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Comment by GulpGulp | Hacker News Reader

Are you saying there's a time where you weren't constantly anticipating your entire life unraveling at a moment's notice?

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Yep, that's a good point, and the best way to deal with this. After being laid off 2 or 3 times over the years, I have learnt to just not leave anything on my desk or in my drawers, make sure I have everything I care about on my own devices, resume up to date, have plenty of savings, live life one day at a time.

If I do get laid off, it's a bonus with the extra severance, if not, being prepared is relieving in and of itself.

I get the meme of this, but I’ve noticed I am always thinking about what would happen or what I would do if/when I got fired.

1 perk of being childless is you really only have to worry about feeding yourself I guess

(I am not a childfree proponent)

"I guess"? One month of tech salary would cover a studio rent and feed an adult human for a very, very, very, very long time. As I've touched on several times and NO ONE wants to really engage with, there's a lot of out of touch people here that have no idea what "live within your means" means and don't want to be remotely honest about their expenses.

Or somehow thinks "within [their] means" means that they're untouchable and unfirerable. Bet the general sentiment towards unemployment and collective bargaining has changed around here recently! Or not, tech workers are great at excusing-exceptionalism.

EDIT: This actually makes me wonder. I would really like to see data about peoples' empathy regarding unemployment/homelessness/unions and their ability to withstand an unexpected job-loss - how much "F you" money do they have saved, how much do they live conservatively?

The folks around me born into money are much more comfortable "spending their paycheck" than those of us that came from more middle-class backgrounds and graduated into comfortable money.

What are you talking about? A month of tech salary at $180k annually is maybe $10k after taxes. In the high CoL areas where those salaries are “common”, $2k/mo might get you a studio with a reasonable commute.[1] Throw in utilities and food and you’ll be lucky to make it 4 months.

That is absolutely not a “very, very, very, very long time”. You can’t compare the cost of a studio in Albuquerque with a salary from the Bay Area.

1. https://www.avaloncommunities.com/california/sunnyvale-apart... - 1 bedrooms here start at 2800 and this isn’t even a good location apart from reasonable commutes on the 101.

Why are you assuming a studio and not roommates?

The comment they’re replying to said “one month of tech salary would cover a studio rent and feed an adult human for a very, very, very, very long time.”

Commute to where? You'd have no job.

So what are you proposing? When you get laid off you immediately pay a couple of months rent to break a lease and move to somewhere with a lower cost of living?

Given that moving also incurs a significant cost (outside of a lease breaking fee), you have to be sure you won’t find work for >6 months for that strategy to pay off.

If you can build 4 months (or even just 3) of runway on 1 month of salary, it doesn't take long to get a really good buffer in place.

This wasn’t about the ability to build a buffer, it was about what can be done on a single months salary.

Anyway, it takes longer than you think, especially if you had to relocate to take the new job. Once you take into account paying off that type of stuff, paying car insurance, car payment, funding your 401k, etc, you’ll be lucky if you can buffer one month for each month.

It's definitely easy to spend all your money, but with a little budgeting it's not harder to buffer more.

Maybe I've read too much FIRE financial independence content though.

1:1 is still pretty great imo, and really difficult for a lot of people. That's probably about the average rate I put together my savings, and the result is that I get to look at layoffs as a potential paid sabbatical.

I'm really confused where you're getting your numbers from. One month of $140k salary, post tax, gets you less than 4 months of studio rent + food around here (Seattle suburbs). Sure, you're not on rations the moment you're laid off, but it's not necessarily "safe" or a good feeling. And absolutely not a "very very very very long time".

Add a car payment, car insurance, and you're probably looking at 3 months.

Edit: that's also not supposed to imply that folks only have a single month's worth of salary saved. Just trying to highlight that your comment had some wonky numbers.

Just to represent the "other side", a perk of having a child (and spouse) is that you have an emotional support system at home. My daughter has brought us joy for almost her entire 18 years of life (aside from a few glitches in the Matrix which happen to every kid along the way).

Having left a job of 12 years, I am gradually working up my next phase -- new job, my own company, side gigs... it's both exciting to contemplate and stressful in these increasingly difficult times.

But coming home and dealing with family stuff, both good and bad, is a welcome distraction, usually. YMMV, of course!

I just wish it would have happened a couple years ago. The one time I actually have something going for me is the time I get laid off.

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