Live On Less

On Wednesday it was announced that the Miami Herald will cut 175 employees. This announcement is pretty common these days BUT it gets worse. The remaining full-time employees earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year will have their pay reduced 5%. For employees earning more than $50,000, the pay cut will be 10%. And it doesn't end there. Employees will also lose one week of pay this year through an unpaid furlough program. So what makes this layoff announcement unique is that everyone is financially impacted whether they are losing their job or not. This announcement made me think could I live off of 5% or 10% less than what I make right now?

The one week "forced" vacation (because it's unpaid) I could handle. I would actually take the week to have a staycation and relax. I would use my corporate ID to go to some of the museums that I can go to for free but can never seem to find the time to go. I would read some books and watch some movies. Truly relax and give my body and mind a restart.

But to have to live on 5% or 10% less in salary I would have to take some immediate actions. First thing I would do is go to my apartment management office and see if they could reduce my rent. If they couldn't I would break my lease and move home to NJ. I'm so lucky to be able to go home if I ever have to. Next, because I'm a Diva (the female hustler kind of diva) I would be planning out what I have to do to make up for the loss of income. How many classes would I have to teach. How much stuff would I have to sell on ebay, craigslist and amazon? Are there any additional expenses that I could cut? I would probably resort to Suze Orman's plan of only paying the minimum on credit cards. I guess I say all that to say that I would find a way. By no means am I saying it would be easy but clearly, in that position, you have no choice but to either sink or swim.

My heart goes out to everyone at the Miami Herald; both those who are being laid off and those who are still employed. I would hope that they have been pre-planning for this situation because it has been known for months that the paper was not doing well. So they have had at least 6 months to pre-plan.

Does anyone smell a challenge? WELL when I heard what was happening I thought about putting myself to the challenge. For one paycheck deducting 5% or 10% of my gross biweekly salary and putting it in to my savings account and seeing how I "survived" off less. What do y'all think? Anyone up for the challenge? Could you live off of 5% or 10% less than what you make right now?