house first week of May...

...last year, not long before the economic shit hit the fan. At that point I was contractually obligated to buy the new house when it was finished in November, and I'd put in a lot more cash during the construction too.

I'm still living well within my means, but if I'd known how scary the economy was going to get I'd have stayed in my old house, kept the lower mortgage, lower taxes, and the pile of money I had in the bank. I could still go six months or more without a paycheck now, but before buying this house I could have gone without a paycheck for 2-3 years -- a scenario that doesn't seem so far removed from reality any more.

[cornermouse]

12. This is a flawed proposition.

unless you have some way to ensure that there is no divorce, no job loss by anyone helping to support the family, no major illness by any member of the family or no death of a wage earner. I think if you looked closely enough you would find that a large share of the people who are in danger of losing their homes had sufficient income when they applied for the loan and have had one or more of the above happen, which altered their income through no fault of their own.

[exboyfil]

18. This is what made me a true believer in Universal Health Care

The fact that I would have some level of portability under UHC. My family is very healthy with no preexisting conditions, but if the dreaded two step process happens (cancer and a job loss), then all that has been worked for in a lifetime could be lost.

I send my libertarian friends over the edge when I make this argument. I keep telling them there aren't enough charitable chicken dinners in the world to cover a child's leukemia. Even with health insurance cancer can destroy savings (my parents, even with insurance, blasted through $100K in under two years fighting a losing battle for my dad who had cancer).

I would urge anyone (especially those with a young family) to get low cost term insurance. Do not mess around with whole life products. I have 10 times my income in insurance and will have that amount until my kids are through college. Of course this latest financial screw up makes me wonder how secure my term policies really are. Remember the train car full of cash sent to AIG to keep them solvent. AIG is a huge player in the life insurance market.

What we do need are mechanisms to cover for the down times in good times. We should never be running a deficit in good times as a nation.

[BamaGirl]

20. Tell them about my brother

Libertarians get on my last nerve. Bad shit happens when you least expect it, ya know? He's 34 and a mechanic. He's had 4 jobs since he was 16. Two of those jobs he had for years. His 3yo daughter got diagnosed with cancer last August. Because no daycare will take her, my sil hasn't worked since. They were okay until my brother got laid off after C'mas.

It's all a big mess and it goes beyond just having good reliable insurance. My brother's former employer is fighting his claim, because they say he missed too much work since August. Hello. His 3yo has cancer! And it wasn't time paid he took off. Cause gawd forbid anyone pay that now. And the crazy thing is, he told me right after Thanksgiving they had so little work coming in that every day someone got sent home (usually several someones). Since my niece was in the hospital so much during that time period, he went. Needed the income sure, but needed to be with his baby more. My parents and I have been picking up that slack. I'm not sure how we're all gonna manage if it continues much longer. There just aren't enough jobs for people looking. It's horrible to be so worried about a family member who's sick and have this shit thrown on top of that.

[bbinacan]

13. I used to live beyond my means and about

5 years ago I sucked it up and went into a credit card debt management program. I have about 2 more months left to pay off 40k in debt. That'll save me a $788/month payment. Back then I was close to foreclosure and had to tap my 401k. At 44, I have very little retirement savings and really need a new car. It chaps my ass a bit that I dug myself out and other people are going to have the gov't bail them out of their bad decisions.

[femmocrat]

14. No, never have.

No credit card bills.
Mortgage paid off (after refinancing = good move!).
No car loans.
Empty nest.

Just a little worried about financing retirement, but we're good for now. Thanks for asking. :hi:

[bkkyosemite]

15. Where is the one that says Trying to live on what comes in but the prices keep going up

The food items are smaller for a higher cost and you cannot keep what comes in level with what goes out.

Income that is fixed is not worth what it was even five years ago. So...trying to live on a budget that does not budge with the rising costs makes you:

Not able to keep up with the cost of living. Your means become more and more dire in order to buy what you need (not want) but need.

People not in this situation re: losing a job, illness, fixed income, etc. really do not understand what millions are going through right now. It is understandable that they do not know.

[leftofthedial]

16. I'm working three, sometimes four, shitty, part-time temp jobs at a time.

Best I can figure, the only "life" my means would actually buy would be to be homeless, without any kind of insurance.

[murielm99]

17. We are not living beyond our means.

We still have means. Too many people don't.

[hyphenate]

19. I have no means

I live on disability. If I didn't have a wonderful friend who helps keep a roof over my head, I would not be alive. I have to be grateful for that.

I get medical coverage, but without a place to live, that would be quite useless.

[readmoreoften]

21. Why phrase it like that? As if poverty means irresponsibility.

I'm not "living beyond my means", I'm trying to survive and barely making it.