Tuesday morning I got a surprising call from my ex that he had been fired from his very high paying job. He was understandably upset as he didn't really see if coming, but he is in upper management and had been having some disagreements with his boss about the best strategy for the company. This sort of thing happens at that level. I think what really upset him is that they say it is "for cause," but there hasn't been any misconduct at all, just disagreement about business issues (and it is part of his job to offer opinions about potential options.) Anyway, I only know one side of the story, but encouraged him to apply for unemployment benefits anyway and also suggested he call an attorney based upon other factors.
He called to make sure I get the kids switched to my insurance. He is freaking out because now he says he "doesn't have enough money to survive for very long." Unfortunately he has always been extremely high income, extremely high burn rate (huge house with equally huge mortgage, eats out literally every meal, many expensive trips, luxury cars, etc.) We were together for two decades, so I know that he spends as fast as he earns, which was always a bone of contention between us. I still feel compassion for him because, despite all of our differences, he is a nice guy.
All of this makes me grateful to have found this website. I've always been frugal, but this site helped me learn how to better make money work for me. He is stressed about paying bills two months from now. In contrast, firing me would mean I would be just fine for more than a year without dipping into the penalty land of restricted retirement plan money. His call made me look at my liquid funds . . . technically I could make it more than 15 months without blinking an eye . . . and all of that happened for me on autopilot. It's just a different autopilot than most people in the US engage.
Thank you, everyone here, but contributing to that for me.