How A Family Handles Job Loss
CBS
Transcript
We are kicking off a new segment this morning at the kitchen table and that is where we headed to sit down with some real families just like yours who are working their way through this tough economy. So this week I met a family facing the daily reality of a sudden job loss. Hello. For this New Jersey family, signs of the recession are nearly impossible to miss. It's just frightening. It's like stores that have been in business for all these years. All of a sudden, they're closing. There's no, you know, and it's just the whole economy. I've just never in my lifetime have ever seen this. But it is hitting home for this family of five. After building a career for 30 years, Matt Goldblat was laid off in December. Karen has two part-time jobs, but Matt's paycheck was their main income. And with three sons, including one in college, they quickly felt the pinch. I would say that our our uh total income at this point is probably going to be about 50% of of what it was, maybe a little bit less. Doesn't really quite cover all of our expenses. As far as our monthly bills, we've got our utility bill. This is one of the utility bills, electric. We also have gas. We've got a car insurance. This is a cable bill. Uh we have our mortgage here uh that runs about 2500 a month. What would you say your average grocery bill is every month? Five, six, $700 a month for food. Anything else bill-wise that's not on your table that that comes out of that checkbook every month? Oh, there's there's tuition for college. There's housing for college. So your expenses, you were saying probably between$6 or $8,000 a month. I' I'd say it was probably between seven and eight is what we were paying. And now what do you have coming in? I'd say our income is going to be closer to about 5,000 a month. So there's obviously a deficit there by a couple of thousand dollar. What's your biggest concern when you wake up in the morning and and you wake up and you get that first cup of coffee and you're not going off to work anymore and you're going to sit at your computer maybe to look for a job. What is what is the thing that concerns you the most? You know, just how long it's going to take to finally find something? I guess if I knew there was like an end, you know, like at the tunnel and I could say, "Okay, you know, we have a three more months to do this and then we're done." I think it would probably be easier. But the fact that it's so scary out there, you know, that, you know, I just don't know how long we could pretend that everything is okay. Joining us now with some much neededed advice for all families who find themselves facing these tough times like the gold blast our financial adviser Vera Gibbons and it great to have you with us. They were one thing that was really incredible to me is is what a positive attitude they seem to have about this. They're really embracing this and saying this is the way it is. We're going to make the best of it. U but some important lessons we can learn from them too because they're living off their savings right now partially and that's going to run out at some point. That's going to run out. Exactly. So tip number one here, Erica, you really have to have that emergency fund that's got 6 to9 months worth of living expenses in it. Used to be 3 to 6 months, now 6 to nine because it's taking people so much longer to find work. Only about 40% of Americans have an emergency fund. And in these times when we're losing jobs at a rate of 20,000 a day, it's more critical than ever, which is scary for a lot of people, too, because they're trying to figure out how do I put money in my savings when I may not have as much coming in even if I am working. So, where are some other places? Even looking at what some of the Goldblat expenses are every month, where are places we can cut back? It looks like they've done a pretty good job in some of the areas that you actually hit on in that piece. One area that they I didn't hear them looking into necessarily was the homeowners policy. Um, you know, you could look into that, maybe raise the deductible to lower the premium. That's the suggestion. For car insurance, too, that might work. For car insurance, too, if you've got them with the same insurance company, you know, you may be able to get a discount there. They have uh discounts for if you've been a loyal customer. So, that might be something to look into. Their grocery bill still seems a little high to me. So, maybe she needs to shop a little more strategically. And another thing that didn't necessarily come up, um, their mortgage, I know that that's a big expense. Maybe they're a candidate for a refinance. All right, some great things to look into. Vera, good to have you with us. And our thanks again to the Goldblat family for letting us come and sit down at the table.