What's your backup plan?
The stock market sailed upwards today, but I think we're facing a great deal more pain before the current correction is finished. I'm not confident that we're going to avoid a recession, and that means it's time for me to start thinking about Plan B.
My budget is about as tight as it can get without either massively changing my living circumstances or getting into some serious personal deprivation. My defense game is in pretty good shape, so Plan B is all about playing good offense. Here are some of the things I've started doing:
1. Tidying up my resume
I hope I don't need to start whipping it around to different employers, but it'll be ready if I need it.
2. Looking for the weakest link
Smart employers target the lowest performers when they start laying people off. I work for a smart employer. If I can't clearly spot lesser-performing peers, that means that the weakest link might be me.
3. Making myself indispensable.
No one is really indispensable, but I've managed to get myself into a management position in an area that's hard to outsource. That alone isn't enough; I also have to be on top of my game, all the time.
4. Networking
It's always good to make friends on a professional basis, both in the office and outside.
5. Seeing what else is out there
Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com are good places to start. So are my company's direct competitors.
6. Re-evaluating my financial plan
This is the time to make sure the emergency fund is fat and sassy. Unless my washing machine or something undergoes a catastrophic failure, major purchases need to wait. If things look bad next year, I might not pay off my mortgage as early as planned. In addition, instead of dumping money into my IRA on January 2, I might hold off for a couple of months. In a genuine worst-case scenario, I'll hold off on the IRA indefinitely and stop making extra payments on my mortgage principal altogether. I've already knocked my mortgage down enough that if I stopped making extra payments today, it'll be gone in two years anyway.
7. Figuring out what I want to do when I grow up
Adversity breeds opportunity; I strongly believe that. If my job goes down the proverbial rathole, I'd like to have a clear idea of what I want to do next, since it won't necessarily have any resemblance to what I do today.
Of course, I'm 38 and haven't figured out what I really want to do yet, so I'll have to get back to you on that one.
I may not be able to save my job if hard times come to pass, but doing the groundwork to be able to make a significant change makes me feel like I'm not stark raving naked and powerless. On the contrary, I'm planning to be ready to regroup in the face of anything that happens.
How about you? What's your backup plan?
7 retorts. What say you?
I've been thinking about it too. I want to get the house in sellable condition, in case we need to move for a job. It's mostly in good shape, except for the depressing dorm-like bathroom. I want my next house to be made of stainless steel. Once a week I'd wash it down with a water cannon.
I've got layers of emergency funds: savings, mutual funds, company stock and then at the bottom are the Roths.
I haven't worked in 11 years, been raising little darlings. So, I've been taking computer science classes for the last year, to warm up for my eventual job. I've been harassing my husband to update his resume. He asked why, and I said "Recession." He thought I said pistachios. It seems some people don't have recession obsession.
I think this is a very good post and shows good sense. I think if you read Penelope Trunk on Yahoo Finance you might get a good laugh. Her outlandish career advice is so opposite of your post. Anyways, nice job.
Great advice! My back-up plan is something like this: "Woo hoo! We can sell our apartment and move to a cheaper city sooner." But that's just me. ;)
You should also start doing some work on the side. I have. I started teaching folks on computer use. I get paid in cash and have been saving the money.
Cut down on any holiday shopping. make a list. Cut it down. review it and then cut it again. This is NO time to go into debt buying stuff for others.
Hello! fellow New Yorkers!
c_in_pdx - sounds like you have a solid plan in place. Can you send the stainless steel house guy over here when yours is done? ;-)
anon - thanks for your feedback. I don't know Peneople Trunk; I'll check her out. If she has some particularly egregious advice I don't agree with, I'll rag on her here.
escape brooklyn - It's nice to be in a housing market that hasn't tanked, right??
boomie - thanks for stopping by. I used to do occasional freelance, but I've pretty much stopped. My day job is pretty demanding; between that and volunteer work, physical therapy for a nasty running injury, and gearing up for my next marathon (not exactly congruent with the nasty running injury, I know), I don't have nearly enough down time as it is. I'm glad it's working out for you, though.
Holiday shopping isn't a problem, fortunately. SO and I set a $50 limit (I spent $40), and my family doesn't exchange gifts. Makes the holiday season much more bearable!
My resume is pretty worthless - two dead-end minimum wage jobs in 25 years - and I don't think there's any hope of ever doing what I want to do, as it requires startup capital I don't have and am unlikely to ever get.
minimum wage - I realize that this doesn't mirror exactly what you're articulating, but I think more people than not are not actually doing what they want to do. I'm certainly not; I'm in my career because I fell ass-backwards into an opportunity as a grad student. Another example that comes to mind is a professor I had in undergrad: he frequently expressed that his dream job was to someday work in a hardware store. I think that there's either a majority or at least a large minority of people who would do something different if the cost of change wasn't so high.
One way to make change less painful is to look at what you want to do and where you are to figure out what the delta is, and then start taking steps to close the delta. For example, assuming I wanted to be President - well, that's simply not a realistic dream for me. Borough representative, though? That's doable, and it's in the direction of the dream.
That's a hypothetical example, by the way. I still haven't figured out what I want to do, but they pay me enough where I'm at to keep showing up.
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