I don’t know if you saw this article on CNN but it highlights Kent and Mysti Cope. They both worked for New Century Financial, which was the number 2 subprime lender in the country. They have both lost their jobs and have realized they have to make some tough sacrifices.
Sacrifice number 1: Trade in the Corvette for a Suburban. Huh? Wow, talk about really taking one for the team. I wonder if it was new.
Sacrifice number 2: Let the gardener go. Wow. Way to pull out all the stops there. I hope your homeowners association can tolerate your gardening skills. You certainly should have the time to keep the yard up now.
What wasn’t talked about in the article was all the sacrifices they aren’t making. I’d be interested to see a breakdown of their expenses. Clearly the largest rope around their neck is their home. The article points out that their equity line of credit, mortgage, health and life insurance equals about $10,000 a month. HOLY MOLY.
I did the math from another tidbit in the article. They say that the monthly unemployment checks of $1800 only cover about 1/8th of their expenses. That means they must be spending approximately $14,400 each month. To make matters worse, they are both dabbling in commission/sales type work. She is trying to sell jewelry and clothing online and he has gotten his realtors license. Both of those have significant delays in generating much income, let alone generating profit of over $14,400 each month. Yikes.
Check out the article:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/31/news/economy/copes/index.htm
I actually feel bad that they have no idea that you really can live on so much less. Yes, you sacrifice things like having someone do all of your yardwork and living in a house much too large to clean (I wonder if they do that themselves now or if that was something they had to hang on to?). I really don’t get some people’s priorities.