I know “side hustle” is the clear answer but hear me out. I have been content with my job, I come back late to a beautiful family and I dont really feel like working more.
In the past few days though , things have not been working out well at work. The expectations with digital are humongous and I have felt that senior management can axe me out anytime. It immediately made me realize how vulnerable I am if my salary stops coming in.
Will I have to start getting into the side hustle bandwagon to reduce this dependency on the job? Ive felt terrible in the past few weeks and I have not really shared this.
5 comments
I would really suggest aggressive savings and really living frugally to make up a good chunk of emergency savings – I mean up to a year’s worth of expenses in a liquid account. It’s not for everyone, but my husband and I love it and the lifestyle choices we have made that go hand-in-hand with being frugal.
You will feel so free; if you lose your job you have a full year’s worth of savings to either tide you over while you look for work, or start a business. I used mine once for a gap year in my 30s and paying for the final year of my degree in cash. I feel very safe in the knowledge that were shit to hit the fan, I would be covered. As a result I job-hop happily and move in and out of paid and freelance employment depending on my needs.
Better than service jobs… Have a large liquid emergency fundm
My feeling is generally that doing SOMEthing is better than doing nothing. So if you feel like a sitting duck waiting around, afraid you’ll get let go, one way to insulate yourself against that is by taking proactive steps in case that happens. A side hustle is one option; I personally wouldn’t start with that unless you have something in mind that would pay pretty well for the time spent. Brush up your resume and/or start applying for new jobs. Look for ways to reduce your spending and put as much into savings as possible.
Well, it IS vulnerable. I still can’t believe that no one laid this out for me back in my teen years. It’s like the system is designed to keep as many people as possible on the edge, so that we’re stuck needing to be liked by some company to keep getting money to survive.
I don’t have a side hustle but I started trying to keep my standard of living in place and not just spend more when I have seen increases in income. Just trying to be more modest or frugal and save more than I spend when possible. Trying to save up to retire one day ever, if not early.
Having a cushion of cash savings can help with that vulnerable feeling but not totally eliminate it in my experience. I was able to take a career break on purpose, but which went much longer than I planned for, because of previous savings. But that vulnerable feeling was still there because I knew that eventually I’d need someone’s approval from somewhere in order to get a salary again.
Some more entrepreneurial minded folks but say start your own business and be your own boss in control of how much you work etc etc… but my personal opinion on the matter is that one could be even more vulnerable in that position, having to not only do the work but also having the responsibility to keep the work or the clients coming.
Export your bank statement going back two years. Categorize the expenses, how many are critical, how many are convenient and how much are work related. Use these monthly figures to set saving targets. My household realized about 10% of our bills were job related, new clothes, gas expense, dry cleaning. Once we pulled that out and cut the fun budget in half, it was simple to save up 1 year of expenses. Now we know the number if the corporate decides to downsize. This was invaluable to our mental health during the covid layoffs. I can’t imagine going back to a life where a 3 month layoff requires credit cards.