n households with more than one wage earner, halving the monthly income can severely stretch a budget. And in households where there's one breadwinner, having zero income can be devastating. A rainy day fund helps, but it's important to craft a plan early about how you're going to get through the rough patch.
More people are facing this nightmare today: While the volume of subprime mortgages headed to foreclosure is falling, the volume of prime, fixed-rate mortgages defaulting is on the rise, according to statistics from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA's chief economist said that's a result of rising unemployment. See full story.
"If you don't have the prescribed three to six months income in the bank (now eight to 12 months due to how long it takes to replace that job), you're really in deep trouble with some troubling decisions to make," said Gail Cunningham, vice president of public relations for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, in an email. The NFCC is a national, nonprofit credit-counseling network.
"We always advise people to pay their living expenses in full (this includes the house payment), followed by any secured debt (usually the car payment), and then the creditors. This will keep a roof over your head, food on the table, utilities paid, medicine in the cabinet, the kids at day care, etc. Once the money runs out, no one beneath that line gets paid. However, this assumes that there's either some savings to fall back on or another income source," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment