10 Tips on How to Survive Without a Job

Whether you’ve finally taken the plunge to leave the corporate job world to pursue your your own business, or you’ve been downsized by the fear of the shrinking economy, learning to survive without a job is an important skill.

Here are ten tips to surviving without a job.

1.  Cash is King

One of the most important aspects of surviving without a job is to have as much cash as possible at your disposal.  Having cash at your fingertips will allow you to maintain emotional sanity when you find yourself without an income.  Having $25,000 in cash sitting in your bank account is infinitely better than having $25,000 in equity in your home.  It’s not about spending the cash, it’s about having it there so that you stabilize your emotions.

When you go looking for contract work, or projects, just the fact that you know you have cash in the bank will allow you to display more confidence and allow you to negotiate higher fees for your services, and you won’t be giving off the energy of “needyness” which will make it easier to attract what you want.

I know at this point everyone will say “Well, that’s nice, but I don’t have any cash.” so that is exactly what I’m going to focus on in the next few tips.  Even having $500 in cash is better than nothing, and of course $5,000 would be better, but really every dollar of cash you have at your disposal increases you emotional stability and helps you attract even more cash.

2. From One Job to Another?

When leaving one job for whatever reason, don’t be afraid to seek out other opportunities to make some money through “job” type opportunities if you have bills to pay.  Remember, whatever you hated about your previous job doesn’t have to follow you to the new opportunity.  This is a brand new employer, so you have full control over what you negotiate.  If you didn’t like the fact that your work followed you home, maybe you can find some work that ends the minute you walk out the doors.  Don’t like waking up in the early morning and battling traffic?  There are many jobs out there that allow you start in the afternoon or even work evenings.

You can look for temporary part-time work, contract work, or even a virtual job online.  I’m not talking about leaving one career to find another.  If you have a business idea that you’d like to pursue, but you also need to make sure your basic bills are paid, then why not just find something temporary to make a bit of extra cash while you grow your business?

There are many jobs available like this if you don’t let your Ego get in the way.  For example, if you’ve been the assistant manager of a retail store, but you hated your job, why not take on some landscaping work or painting houses or something along those lines.  There are always jobs available if you’re not picky about the type of work you do.  Remember, this isn’t about building a 20 year career doing something else.  It’s about finding a temporary way to make some extra cash, while you build up your business doing what you love.

Also, depending what you were doing before, you could find work in your exact field but on a contract basis.  Stretch your mind a bit and look for other ways to make money.  If you’ve been in the corporate rat-race for a long time, at first it may seem difficult to find such opportunities but I assure you they are everywhere.

3. Cut Your Expenses

I have to admit, this is the one I hate the most.  Cutting expenses seems like such a waste of time for me.  When I used to look at my expenses I couldn’t see anything that I could cut without sacrificing my ability to earn income.  Then, the other day I was watching a show on TV and this doctor who was making $120,000 / year in his practice was having some debt issues with his wife so they called in an expert to analyze their situation.

The pre-show interview showed the doctor talking about his expenses pretty much the same way that I used to talk about mine.  He couldn’t really see anywhere they could cut back.  The expert was given 6 months worth of their bank statements to look over and she came back to show them a report of their spendings.  When she told them how much money they were spending, they were shocked.  They were spending $18,000/m more than they were earning.  Isn’t that insane?  No wonder they were $320,000 in debt and on their way to bankruptcy.

Anyway, after seeing that show I decided to look at my expenses again and I’ve already been seeing ways in which I could cut back.  For example, I currently pay about $55/m for my home telephone.  There is a local provider that can offer me pretty much the same thing for about $20/m.  I know that’s only a $35/m difference, but it all adds up.  There are a bunch of other things I noticed I’ve been spending money on that I really don’t need to.

Remember, it doesn’t mean you can never spend money on those things again.  It just means you’re going to cut back on some things temporarily until you’re earning enough money to comfortably afford those things.

4. Watch Your Credit Cards

A lot of people don’t realize just how much money they pay on the interest and service fees on their credit cards.  Credit card companies have gotten very clever in how they charge their fees.  They are not allowed to charge over a certain percentage on their interest (usually 28.8% is the max), but there is no limit to service fees.

For example, imagine if you have a credit card that has a $1,000 credit limit.  If you had that credit card racked up to the tilt with $1,000 owing on it, and lets say your interest rate is 24.9% on that credit card, this would mean the credit card company would charge you $20.75 in interest for that month.  However, if that $20.75 puts your balance at $1020.75, that could trigger a service fee of $25 or $35 for being “Over Limit”.  This happens all the time, check your statements.

Now, all of a sudden your credit card balance is at $1055.75 which is the equivalent of paying almost 67% interest on that $1000 balance!  Then, what they’ll do is ask you to pay a minimum payment that puts you just below the $1,000 limit again and once you get charged interest you end up triggering another “Over Limit” service fee.

If you have 5 credit cards, and your wife has 5 credit cards and those cards are all racked up, you could be paying $200-$300 in service fees on top of the interest.  By the way, that couple I mentioned above was paying over $2,000/month in interest fees alone.

5. What Are You Eating?

I often find that people are very defensive whenever it comes to talking about how much money they spend on food.  In most cases people have absolutely no clue how much money they’re spending on food.  Often times people will tell me that they spend $500 per month for food and that just totally does not add up mathematically at all when they are going out for lunch on a daily basis and eating out three to four times a week.

I remember about 10-15 years ago, going out for lunch cost about $5/day.  Today it’s closer to about $10-$15/day depending where you eat.  In a 30 day month, that adds up to $300-$450/month per person just for lunches.  If you add in a $4 coffee per day, that adds up to another $120/day.  That’s $570/month just for coffee and lunch for ONE PERSON.  If you spend $20/day for dinner that’s another $600 which adds up to $1,170/month per person.  For a couple that’s over $2,200/month just on food.  That doesn’t include dessert, or any meals over $20, or tips or any kind of household groceries like toilet paper.

Like I said, people are often very defensive over this part of their life.  It would be wise for you to shine a flashlight on your spending here and see where you can cut back until you get  back on your feet.  It doesn’t mean you can’t ever go out, just be aware what you’re spending your money on.  Even just cutting back on the alcohol you’re ordering when you’re out can be a huge money saver.  Have a beer at home, it’ll cost you much less.  Even pop is usually super expensive at a restaurant.  You end up paying $3.00 for a glass of Coca-Cola.  You can buy two 2L bottles of Coke at a grocery store for that price.

I know this sounds super cheap!  If you get a little creative, you can actually cut your food bill in half without sacrificing too much.  Cutting out drinking alcohol when you’re out, ordering a water instead of a pop, and maybe sharing an appetizer and a meal instead of two appetizers and two meals could significantly cut your monthly expenses.  Half the time we end up taking leftovers home and not eating them anyways, so why pay for that?

6. Cutting Down On Utilities

Electricity, Gas, Cable, Telephone, Internet, Cell Phones – These are all big bills that most of us take for granted as “fixed expenses”.  The world is changing and so are our options.  Want an example?  Check out Magic Jack.  You plug in this little USB device into your computer, plug in a phone line to it and you can talk to anyone in the US and Canada for free for one year.  It only costs $39.95 plus shipping and handling.  This is just one example.  There are many other options out there that you probably don’t even know exist because you haven’t looked.   Now’s the time to look.

Want to save money on your cell phone?  Why not forward it to your Magic Jack phone number or just tell people you’ll call them back.  Then you might not need the 1,000 minutes per month you’re paying for on your cell phone.

As for Cable, why not switch to basic cable or cancel altogether?  You can still rent movies, and most TV shows are now available for viewing online a few days after the show airs on TV.  Here’s a simple exercise.  Write down the top 3 to 5 shows you watch on TV.  What would be cheaper; buying the whole season of those shows on DVD and watching the episodes whenever you want to relax in front of the TV, or paying for cable every month for a year?

A good way to save money on your heating bill is to install a programmable thermostat which allows you to heat/cool the house down only when you’re home, and to turn down the temperature a few degrees.

Remember, I’m not saying that all this stuff has to be permanent.  I’m just offering some tips on how you can save money so that you have more cash in your pocket at the end of the month.  When you have more cash to work with, your confidence goes up and your emotional state becomes more balanced.  When you’re in that state, it’s much easier to attract business opportunities and clients into your new business venture and to have more cash to work with.

7. Declutter and Sell Your Junk

Now that you have a bit more time at home, since you’re not working anymore, why not take the time to declutter and sell some of your junk?  A lot of people hate doing garage sales, but there are many other ways to sell your stuff.  Just taking a quick picture and putting the items up on Craig’s List can work wonders.

You’d be surprised how many people are looking for “stuff” that you might consider junk.  Remember, when the economy is slow it’s even easier to sell second hand stuff because people are looking to save money.  It’s a perfect opportunity to sell things you don’t use anymore.  Don’t discount anything.  Someone might want your old cell phone, clothing, furniture, old appliances, CD’s or DVD’s, etc.  If you haven’t used it in the last 12 months and won’t use it in the next 12 months, why not sell it.  Converting your “stuff” into cash can help you  make more more money later.

8. Cancel Your Subscriptions

What are you subscribing to that you’re not using?  Gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, newspapers, clubs, etc. can all add up really quickly.  If you need them, that’s fine but if you haven’t been going to the gym for the last 6 months, chances are you probably won’t be going for the next 6 months either.  You can always re-subscribe later, but right now is the time to value the cash in your pocket more than the subscription itself.

When I looked in my life I found several subscriptions that I totally wasn’t even using anymore, such as my XBox live subscription for $10/month.  I haven’t used that for years but they kept charging it to my credit card.  Look through your statements; you may be surprised what you find hiding in there.

9. Accept Multiple Streams of Income as a Viable Strategy

I currently have about two dozen completely different income streams.  Some of them I focus on more than others, but I’m always getting checks in the mail from different sources I’ve built up over the last few years.  When you’re working at a job that takes up all of your time, we often say NO to opportunities that come up to make an extra few bucks here and there simply because we don’t have the time or energy for them.  This is the time start saying YES to multiple income streams.

For example, I have one check sitting here from one of the companies that I do a bit of affiliate promoting for and it’s for $60.25.  I wrote up an quick review of their product a while back and once in a while someone lands on the page and ends up buying a copy of the product and I get an affiliate commission.  I know $60.25 isn’t a lot of money, but it’s enough to cover my cell phone bill for the month.

Some of my income streams make me less than a hundred dollars a month, others make me a few hundred dollars, and others make me thousands of dollars per month.  I’m always open to exploring different income streams.  I find that a lot of people who’ve been in the corporate employee mentality for too long never even consider making the money they need each month from multiple income streams.

If you’ve been working 60 hours/week making $5,000/month, it doesn’t mean you need to find something else that makes $5,000/month working 60 hours/week.  Maybe you can find three things that make you $2,000/month working 20 hours/week, or one income stream that makes you $3,000/month and then a whole bunch of smaller ones that make up the remaining shortfall.

Remember, a lot of businesses might not have the budget to hire on a person full time for $5,000/month, but if they can get your services for 20 hours per week for $3,000/month, they might be super happy to pay for that.  From my experience and from the stats I’ve seen done on corporate America, most employees who work 40 hours per week are only really working 10-20 hours per week anyways and just “hanging out” the rest of the time to earn their wage.

Why not approach potential employers with the idea of only working a few days a week for them?  You can spend the rest of the time building your new business.

10. Put Yourself Out There

A lot of people who hold full time jobs are completely exhausted by the end of the week, not only from the work they do but also from the fact that they are in complete misery while working at a job that they absolutely despise.  So once the end of the week comes around, they hide at home in front of the television set and hope nobody calls them, unless it’s to party.

Now that you’re not working full time, why not put yourself out there and let people know you’re available for work.  Set an hourly wage you’d like to earn and offer your services to people.  You can create a little website for yourself, or a Blog, or even put up an ad on Craig’s List and let people know you’re available for hire.  There are a lot of people looking for talented people for projects they’re working on.

Let’s say you’re broke, and you have no idea how you’re going to pay your rent at the end of the month, and I called you up to offer you $500 for helping me out with a few things in the next few days, would you help me out?  Well, why not let people know that you’re available for “work for hire” type jobs?  You can always say no if the opportunity isn’t right.

Remember, this isn’t about finding a new career as a professional “gopher”.  It’s about surviving without  having a job long enough to find what you’d really like to do, and building a business out of it that makes enough money to pay all of your bills.  It might take you six months or even a year to get to that point, but isn’t it worth it if it means spending the rest of your life doing what you love instead of being a corporate slave for the rest of your life?

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