Ripped from today's headlines, in case you think this job market is only impacting the lazy ---

I never said that the job market was only impacting the lazy - that the inference that you are making. However, one would think that a single people making $80,000 per year would have healthy savings accounts if they are living within their means. Before I went independent, I made sure that I had enough money in savings to live for a year without any income. Anything else would have been short-sighted and irresponsible.

I always made sure that I had some money set aside "for a rainy day", even when I was making minimum wage. One can never tell what the future holds...