海角大神

According to聽, 68% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Two out of every three adults living in the United States would suffer significant challenges if their next paycheck were delayed or absent.

In 2012, about 20,500,000 Americans lost their jobs, according to聽. Even if you don鈥檛 perfectly agree with that analysis, you can鈥檛 argue that the number is somewhere in the ballpark. 2012 was actually a very low year for job loss, too.

Thus, at some point in 2012,聽about 13 million Americans faced a crisis in which they lost their job and they were so financially weak that they faced immediate hardships without their next paycheck.聽That鈥檚 about one in twelve adults.聽

Staying afloat just isn鈥檛 enough.

In a given year, about one in eight adults is going to lose their employment position.聽If you鈥檙e one of the majority of Americans who would struggle if you lost your job and missed even a paycheck, you鈥檙e adding a聽gigantic聽risk to your life.

Your job is not a stable thing. It is not a guarantee of pay in the future. It is not something you鈥檙e 鈥渙wed.鈥�

Your job is an agreement between you and your employer. You do some work, they pay you for it. There are alot聽of situations 鈥� unexpected and otherwise 鈥� that can cause that agreement to come to an end, often unexpectedly. It happened to聽twenty million Americans last year.

You owe it to yourself to always be doing two things.

贵颈谤蝉迟,听you should always have an emergency fund and, if you don鈥檛, you should always be building one.An emergency fund is a chunk of cash you simply have sitting there in a savings account waiting for you in case something bad happens 鈥� like what happens to the one out of eight Americans annually who lose their jobs. It also helps if your car dies or a close family member passes away suddenly or countless other things.

It keeps you from being in a situation where any bit of bad news causes you to go into debt.

厂别肠辞苍诲,听you should always be thinking about your resume and your calling card.聽Always. When you鈥檙e actually at work, you should spend every moment either accomplishing resume-worthy things, getting resume-worthy training, or building connections to people who might find value in your resume.

At the very least, achieving things makes you a more valuable employee where you鈥檙e at. It can also make you appear a valuable prospect to others whether you happen to be employed or not.

Your resume is essentially part of your emergency fund.

Now, some people often say聽鈥渕y credit card is my emergency fund!鈥�聽No, sorry, it鈥檚 not. Your credit card is something that a lending institution has loaned to you. They can pull the plug on it at any sign of distress or any concern that you might not be worth lending to or any change in the policies of that lender, so it鈥檚 not reliable. Not only that, even if you do use it, you鈥檙e going to eventually have to repay it, which is going to make the paycheck-to-paycheck routine even tighter when you do find another job.

Build an emergency fund now.聽I suggest having at least two months of living expenses for your family in there, if not more. Stop going out to dinner and stop buying things you don鈥檛 need for a little while if you don鈥檛 have an emergency fund.

Build your resume now.聽Stop wasting time at work, too. Focus on doing things that others will find value in, and do those things during every moment you can at work. Pinterest and Facebook can wait until later.

One final note:聽getting yourself in a position where you鈥檙e doing better than staying afloat is a聽huge聽stress relief. It truly does make your day-to-day life less stressful, even if you don鈥檛 see the stress at the moment.

Just staying afloat isn鈥檛 enough. You need to build something now. There are too many things in life that can cause the bottom to drop out tomorrow, and if you鈥檙e not ready, you鈥檙e going to be in a bad situation.

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