"make sure you've got a year's income-worth of savings"

[SoCalDem]

These money experts are a piece of work...

CNN's money-expert is "counseling" a Denver newspaper guy who just lost his job.

The guy has one kid in college, and another going in the fall, and refinanced his house to pay off debt, so is it likely that he HAS a 5- figure savings account??..and on the day he loses his job, he's uinlikely to be able to get one:(

We sold our Denver house to a guy who had just gotten a job at the Rocky Mountain News ...many years ago..

[shadowknows69]

1. I have a years income worth of savings

No income, no savings.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. reminds me of the retirement savings advice where 2 million

is always the goal, no matter how little you earn, and it's always assumed that
you will get 10% interest per year.

The sort of advice they lend is utterly useless.

[guitar man]

26. 2 million

is 57 years worth of my current salary! :rofl:

[SoCalDem]

28. You better hope you live a LONG time... and keep working

hey,,wait, then there will BE no retirement..

back to the drawing board :rofl:

[guitar man]

32. My best friend

My best friend just died at 50 a few weeks ago. A bunch of us were talking after his funeral and we couldn't help but wonder if he got off easier than the rest of us eventually would :(

[SmileyRose]

30. That's nearly 80 years of my current GROSS income.

[Mme. Defarge]

39. My motto ...

NEVER trust a "financial advisor".

[damntexdem]

40. Hey, it's easy to get 10% return each year -- 10% of zero is zero.

But aren't they concerned about people making over $250,000 per year? If they had a year's earnings in a single account, only the first quarter million would be insured -- so they could potentially lose the rest. Shouldn't we all be worried for those folks? ;-)

[Warpy]

3. I thought I had about 18 months of savings

but I managed to stretch it to 30. It's amazing how little you can live on when there's going to be nothing coming in for a while.

An additional bit of advice I'd give is to keep a month's worth of cash stashed someplace, preferably a place that requires a ladder and flashlight to retrieve. I hope the worst doesn't happen, but if it does, it's insurance that you'll be able to get enough to eat. If it doesn't, you'll have some cash to blow at a later date.

[SoCalDem]

8. We call that "Nat'l Bank of Mom"..

I have a stash, and it does come in handy when my husband calls and says.."The car place called.. it's gonna cost $1,100.00"..or my son calls & says.."I need $1,700.00 by 8 am, and the bank's not open yet".. (He was on his way to Havasu to install some garage doors and had to pick them up COD, and leave town by 8 am)..

and Bank of Mom charges no interest :evilgrin:

[monmouth]

21. I am your competitor...LOL. I charge no interest either and always get paid back...n/t

[SoCalDem]

24. I get paid back too.. from 2 out of 3 sons

one is a deadbeat, but whadda-yah-gonna-do.. I alwasy tell him, I will just deduct it from his inheritance.,and then we all have a laugh:)

[monmouth]

33. Hahaha, my "borrower" is in the food end of the country club set,

when season is over there's about six weeks of no income, I tide him over. We should be glad we can do it I'm guessing..

[Warpy]

22. I used to know where a store kept its cash stash

and the owner told me to keep the key long after I'd left. There were a couple of emergencies when I needed to write a check in the middle of the night and cash it at the store.

I really miss that emergency bank. I did repay the favor occasionally by opening the place up if somebody was late and customers were waiting.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Watch out. I had bitched about this on a thread a while back (advice

to have 6 months emergency salary on hand), and I thought it was unrealistic for many people, just a way to make people feel like they're to blame and irresponsible when they can't go on for months on end without income. You will soon hear from smug people who have loads of cash they don't ever touch, for whatever reason.

[Why Syzygy]

23. I do find it troubling

when people are laid off from $100,000 per annum jobs, and show up at the food bank the very next day.

[TwilightGardener]

37. Ha! There's no good explanation for that, I agree.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Suze Orman said something stupid like that on Morning Joe the other day.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. Suze Orman is a fucking dolt.

I fucking hate her - telling people to save money and then telling people they should buy Buicks because they're a "good investment". Piece of fucking shit.

[SoCalDem]

10. She's the Dr. Phil of finance

wearing her welcome..very very thin

[valerief]

9. God, she's as annoying as Scabby Joe. nt

[wryter2000]

27. Worse

She pollutes PBS during their endless pledge breaks. I can't get America's Test Kitchen because she's on there.

Lord, I wish a commercial network would pick up ATK as one has with This Old House.

[valerief]

31. You can't watch PBS anymore (except for Moyers and Frontline). Not since the Contract On America. nt

[wryter2000]

36. Cooking shows and Jane Austen books in Masterpiece Theatre is all

And over 1/4 of the time, the cooking shows are canceled for pledge breaks. I kept track last years. There were 14 weeks of pledge breaks. They routinely ruin the entire month of December.

[valerief]

41. I'd rather watch Bad Girl's Club and Millionaire Matchmaker on satellite tv. I have no shame about

the trash I like.

[Gemini Cat]

42. During the fund drives I get endless musical and

endless self help programmes. Endlessly!

[TwilightGardener]

38. I get ATK and Cook's Country in Nebraska--I TIVO them.

I do also watch TOH, Victory Garden, P. Allen Smith, Hometime...I owe PBS a lot more money than I actually donate to them.

[Cleita]

6. I know. They live in another world don't they? When I made 35% less than

my male colleagues but still was expected to pay 100% in rent and other living expenses, my bosses used to tell me to save 10% of my income. I mean I was always short at the end of the month barely meeting living expenses. Where was that extra 10% supposed to come from? I have also argued with conservatives as what would be the best way to finance universal health care. One of their solutions is an income tax credit. Fine, for those who have an income and pay income tax, but what about people with a chronic condition or disability who can't work anymore? What about children? They don't have a clue.

[valerief]

11. They only know platitudes. Critical thinking isn't part of their makeup. nt

[librechik]

12. dream on--but a sensible social safety net is totally out of the question for these people

wait till the unemployed are stalking our streets, numerous, hungry and well armed--maybe they'll appreciate the expensive alternative then!

[Gormy Cuss]

13. A year's worth of income in savings is a great goal.

Did the experts have any sage advice on how to accomplish that? Nope, didn't think so.

[ThomWV]

14. What's left of my savings is about 4 years worth of income

and we own some property that's worth another 4 years worth at today's depressed prices. So about 8 years total. Oh, we are both retired and have low incomes but we're doing just fine and have never had to dip into savings.

[AndyA]

15. Pretty free and easy with the advice, aren't they?

The dark haired woman on NBC - I can't recall her name just now - always advises to "pay yourself first." What bullshit. When you owe 115% of what you bring in, it's hard to pay ANYONE, much less yourself.

Free advice is usually worth what you pay for it: nothing.

I've seen parodies on SNL, and they are pretty accurate with the advice they dole out. I don't think any of these economists or television economic advisers live on the same planet the rest of us do.

[MorningGlow]

16. ROFL ROFL ROFL

Hee heeeeeeee that's a good one! Bwaaahaaa...!

...Oh wait. They're serious?!

Yeah okay. We have a WEEK'S worth of "savings", otherwise known as "the checking account cushion in case Mr. MG fucks up and debits a bunch of stuff that MG doesn't subtract from the balance before writing the mortgage check."

We've cut a zillion corners. We don't throw money away on frivolous things. If we friggin' HAD the money to save, we'd do it. It's not like we're going around buying boats and crap instead.

[SoCalDem]

17. yes.. call right now and tell them you want the 90 ft yacht..not the 100 ft one

gotta cut corners :rofl:

[MorningGlow]

19. Gasp!!

D00d. A 90 footer?! That's downright CRUEL. :(

:rofl:

On edit: Can't we cut the butler's hours instead?

[Mojambo]

18. Okay. I'm only about 51 weeks short here. n/t

[EFerrari]

20. I've been out of work for a year so I guess I do have a year's income worth of savings.

lol

[wryter2000]

25. Or, "make other plans"

Remember Ben Stein and Alan Greenspan blithely telling us that if Social Security was in doubt, we should "make other plans" for retirement?

This sort of advice is the equivalent of "let them eat cake." We don't have any effing cake. I can't make "other plans." I can't save "a year's income." I can barely pay my bills.

What planet do these aholes live on? Insensitivity 3 orbitting around the star Greedmaster?

[ComtesseDeSpair]

29. I have $45.00 in my savings account right now...

I live paycheck to paycheck. That guy can fuck off. Talk about living in a dream world.

[teenagebambam]

34. Stopped paying my mortgage

because Bank of America wouldn't even have a conversation with me about saving my house unless I was already delinquent. They're still not talking, but my savings account is looking better.

[DBoon]

35. I did have that much money

then the stock market crashed

Now I have 6 months worth!

[maynard]

43. I used to have retirement w/ AIG

I used to have a great retirement w/ AIG. After the bailout, it went down another 25%. I am not looking forward to the next quarter statement. At least my 92' Honda Accord is working fine.....