Living Unemployed

Losing your job is a nightmare. There are so many things to worry about. To make matters worse, losing your job is often a fairly large hit to your self-esteem. If you don’t find a job right away, you begin to wonder if you are employable, or even worthwhile as a person. You get discouraged. Unfortunately, that discouragement can be your worst enemy when it comes to getting a new job. Fortunately, there are ways to fight it off and remain positive about yourself and your future.

Get a grip on the reality of the situation

When you first discover you will be unemployed, or wherever you are in the process now, make a list of all your bills. Carefully go down that list and prioritize them. Mortgage, utilities, car payment, fuel, food, credit cards. Look for places where you can cut back on the spending. If you are expecting a severance package, don’t live as you would normally, try to stretch those dollars as far as you can. Look realistically at how much you have to have to live versus how much you would like to have to live. Investigate the unemployment laws for your state online. Do you qualify for unemployment? If so, about how much could you expect to receive? Many people are under the false assumption that unemployment pays half of your employed income. In most states and with most salaries, the amount is much less. Unemployment must be applied for within a short time period after a lay off, so do not delay this application process. Do you have children? If so, and no one else in your household is employed, you may qualify for food stamps. This can often make it easier to get by.The important thing is to know what you have to work with because knowledge is power.

Make a plan

Take the information you gathered above and use it to develop a realistic budget plan. For instance, if my husband were to be laid off today, unemployment would cover our mortgage and our car payment and insurance only. I receive child support for one daughter, which would cover water and garbage and paper goods. I currently attend college, so student loans would have to pay for our phone and internet and the electric bill, as well as my books, software, etc. We would need to apply for food stamps in order to feed the five children we still have at home.  This would give us approximately 11 months to find some other form of income, not very long considering my husband’s age and this economy, but at least we know that after 6 months of no work, we would need to take some more drastic measures. We might look at trading in the van for a smaller car that is completely paid off in order to both eliminate the car payment and reduce our insurance payment. Making a plan allows you to have control over your finances. You know what you can pay and when you can pay it, and make choices about your budget instead of just allowing whichever creditor that happens to call bully you into paying things that are not as important as others.