Poll Results and a New Poll

Our most recent poll's question was "How much money (US$) would you need to survive for a year if you had no other sources of income besides savings?" Here's the results:

• $20,000 or less 33 people/54%
• $20,000 to $50,000 18 people/29%
• $50,000 to $100,000 7 people/11%
• $100,000 or more 3 people/4%

I'm happy to see that more than 50% of the respondents could live on $20,000 or less. This either means that people have very little debt so their main living expenses would be for the basics such as food, electricity, gas, etc., or that if necessary, they could cut their expenses quickly such as living in a cheaper apartment and cutting out discretionary spending in order to survive on such an amount. Either way, the less you absolutely need to survive, the better. I actually know people that really do need $100,000+ per year just to survive--mostly this is to pay their debts such as massive mortgages, car payments, and other debts that cannot be easily gotten rid of. The bottom line is that the less debt you carry (ideally you will not have any debt such as credit card, car, or house payments), the more easily you can survive whatever life throws you such as an extended medical leave, a job loss, or a major recession/depression.

p.s. Don't forget to take our new poll >>>