
Ask HN: Do you have any backup plan? - selmat
Do you have any backup plan when things will go wrong - business, job, health, etc.?
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swatcoder
I can't plan for every contingency. I'm not sure anyone can.

But nurturing a network of family and friends, keeping reasonable savings,
maintaining modest expenses, and having more than one set of valuable skills
covers a lot of possibilities. These have come in handy already, and I'm sure
they will again.

I would say yes.

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anoncoward111
I used to plan for every single little thing in life that could go wrong.
Health insurance, identity theft, multiple credit cards and backups of
important files, pursuing higher education.

That all paid off. I'm 26 now and have a net worth of $125,000 in cash and a
$3,000 car.

I'll tell you one thing. It feels empty. It feels like it can be gone at any
moment. Lifestyle expenses start to inflate when you live and love in the
city. So my networth is actually dropping a few grand every year at this
point.

Money and caution usually result in a conservative and decent life, but not
necessarily a fun one if you thirst for adventure.

My girlfriend and I dream of the day when we just quit our jobs and live in
Thailand on $300 a month per person instead of wasting today at a desk! So be
it if it's reckless.

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stephenr
I live in Thailand. $300 a month is going to be a pretty basic life.

~~~
deanmoriarty
How much would you need to experience a "good" life? Say renting a safe
apartment in a nice place, do some travelling (within the country) on the
side, and eat out a significant portion of meals?

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wingerlang
$300 a month is very low, I spend double that on my rent+utilities alone. For
two people, reasonably modern and large, you probably will spend at least
$300-500 on rent.

I spend maybe 900-1200 per month here (alone). I consider my lifestyle very
'comfortable-frugal'. As in I spend if I need to make myself comfortable, but
I don't spend a lot on party, new 'toys' or other such 'stuff'.

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meiraleal
Currently I'm trying to live every month with at maximum the half of what I
earn (been around 1/5 for the past 12 months) and trying to reach my peak
physical condition.

The second plan is more important to me, fit people have a lot more chance of
surviving adversities.

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estilos
Many. At the moment I have a salary as my main income, so I live only on the
amount of money I would get on benefits if my company collapsed. I use the
rest of the money to reduce my expenses and provide security. I own my house,
grow a fair amount of my own food, sew my own clothes, and use almost all my
'effective income' for fun things. It wasn't tough to start, since it's a pick
up from my student days and I just haven't increased my expenditure, only
reduced my costs.

I wouldn't make so much myself if I didn't enjoy it, but I do so it happens to
work for me. I pay for others to do things I don't like, like laundry and
heavy housecleaning.

My startup expenses come out of the other free cash I have, so it wouldn't
hurt my lifestyle if my businesses failed; I wasn't going to use that money
for living anyway.

Health is my main focus, now. I've bought a very accessible house on purpose
just in case, but unless the whole country collapses I'm fine financially now
until I die, and I'd kinda like that to be a while off.

I was doing something more typical initially, but honestly, just work out what
you want your life to be, and then work out how to do that without it being
super risky. Much happy.

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beatgammit
Yeah, here are a few:

\- 6 months expenses in cash (I'm a consultant, so work can be inconsistent))
\- invest about half of my income \- have life insurance (but not disability,
that's something I probably need soon) \- build potentially lucrative products
on the side \- attend meetups relevant to my field \- keep up with the latest
developments in my field \- exercise regularly and follow a healthy diet \-
have at least one backup for most problems: \- if my car breaks down, I have a
bike and bus pass; I've actually picked up a new battery with my bike \- if my
house floods/burns down, I can stay with family nearby \- if my computer
breaks, I can borrow my wife's or do most of my work at the library (I have a
VPS that's mostly set up for my job, which I use occasionally while traveling)
\- I keep emergency funds in 3 different accounts, two are local, and I keep a
few hundred dollars in cash at home \- I have enough food in storage to last a
couple weeks \- we keep our car at least half filled with gas always, and I
have ~2 gallons in my garage (we use it with our lawnmower, so it's fresh) \-
I have multiple credit cards from multiple institutions

Etc.

I can't plan for everything, but I want to make sure that I can at least
survive a few months without any pay.

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akavi
I've saved about half of my income since I started working (6.5 years now), in
part because I'm financially paranoid.

Beyond the security cushion, it's pretty nice generally. I've taken a couple
months off every time I quit my job (and the quitting itself is pretty stress
free, don't need to worry about having another gig lined up before I jump
ship).

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tomjen3
Savings. I am not entirely sure the exact number of months, since I don't
spend my entire salary each month, however at this point it is several months.

That is also the worst case, in that it assumes I can get nothing at all in
terms of income for that long.

I would feel a little better moving it to something more safe than bank
account, by which I mean something no government could take from me and which
I could take with me should my current country collapse, but at present I am
as secure as the Danish Government.

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moviuro
[https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance](https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance)
might be a good place to look. Also, it's heavily dependant on where you live.
(e.g. the US doesn't protect the citizen as well as France does: unemployment
assistance, centralized retirement agency, etc.)

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BorisMelnik
if the www ever goes down I'll help rebuild the web.

I own my own company and provide multiple consult services, and run a few
websites so its highly unlikely that all the services I offer will ever go
away. if they do I can fix bikes, houses and electronics.

if my health goes horribly bad I have insurance, I can always work from home
if I'm sick.

savings wise I own my house and my car and have enough savings to live on for
a long time and put a lot into a 401k and investments but I'm probably way
older than a lot of the ppl on here.

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TheGrumpyBrit
I have a plan. I'm not currently in a position to be able to implement it if
necessary, but I'm working towards it.

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nunez
Trying for six months contingency saved up. Very hard given other debts I have
to clear without basically not living life. It's a risky trade-off.

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laurieg
In all honesty: Go live with my parents.

I worry about what happens when they're gone. Maybe I'd have to go live with
my brother.

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jryan49
Health insurance, disability insurance, house insurance, and car insurance!
Also a large emergency fund and no debt.

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kohanz
Do you mean besides different types of insurance? (health, life, critical
illness & disability, etc.)

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cimmanom
Aside from an emergency fund of more than 3 months of living expenses?

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pictur
yes: to die

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sloaken
My good Looks :-P

My Children

Charge cards

