this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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If you have investments, let’s treat those as liquid cash for the sake of argument. Otherwise, the assumption is that you’re not selling property or possessions, but continuing to live as you do now.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Next weeks paycheck is already spent

Edit- I am very frugal and the money goes toward bills and rent

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

3 years for my wife and I.

Probably 6-7 if we take money out of retirement accounts.

We have been very fortunate in circumstances. Spend about 2.5k a month. In mid twenties.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

About a year.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

About a month should be covered

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

I don't use my car much anymore, so would consider that liquid, and could make the kids pay some rent now they are working (not much), if I sold that and nothing in the house needed repaired or maintained (ha ha ha) I am at almost 3 years. So I guess if I had some fatal illness and was willing to run out all of both my &my husband's retirement money I could stop working. Well, no, nevermind, I couldn't, because the medical care would bankrupt us. But we would not immediately starve anymore. It only took half a century to get here!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Right now, until next month's mortgage payment comes due. Every time I get something in the emergency fund either an emergency happens or a maintenance that will be an emergency if ignored. Just ordered a new set of car tires about an hour ago, as it happens.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

1-2 years before I need to look at selling the house, although hoping that the mortgage will drop when our 2 year fix ends which could push that time up a bit as that is by far my largest expense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Cash only, about 6 months. Selling assets, 20 years.

13 years ago I had to walk 2 hours after work to get home because I didn't have a pounds to rent a bike (it was a bank holiday and salary was delayed for a day). My family helped me expanding my education and since things skyrocketed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

A couple months, but

Basically I’ve been saving up for years to redo a leaky moldy bathroom. That wouldn’t get done. Maybe ever

I’ve saved what I could to pay for my kids college. I could ruin their entire future to stay alive

I’m coming up in retirement age with way too little savings. I’ve finally able to put aside enough to catch up a little bit I guess that would go pretty quickly too

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

A month on current funds and maybe a couple more if I started selling off longer term assets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

About 4 months before I have to sell any assets. Then about 144 months, not including future growth of those assets before they're sold. But then I'm broke at nearly 50.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Buddy I live deep in the Appalachia mountains. I don't need money at all. All this technology and civilization bullshit is just a bonus for me, not a need.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Without cutting back at all, even my frivolous spending and holidays, about six months.

If i cut holidays and frivolous stuff, about twelve months.

If i cut back essentials, sold some stuff, eighteen to twenty four months. If on top i downsized the house, probably five years.

If i could make it to seven years then my private pension would kick in and I can retire. If the government hasn't already moved the age you can draw a private pension i could be retired already.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Five months, but, three quibbles:

If I didn't have income I'd be cutting way back, and with only essential expenses it's more like eight.

I wouldn't plunder my retirement investments to keep spending at the current rate, so if I kept spending the same but didn't plunder, it's more like two months.

I started a good job recently after being underemployed for over a year, and am still financially recovering; normally my emergency budget covers ten months without any income.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I'm one of the lucky few who have a pension. I do not have enough savings to last until the pension kicks in, and in any case the pension is less than my current income, but I could live off my pension and social security alone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I could probably make it 6 months maybe slightly more, I don't spend a lot as it is and where I live has a relatively low cost of living.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Many years technically, but I doubt the stability of… well, everything, too much to say that with much conviction.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

A month, maybe. I'd probably get arrested for squatting at work sooner, tbh. If I cut and run to the woods tonight, I could probably make it further, but I'll run out of food money faster than I could get a reliable food source going before winter hits

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

About 30 months without any cutback on spending. Pure living costs is about 60 months.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If I'm frugal, about a year. But I own a small business and this would only occur if my business is bankrupt. In which case debtors might chase my personal assets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is it not a limited company?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

We had to wager our houses to get the initial loans during startup. Loans are almost finished.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

3 months at the absolute most, likely significantly less, even after cutting out all "luxuries" like paying for internet/phone/electricity/water.

70% of that would go on rent for my 1-bed flat. And no - I don't live in a big city. I earn more than most. I spend less than most. I don't use any subscription services and I pirate everything. I don't drink, and I never go out to pubs, cinema, (insert paid activity here) because all of that is way too expensive.

The UK is fucked.

Literally the only thing that decides how long I can live is whether or not you rent - whatever you do or don't do as personal responsibility practically does not matter unless you own a house.

The small variations in rent price are also irrelevant, I used to pay more for less, in the grand scheme of things the variance only amounts to £100-200 per year and usually depends on how much you can tolerate free penicillin on the walls.

The blame is only on boomers who hoard property, jack up rents and collect benefits from the gov't off worker taxes. Virtually no one else is to blame apart from capitalism more generally.

The same boomers will also soon elect the alt-right and things will get a lot worse and everywhere else seems to be on the same general trajectory.

I used to dream of a utopia like Star Trek. Now 28 days later looks like a utopia.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I earn less than average (£26k), live in the south, most of my hobbies are cheap though. Fair bit of outdoor stuff - touching grass is free.

The media really is pushing reform though, it's crazy how much press they get. The party that wants to remove your human rights..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I earn almost double and I can't say I have any hobbies that require spending money anymore, unless upskilling for work counts as a hobby.

Almost all of my hobbies are centered around spending less money, e.g. building an offline music collection to move off Spotify, homelab stuff to host navidrome & jellyfin to move off having any subscription services.

I did buy an acoustic guitar I've been absolutely in love with lately. Was pretty cheap for a guitar (£200) but that's something I suppose.

I was saving for a house but by the time I could afford even the shittiest mortgage I might have to flee the country and as such lose all the gains in my LISA. Might as well live a little I guess.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Bought a house a couple of years ago, just as Truss fucked up the economy so my mortgage sucks. 2 year fix ends soon though so hopefully the rate will drop. Tempting to keep paying the same amount though as I know I am able to and then cut many years off it. Or perhaps even aim to pay a bit more and cut over a decade off. Reducing the size of the debt faster also should mean I can extend the payback period if I have financial issues and its not as much of a problem as there would be more time to work with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I used to dream of a utopia like Star Trek.

Be careful what you wish for.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Around 4 months. But I could considerably decrease the rate of spending if that was an actual scenario, which would give me more like a year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

No idea. Really.

Of course I would change my spending automatically, if the income went down to zero. But it is not likely at all that something like that happens.

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