Got laid off in October 2008. That was a week after spending 50k cash on my kids bar mitzvah that I saved from my bonuses. A month later my portfolio tanked. Went from almost a half million to little over 150k. My cobra is too high, unemployment Is a drop in the bucket, my Wife’s business goes under and then my daughter decides that teenage angst isn’t enough. She has to go bulimic on us.
Well that year away cost us another 100k, out of pocket. So I am down to 50k, 1300 a month in take home, plus a small veterans disability pension. 6k a month in bills.
It’s been rough. But despite all that, I managed to pay every bill. That’s what keeps me sane.
I wind up traveling around the country for work, 6 months at a time. My meals are calculated by the buck. And now traveling I have to take on more rent, another car and more stress from being away from my family.
>>That was a week after spending 50k cash on my kids bar mitzvah<<
I am sorry, I just don’t understand that.
I can’t even begin to start on how I don’t understand that. Even if it was salad days and you were reeling in $ hand over fist, I don’t understand that.
I can’t even see that for a WEDDING. $50K invested when a kid is 13, even at a low rate of return would be a considerable college fund.