rss feedJob Loss on the Slim Part I: Landing Without a Safety Net
There’s plenty of material out there for dealing with job loss, but most of it applies to somewhat established folk. Building an emergency fund, reducing debts and having an “oh, shit” plan are great ideas, but not everyone has learned those lessons when the time comes. These are a few of the lessons I learned when I found myself out of work and couldn’t just move back in with the ‘rents. My experience was in the city, and from my perspective, that made it much better than it would have been in the suburbs or a smaller town. This first part will deal with the immediate response: stopping the flow of spending and securing the tools you need to recover.
So, you’re in the post high school years living check to check, soaking up the roomies experience and having lots of fun, maybe going to school and definitely not planning for the worst. What happens when you suddenly find yourself out of work? Whether it’s because your boss was a total dick, you were too ethical to continue working for an establishment that committed horrendous atrocities or your power went out in the middle of the night causing your alarm clock to fail you, you’re out of work now, you’ve got 20 bucks in your wallet and maybe your last $150 paycheck next week. What now?
Don’t panic! The last thing you need to do is stress yourself out. Depending on the season and the state of the economy, you could be out of work for a weekend or a few months, and you’re going to need all the focus you can muster to keep it together. Calm yourself and start to take a mental inventory of everything you can use to get yourself back on your feet.
Stop the Money-Out Process
You don’t need Netflix. Hell, it looks like you might not even be able to pay your utilities this month. Cancel every expense possible, even your cellphone. If you’re on a contract this might be difficult, but if you can pay this month and then be forced to break it next, what’s the point? Go ahead and ditch your carrier if you’re comfortable doing that (credit damage, disclaimer, etc.). You’ll be fine without it, I promise. There’s a cheaper way to keep in touch with potential job contacts, family and friends. Give your roommates or landlord as much notice as possible, and offer to pay what rent you can. If they’re your friends, they’ll understand that they can’t squeeze from you what isn’t there. They may even agree to let you stay for another month. Either way, use what time you have left in your place to sell your stuff.
Slim Down and Hock Your Shit
“You gotta have a place for your stuff. Everybody’s gotta have a place for their stuff.” -George Carlin
That last $170 probably isn’t going to cover rent next month. If you’re not going to have a place for your stuff, suddenly that stuff is going to become a burden.
This may seem sad at first. Really, who wants to part with their Minor Threat 7″, books, Nintendo DS or whatever else it is you have to ditch? It may feel like you lose a little piece of yourself every time you let something go, but don’t fret. After sweeping away all your possessions, you may find that you feel much better. You’re no longer defined by the things you have, and you can have a fresh place to start just being you.
Craiglist is the quick’n'dirty. Take a picture or two, post it up and make the exchange. eBay is a bit more involved. You need to have a bank account (not really, but not having PayPal is a pain) and will most likely require a trip to UPS, but you usually get a better return. If you’re selling your Xbox 360, it’s probably worth the extra effort to get more for it, but that old cell phone that you don’t need anymore is perfect for Craigslist.
In short, sell everything but what you need. I’ll outline a few things you’ll want to hold on in the next section. Reducing your belongings to a backpack makes you more flexible and more welcome to stay with friends. Besides, all that stuff is going to serve you better as cash right now. Also consider trades. If a friend wants something you’re giving up, you might have some use of that Polo in their closet when you go job hunting. You’re probably going to want somewhere to sleep and something to eat too. A TV or some of that Ikea furniture you’ve got might buy you a spot on a couch and lunch for a few weeks.
Acquire and Inventory Your Resources
Now is the time to inventory all your skills, social capital and possessions. You need a few things: food, somewhere to sleep, means of communication, means of transportation and a set of appropriate clothes for job hunting. This section is on procuring those. You want your last bit of cash to go as far as possible, and buying a clean shirt and a prepaid phone might be a better long term investment that spending $3 every day that you would otherwise find a way to live without.
Food and Shelter
Sleeping and eating are obviously high priority but fairly easy to figure out. Food is really not as big a problem as it would seem. Think: survival; a jar of peanut butter, some bread and a few apples can go a long way if you’re eating to keep yourself going and not to savor every meal. Think in terms of nutrition per dollar when you buy food. A bag of chips and a can of beans both cost around a dollar. What’s going to get you farther? If you play your cards right, you can eat well for a dollar a day. There’s plenty of resources for doing this. Check out PGEW and this article on GRS.
As for a place to crash, I’m going to assume you have a few friends. If not, I hope the weather is nice! I’m in no way advocating an idle lifestyle or saying that it’s okay to live off your friends, but couch surfing can be a win-win. You may have furniture that a friend could use. Perhaps they need a couch, and you need a place to put said couch so you can sleep on it. Minimize the space you take up. Don’t turn your buddy’s living room into your storage area. You should try to fit everything in a bag. Anything else, you may want to just give it to your host or sell it. While couch surfing, it’s important to provide value. You don’t want to be a burden on your friends; don’t laze around all day watching their TV. Everyone knows how to do household chores. You should be doing all of them without being asked. Perhaps you can get a free dinner every night by using those culinary skills that you wish you had time to demonstrate! Walk the dog, mow the lawn, do whatever you can to offset the free rent you’re getting.
Communication
Don’t sell that laptop unless you have an iPod Touch or something. Having an internet connection is an invaluable resource for the job hunt, and everything else in general. Sign up for a Google Voice account. You get a number that will keep working without a phone bill, voicemail and the option to forward calls to any number. Get yourself the cheapest prepaid phone you can find. Use these in combination, but be careful not to use the phone for anything unnecessary.
I pulled a similar stunt in ’08. Googe Voice wasn’t around, but I had a Gizmo5 account (which has been acquired by Google now) and a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. The 770 kept me online with the help of neighbors’ open wifi networks and Gizmo5 gave me the option to make cheap outbound calls from the tablet, voicemail and my own phone number that I could forward to friends’ phones. I would put this number on my résumé, applications, etc. and with the permission of whomever I was hanging out with, I would set my number to forward to their cell.
Transportation
A car is a valuable asset so long as you’re not making payments. You can probably job hunt without it just fine, so find a place where you can park it, send notice that it is off the street to your tag office and cancel your insurance. Don’t drive it! You don’t need jail time or tickets right now. You’ll be saving $80-200 a month without insurance on it, but if you find a job that requires reliable transportation, you’re set. You might get a delivery job or something.
In the meantime, get around without it. Keep your bike if you have one, trade some stuff for one or borrow one from a friend. Look into public transportation and be frugal with it. Catch rides with friends if they’re going somewhere you need to be for a job application or whatnot. Living in the city is beneficial here. You should be able to walk a mile or two with no problems, if not, this is a great opportunity for you to get in shape.
Clothing
While you’re clearing out your stuff, sift through your clothes and decide what you really need. A bunch of extra clothes just means less space in your backpack and more to wash, and a laundromat means more spending. Keep your nicest pair of jeans, a few shirts, socks and underwear. If you have a button-up shirt, consider it a valuable asset and take care of it. If not, try to trade some clothes at a consignment shop to get one. A pair of slacks might help here, but as long as you look clean and presentable wearing your jeans and a decent shirt, you should be set. You just want to make sure that you don’t show up to a job interview looking like a tramp.
This first part focussed on stopping the proverbial nose-dive and getting leveled out. Hopefully, you can get your situation stable enough to sustain a few months. In the next part, I’ll talk about how to use the resources you’ve put in place to get back on your feet.
