SURVIVALIST #28 We No Longer Need Your Services

What bills do you have to pay?
The biggest downside to losing your job is not your wounded pride, it is being able to cover all monthly expenses. If you are like most people today, you live paycheck to paycheck. Any interruption to that paycheck can instantly result in dire circumstances. Make a list of all monthly expenses, then prioritize those items into critical and non-critical categories. Critical categories include your house payment, household utilities, food, car payment, etc. Non-critical categories include entertainment, tobacco, alcohol, ladies’ night out, and playing poker with the boys.

Trimming your expenses
Now that you have lost your means of support, it is time for tough choices. Whatever substance abuse issues you have such as smoking, drugging, drinking, etc., all need to go. Keeping a roof over your family’s head and food on the table are way more important than the 2 minutes of pleasure you get from lighting up or drinking a six pack.

If you smoke 1 pack per day at around $6 per pack that is pushing $200 per month for poisoning yourself. Add drinking or going out to clubs and you are probably blowing $400 or more unnecessarily.

If you have expensive home entertainment set ups with satellite TV or cable, cancel them until further notice. Reduce cell phone plans and only use them when necessary. Those of you who insist on spending $7 a shot on designer coffee need to make it yourself. Women, those colorful acrylic nails and tanning salon sessions can wait till you can afford to have them done again.

Resources for assistance
Depending on individual circumstances you may qualify for unemployment benefits. You will receive a percentage of your wages as there is a ceiling. The application process is typical government red tape, then your claim is sent to your employer for approval. For the most part employers will contest an unemployment claim, especially if you were fired for what they deemed a worthy cause.

Know your facts, bring documentation, letters of commendation or recommendation, job performance reviews, and of course a written version of events. Most employers don’t do a very good job of documenting things so a neutral finder of fact will likely side with you especially if you are prepared and polite.

Being awarded unemployment benefits will help you until you can get back on your feet but will not pay all the bills. Unemployment claims once awarded to you, will be paid out based on how many quarters of work you have completed prior to your claim. These benefit periods are typically set to receive unemployment insurance checks for 6 month intervals but extensions can be applied for. You should resist the temptation to stay on unemployment for as long as you possibly can. Your job skills will suffer and having to explain long periods of unemployment to future employers can be demeaning.

Social Service assistance programs
The Department of Human/Social Services, is certainly not a shining example of efficiency; however, they can help with food assistance programs, day care, controlled rent assistance, and various other programs. Losing your job opens up some possibilities for you in this arena, especially for those struggling single/divorced mothers. There is absolutely no shame in providing for your children and family so apply for everything under the sun.

Friends, Family & Church
If you are fortunate enough to have a circle of good friends, these are people you can get help from should you ever need. Keep in mind that you will need to reciprocate when they are in need. Nobody likes a user who takes and takes and takes then is never available to give anything back. If they are kind enough to hire you to do odd jobs, be sure you do a good job and be respectful, polite, and appreciative. Resist the urge to complain about your circumstances, you are far better served by being gracious for their help.

You can also probably get some help from family members too. Every family is different of course and if you do end up getting help from your family, make sure they are paid back as soon as possible. You don’t want the relationship to go bad after they went out on a limb and helped you in your time of need.

Speak with your pastor or church elders and put up a sign on the bulletin board that you are looking for work and what your skill set entails. Some of the congregation will give you a small donation, or food, because you asked; others will invite you to do some work for them. There is such a thing as karma in this world and you need to be willing to help others out if you ever expect to get any in return.

Financial Liquidity
You likely have numerous items you can sell or barter for cash or other things your family needs.

Budgeting is the most overlooked aspect of financial liquidity and if you haven’t taken a good hard look at making a family budget, you definitely need to consider it. Budgeting is simple, spend less than you bring in and you will be just fine. It will take a little will power to stick with your budget, but you will be surprised at the results. Once you start getting back on your feet, try to live on 75% of your income and put the other 25% away for a rainy day.

Getting back on your feet
Depending on how long you are out of work you may have no choice but to consider taking out Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You can also consider credit counseling services that negotiate with your creditors to lower your interest rate and your payments. Taking out bankruptcy is not only legal it might just be exactly what you need to do to get out from under crushing debt and get a fresh start.

Now that you have survived all the initial chaos of losing your job/career it is time to start looking for new opportunities. Registering with the local workforce center and posting your resume on electronic job sites like Career Builder, Hot Jobs, Monster, Indeed and numerous other ones is a great idea. You can set up job search engines on all of these sites that will routinely email you job opportunities in your area and make finding open positions much easier than it used to be.

Once you have re-entered the job market and have gotten into a settled routine, you should keep your eyes open for something else you can do on the side as long as it doesn’t interfere with your main job. Mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, painting houses, and cutting firewood are all things you can do to earn extra money.

Yard sale shopping
You can also turn this practice into a way to make extra cash every week as a home based/cash business. I have several of my customers who shop yard sales every week looking for things they can take around to the various shops in the area like mine and make a profit on. It works very well for me as I get good merchandise at a discount and I don’t have to chase it down it comes thru my front door. I am sure that the pawn shops wherever you live will be interested in this type of exchange.

If you ever lose your job unexpectedly it will definitely be traumatic and scary, but if you keep your wits about you and make a plan you can get thru it and be back on your feet. Even the worst of storms has a rainbow; you only have to look to find yours.

Original article by Mark Bunch, published in Survivalist Magazine #28
Mark owns and operates a gun and pawn shop and gun club in Canon City Colorado with his partner Mike. If you are ever in town stop by and see them at 1345 Elm Street.

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