How Can I Tell If I’m Getting a Pink Slip?

Simple answer. Most times you can’t. Many people lose jobs without ever having seen it coming.

Oh sure. There are a few signs such as:

• Your boss is measuring your cubicle and humming
• Someone “accidentally” removes your nameplate
• People start talking to you in the past tense “Remember when you used to…”
• Your boss tells you he rues the day he hired you…and then says “just kidding”
• No one offers you a ride to the big softball game even though you’re the team pitcher

And of course, there are real cues that you might get fired like getting rotten reviews more than once or being called in again and again for special “talks” with your boss or worse yet HR.  When stuff like that starts happening, while I’m not telling you to panic (at least not yet), it’s time to get your resume ready to rock ‘n roll! (Of course, do the best you can to get your current job back on track, but, in the meantime, it also wouldn’t hurt to start looking for a new job or at least see what else is out there.)

But sometimes there’s an unexpected event like an overnight merger (complete with downsizing) or, as we’ve seen lately, a “surprise” bankruptcy, and lo and behold the pink slip arrives with little or no warning. You got fired after all and you never saw it coming. And that’s why I want you to be prepared…just in case.

There’s lots of advice on this blog about job searches and new resumes (and please feel free to browse to your hearts’ content). But right now I want to change the subject and talk about something just as important in a potentially shaky job market:

Financial Freedom!

The greatest gift you can give yourself is enough savings to allow yourself to be out of work for 6 to 8 months, should the need ever arise. Or the freedom to just decide to walk out the door on your own. Buh-bye!

Now I know this is an especially tough time for many people to even make ends meet, so how can I talk about savings?  Good question.

Years ago when I was married and we were first starting out after graduating college, my husband got a job as an entry-level government worker. It didn’t pay much, but it was enough for us to rent a small attic apartment in a small town in New Jersey. And after a few months of job hunting and being rejected left and right by the corporate world, this theater major (yes, me) finally landed some part-time work as a fitting room checker at a department store.  I didn’t worry about whether this was good enough for me or if it advanced my career, we needed money and it was the best job I could find at the time.

That first year we were a little worried since we had very little money to fall back on and the country was in recession, when anything can happen. So we saved. And we saved. A dollar here. Two dollars there. We learned that we didn’t need every new thing we saw. We made a game of how much we could squirrel away, even with as little as we were bringing home. Lots of meals that stretched for more than one day whenever possible.

A lasagna or chicken cacciatore or even a meat loaf surprise could last us 2 or three days, and we didn’t turn up our noses at eating the same thing. But more often than not, we froze sections of it, so we had several meals spread out over a week or two. We also became whizzes at whipping up stuff like a tuna casserole, rice and bean dishes, franks and beans, sloppy Joes, pasta with almost anything, noodles and cheese, etc.  (The right spices can make all that feel gourmet.) And let’s not forget good old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

But it wasn’t all home cooking. We also ate dinner out at least once a week with a slice of our favorite pizza or, yes, even a fast food burger and shared fries being our treats. (We were young and they hadn’t invented cholesterol yet. ) We did go to movies now and then, but also took lots of walks in the park or around the neighborhood. We took advantage of the free tennis and handball courts. We had friends over or went to their houses for good eats and talk, but nothing fahncy. (Chili is a great party dish.) We played old-fashioned games like scrabble or backgammon. We cuddled up and just watched TV together. Popcorn with various spices/flavors was a fun treat. (We popped it ourselves in a pan.) Plus a healthy sprinkling of laughter and sharing our dreams. And we never felt deprived. It was fun to watch our little savings grow. And they did.

Each year my husband got a small raise or promotion, and I eventually found better-paying work (although we were still not raking in the bucks). And all this time, we continued to save, only buying what we could afford to pay for at the time. No credit that we didn’t pay off immediately at the end of each month. And by our fourth year, we had enough for a healthy down-payment for a small house. (Yes, we took the radical step of waiting until we had more than enough savings before actually buying a house.)

Now I know some people are rolling their eyes at all this. How boring! How deprived we must have felt! Actually…no. We made it fun. And I’ve been a good saver ever since. And it’s been those very savings that have been there to protect me when I was out of work or to buy me freedom when I needed to say good-bye to a horrible boss. Or two. Or three.

Financial freedom is a beautiful thing – and has nothing to do with getting fired or not. If it takes a little planning and being creative about how we get those savings, all the better. It’s times like these that can help motivate us to become real savers, free to take control of our own lives, rather than being tied down by our weighty chains of debt. (If only our country could learn some of these lessons.)

Two Really Basic Key Financial Tips:

• Don’t buy things you don’t need.
• You don’t need most of the things you think you need!

And so I challenge each one of you to be creative and find places to cut back so you can save and save and save – building real financial freedom. Maybe even come up with extra sources of income to add to your savings, even if it’s only a few hundred here or there. It all adds up.

And then…just watch the numbers grow. It’s fun. And pat yourself on the back for having made this happen for yourself. (FYI…as long as it stays under $100,000, it’s safe in a bank.  If it’s over, there are also  ways to deal with that. But that’s not for this blog. Unless you ask, of course. )

So please, especially in this shaky economic climate, even if your job feels totally safe and the chance of ever getting fired is small, build yourself a healthy nest egg – no matter how small to start – and instead of buying yourself lots of stuff you don’t really need…buy yourself some very cool economic freedom. No reason you can’t be one of the “lucky” ones.

Times will improve. But if you start now, you’ll be way ahead of the game and ready to pounce on opportunity when they do. And I promise you…it feels great!

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Note: If you aren’t working now and can barely make ends meet, this post may seem totally unrelated to you. But it’s something to keep in mind when you do get back on your feet. Wouldn’t it feel great to have all those thousands in the bank now that you spent on crap you didn’t really need?

Not that I want the economy to come crashing down because everyone stops spending, but right now you really don’t have to worry about supporting all the rest of us. You only need to make sure that, when you are at all able to do so, you tuck something away for your own security. And of course, our banks really need cash now, so you’d be helping the economy anyway every time you make a deposit into your savings account!

Good luck!

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In the meantime: You might enjoy a visit to a wonderful blog by GG, a 20-something writer who is wrestling both the world of finance and the job market – and winning!

This Writer’s Wallet

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New Work Coach Cafe Policy:

Although I had to stop answering individual questions (to preserve my sanity), your thoughts and stories are VERY welcome here.

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