When I first got laid off I was shocked, scared, pissed off, and stressed. It took a couple of days for me to realize that it isn’t the end of the world and it is happening to hundreds of people everyday.
I realized that with the economy like it is and the fact that so many people are on unemployment, perspective employers are going to have to overlook people with unemployment on their resumes. If employers don’t understand that this was out of the potential hires control they will be forced to only hire high school students with no work history at all. Which is worse?
To take action against loosing everything I had to take a good hard look at my life, lifestyle, and possessions. As I did this I realized the cost associated with this “stuff”, and make a decision as to what is actually important, and what I can live without.
This analysis led me to realize that the Dodge Pickup I bought when things were good was one of my biggest expenditure. Even though I had bought it 5 years earlier, I still owed $20,000.00. The payment, insurance, and fuel added up to close to my mortgage payment, and lets face it without a job I wasn’t driving anywhere anyway. It was an easy decision once I laid the facts out; I sold it, and fast.
I picked up a fixer upper, put one months worth of payment into fixing it up and now I have a car to get around in. Every month I drive saves money now. It’s not as comfortable as a new Dodge, but it serves its purpose and it’s paid for. Annual fuel, insurance, and up-keep costs me less than one month of payments and insurance before.
This is a lesson that any old person will tell you that should be practices even in good times, but we don’t listen. As a society we have moved from working hard for our possessions, to possessing everything we want and working to pay it off later. Getting back to living within our means is essential.
Stay tuned
C
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