Tonight's Good Question deals with how much we should save in the event we lose our jobs. I should say, in case you lose your job. The media business is doing just fine, thank you, and I'm sure I have nothing to worry about.
We talked with Kara McGuire, author of the fantastic Ka-Blog, and co-host of the weekly web video sensation, "Dollar Duo." She talked about preparing to lose your job in this column.
She suggests if you are the sole income provider in your family, and you're in an at-risk industry, you should save enough to cover six months of living expenses. If you're a dual-income family, you should save three months.
If you get laid off, you'll likely qualify for unemployment insurance. To find out the details on that in Minnesota, go here. Basically, the most you'll get is $566 a week, up to 1/3 of your salary over the past 12 months of employment.
To get rolling on saving, you really need to know how much you're spending now. The idea is to save enough to cover your mortgage, car payment, insurance, utilities, groceries, and childcare expenses. I'm trying out Mint.com. Mint imports all your bank accounts, credit cards, savings accounts, etc., and then tracks it on a secure website. You can break out your spending by category, pretty simply.
At home, I've used Quicken for years, and they have a free online service as well. It does a lot of the same things as Mint.
Or just make a list. It's pretty daunting. If your mortgage is $1500, six-months of just that adds up to $9000. My wife and I have always had $100 automatically taken out of one of our paychecks and dumped into a savings account. Do we have six months of living expenses saved up? No. Three months? I'm not sure. I'll be working on it now.
