Thursday, May 21, 2009

A Question For The Assembled

My employer has stopped 401(k) matching contributions some time ago, and I've been looking for advice on the situation. In this article I ran across some standard advice (keep putting in your money) but this caught my eye:
In today's economy, where layoffs are rampant and your employer has signaled financial vulnerability, every household should have three to six months' worth of living expenses set aside in a liquid, interest-bearing account such as a money market fund.
Do any of you have that kind of fund set aside? Enough money for six months worth of rent/mortgage, utilities, and food (or even three months of that?) It's the kind of advice I would give, but I would have to think that would be prohibitive for a majority of American households without making serious lifestyle changes.

Am I way off base here?

2 comments:

  1. Hmm...Well, because I didn't pay as much on my car as I had planned, I have a savings account that would support my rent for several months. If I had to pay *everything* out of it, though, I think it would only last a couple of months. Plus, we have a baby on the way, so I have no illusions about keeping that money for long... As far as payday to payday, though, there's no *way* I have nay left over to save... Not these days.

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  2. Nod, makes sense to me.

    Also congrats on the little one. :)

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