If your income halted tomorrow, how long could you go before things started to become problematic?

I could go about a year. However, being a single guy with low overhead which includes a 2% interest rate mortgage, I could walk down the street and flip burgers or stock shelves until I got another white collar gig in my profession. I cut my teeth working low wage jobs, I'm not above doing them if I have to. They're actually kind of fun in a "Clerks" kind of way.

If I was married with children, oh boy, that'd be stressful.

Dave Ramsey suggests having 6 months worth of living expenses in savings.

I'm married with 5 children. My wife works part time. If we lost both incomes, we'd start panicking right away, but we could last about 6-8 months before having to tap into investments.

That happened 9 years ago for me. Haven't worked since, so it's been early retirement.

Yeah, I ask kind of because I'm nosey as I have a casual friend who is a realtor, and they haven't had any transactions in 4 months now... It's a single parent with 3 kids, so I'm wondering how they're doing, but I don't know them well enough to ask without it seeming like I'm prying or just being nosey. Makes me anxious just thinking about it though.

I would not blink an eye. Retired. Assets sufficient to cover any eventuality, at least financially so.

I can't say that it was easy, and I put up with a lot of sh_t in my career. But saved and lived below our means, invested wisely, and was lucky. And I was fortunate.

Now, this is no longer a concern. Life is good.

Advice: hang in there, be patient, take responsibility for your future.

Yeah, well realtors had the potential to do REALLY well 2020-2022, so he or she could have a nice nest egg from that.

I accidentally hit the downvote button trying to upvote your post and now it won't let me change it. I felt bad so I got on another device to post this.

My lifestyle would immediately change, but I would not have to work again. I would have to downgrade cars, vacations, discretionary spending, etc. House has such a cheap mortgage I’d hold onto that.

In short, I’d try to get another job ASAP but would not take anything that would stress me out more than living a comfortable but basic life.

between 10-14 days

I’m not even supposed to be here today

According to a poll, most Americans would struggle raising $400 in a case of an emergency. In other words people live paycheck to paycheck so they are only a paycheck or two away from financial ruin.

I could go a good six months without changing my lifestyle.

In reality, I would change my lifestyle and go 18 months. Probably sell my investment property and net another 24 months. Sell my favorite car (I have 2 for myself) and get close to a year. Then I’d have to dip into my retirement early. All in, at least a decade, but that is not enough to retire, especially with 2 kids going to college in the next 5 years.

"The overall suicide rate fluctuated from 10.4 to 22.1 over the 1928–2007
period. It peaked in 1932, the last full year of the Great Depression"

-"Impact of Business Cycles on US Suicide Rates, 1928–2007", American Journal of Public Health, June, 2011

25 years or so

It would be problematic immediately. I'd have to start spending money that I was planning to keep invested. That would be a problem.

I'd probably be able to maintain my current quality of life for 10-15 years before going broke, though.

I'd never have to work again, but I might, just to have something to do.