re: OT: Corona Panic 2020

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Sure it is. I checked and my wife and I have 10 months in our savings account. It's a matter of discipline.

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How many kids do you have?

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I have two....but I am retired and they are both out of the house. Have been for awhile. That said, I have had 6 or months worth of Emergency Fund for many, many years, well before my kids were out of the house. I probably had the emergency fund since they were in grammar school.

Again, I am not saying it is easy. But, if you run out of money right now and have a car repossessed, or lose your house, or have to use the credit card to buy stuff, you will wish you had not eaten out as much, or gone to the movies, or gone on less extravagant vacations.

With that in mind, my wife went to Italy for 24 days on vacation 7-8 years ago, and when this Coronavirus thing gets out of here we are wanting to go to Switzerland, or Austria shortly after the next Thanksgiving to see the Alps and go to the Christmas markets.
Choices we made years ago will allow us to do that kind of stuff with no worries. We pay cash for our cars, just bought a lot in NC in the mountains overlooking Lake Chatuge. You can live for today and sweat the rest of your life, or you can build and plan for the future and still live fine today.

The key is investing early. It makes a ton of difference.

(We also THINK we will be able to leave my kids about $500,000 a piece when we are gone. My son is excellent with money and he will be very well off. My daughter is not as good, but she will be fine, too. She lives in Amsterdam, and is dating a Dutch guy. He's a great guy and they are notoriously frugal.