Standard of Living

Advice on determining and holding your standard of living.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Standard
• of
• Living
• Yuppy
• Money
• Financial
• Advice
• Debt
• Credit
• Cards
• Suze
• Orman

[papatoony]

Nick, what do you do for a living?

[yuppymoney]

I'm a real estate broker, but I'm obsessed with personal finances! Click on my video for 'About Yuppy Money' if you want more info - Thank you for watching / your comments.

[sliv812]

Suze Orman suggests 6 to 8 months of an emergency fund. I agree. If the economy weakens to recession this year, as many "experts" predict, then the more of an emergency fund you have, the better off you'll be (unless of course the dollar continues to plummet and inflation skyrockets - because that buying power of the once almighty dollar will continue to go down).

[abdi340]

A lot of people live beyond their means and don't even have 8-10 months of emergency fund. That's not good.

[yuppymoney]

Yes, there is a lot of truth to your comment.

[yuppymoney]

Yes, you are right -

[JohnR22926]

Left: I looked at your profile. We're not on the same page, bt that's OK. I did notice a quote you had that reminded me of one of my favorites:

If a young man is not a liberal he has no heart; if an old man is not a conservative he has no brain.

IMO we're going through a normal (and minor) economic downturn exacterbated by 3 things: (1) the home mortgage crisis, (2) a VERY unpopular president, and (3) an unpopular war, now seen by most as a mistake.

Don't be so negative; we'll be fine.

[JohnR22926]

leftliberal: The current mortgage crisis has been caused primarily by people who bought more house they can afford. The banks got greedy too, but IMO the majority of people who signed up for ARMs did so because it substantially reduced their monthly mortgage payment...and allowed them to buy a bigger/fancier house. They got greedy.

I got a mortgage in '06 and laughed in the bank's face when they showed me how much my monthly payments would increase under an ARM as interest rates rose.

[LeftLiberalSoCal]

Emergency fund? Are you kidding me? People live pay-check to paycheck. Then one day they get a raise from 38k yr to 42k yr and suddenly thier rent payments equal thier mortgage on a IO or ARM loan so they sign up for a 600k house. Emergency fund? Huh?

[LeftLiberalSoCal]

Your a Realtor? You dont seem fake enough. I think you need to work on your animation. I've never understood why they call them "Real"tors. Clearly there is nothing real about them is there? Anyways. About living standards. I've got good idea. Why dont we get a house on credit we cannot afford and spend the next 100 years paying it off? Or we can just keep buying and selling houses. That will be the US economy. Keep buying keep buying. Real Estate always goes up. Just ask a Realtor.

[yuppymoney]

I always suggest at least 6 months coverage in an emergency fund.