For those who were laid off please offer tips on how to deal with a reduction in salary of 50%.
Any Food Banks that you recommend?
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Provide your services nightly near Michigan and Wyoming! Who know you might get at Ford exec.
Uber. Doordash. Instacart.
You can even consider renting a room on AirBNB.
Rent out your car.
All kinds of ways to make extra cash.
I'd suggest OF but management never let's the hotties go.
@fc+1jvck9fy2 Get a "paying" roommate.
Get a roommate.
- Seeds and seedlings are cheap. Get you a few cherry/grape tomato plants, pepper plants, plant some cucumbers, sew some wild arugula seeds ( they will keep giving forever). Then go get bulk dried beans and rice. Learn to bake no-knead bread and make tortillas. You can eat healthily for pennies a day.
- Make friends with people who have backyard chickens
- Forage for wild berries, raspberries, blackberries and mulberries are easy to find. Hines park has loads of them.
- Start walking/riding a bike instead of driving everywhere.
- Thrift shops for clothes if you absolutely need new clothes, or learn to sew. People give away old sewing machines that are perfectly usable.
- Sell stuff you don’t need.
I suspect if you review your spending habits you can easily half your spending.
NEVER live off of more than 50% of your salary. EVER! Better luck next time!
@OP. The answer is simple! Just reduce your expenses 50%.
The main problem is that people overspend and overstrech their finances. Then most people don't want to cut their expenses, and certainly they are not getting rid of their "toys". A coworker of mine in another company, had 5 jeeps for himself, plus 2 more for the wife and daughter, making around $70,000 a year (2 decades ago). Another coworker leveraged his home equity several times, as it increased, and lost his house in 2006 (he got cancer and had to stop working).
When my wife and I started working, we were making $12 an hour each. We found a small studio for $700 a month in the city ($100-$150 more expensive than others, but due to the location, we didn't need a car). We lived off one salary, saved the other one. The first year alone we saved $14,000 after taxes.
It was a hard start for sure, but soon we got salary increases. We improved ourselves, we earned more money, but still, we lived off one salary, saved the other one. When we saved over $100K, we bought a house. We got a very low mortgage payment, just in case one of us lost the job, but with unlimited lump sum contributions. Within the first year, we paid a $45,000 lump sum (one salary). In the second year we contributed over $20,000, since we used the rest of the money for furniture and home improvements.
After 7 years, our house was paid off. During that time, I lost my job 2 times. The first time, I was able to find another job in less than a month. The second time, it took over 6 months. So no lump sum payment that year, and the low mortgage payment allowed us to use one salary for all expenses, and even going on vacation for a week.
After the house was paid off, we started spending more, going out for dinner and shows, vacations, traveling, but still, saving half of our income. So if right now, I, the one with the biggest salary, would lose my job, no big impact will be felt in our household. And if both of us would lose our jobs, we have a rainy fund, plus some investments we could use.
Let me tell you that is liberating, less stress due to the dangers of layoffs, less concerns about the future, and the trade off was that we just had to postpone most of the "expensive fun" for several years, but we are doing it now (vacations, traveling, cruises, shows). So life is good.
Cut expenses, get rid of "wants", prioritize the needs, and if the money is still not enough, consider reducing your living space. Hopefully, you'll get back on your feet very quickly, and you'll learn the financial lesson.
Your gravy train is over. Go find a job and actually contribute.
You could save 20% or more on your car insurance by switching to Geico
If a %50 pay reduction causes you to go to a soup kitchen:
- You are exaggerating - trolling (hope so)
- You seriously let your expenses get out of control and are living life on autopilot.
- have an extremely low paying job at Ford and should have been looking in the 1st place.
- If you've had some kind of unforeseen life hardship that has led to this condition, it should be obvious this board isn't the place to get anything that will help you.
If you live in Michigan, leave.
That would be a good start.
This here is rich...lol