Work out a revised six-month budget. If funds are going to be tight, contact your creditors and try to defer or rearrange payments on some of your major bills. Most creditors would prefer to know this in advance so they don't continue to push too hard. Notifying them also shows your "good faith intentions." You can avoid potential credit problems by taking this step early and working out a minimum payment schedule until you are employed again. Utility companies will often work with you, as they do with others, to equalize payments during this time.
Set up an accounting procedure to keep track of your job-search expenditures.Many of these will be tax deductible.
Discuss your projected budgetfully with other family members.
Men: If your wife hasn't been working, perhaps she will be willing to help tide the family over during this time by finding short-term work. If she is already employed, she may be able to help in many ways, taking over the health insurance obligations for the family through her employer's health benefit package, for example.
Women: Discuss your revised budget and curtailed spending needs with your husband. Work out future spending together, since he will also have to work on a limited spending plan.
Families with children: Consider what contribution children remaining at home can make to the budget. At your age, they should be old enough to understand what is going on. Be sure to let them know what the problems will be, without scaring them unduly. They will be more helpful and less demanding if they know reality rather than having to conjecture about the situation themselves. They also need to know that you aren't "crying wolf." They may be able to take care of some of their own needs through part-time jobs or entrepreneurial pursuits such as yard work, window washing, and baby sitting and so on. Older children who are working but still living at home should be required to contribute at least enough for their own support.
Single people: If you have no family responsibilities, then sit down and have a talk with a friend or relative-or with yourself-about your financial situation.
Whatever you do, come out of your deliberations with a workable financial plan that takes your situation fully into account, and has been "bought into" by your family. By doing so, you'll have your credit rating and the major portion of your resources intact at the end of this period of unemployment. And you'll accomplish something else as well. Financial problems exacerbate the bad feelings you already have because you're unemployed. Developing a financial plan and taking action is positive and productive, and will give you a needed boost.
Recreation and Leisure-Time Activities
The stress of daily living is much harder on the unemployed than on someone who works 40 hours a week. Susan Barstis, a clinical psychologist with the Kaiser Permanente medical program in Los Angeles suggests that the out-of-work need vacations more than people who are employed. But because most unemployed shouldn't spend the money for a typical vacation, she suggests less costly alternatives such as gardening, painting or carpentering-for a couple of hours each day. She says this will help relieve the trauma of job loss and perhaps can even ward off depression.
Older executives often are active in community affairs. There's a terrible temptation to withdraw from these activities when you're unemployed to avoid embarrassment. Don't yield to this temptation. Continue to participate exactly as you did before. You'll get reinforcement of your continued worth-the organizations need you just as much now as they did before. And you'll have natural opportunities to meet other executives, and may even get valuable leads on possible employment. Besides, when your unemployed period is over, you'll want to continue these desirable activities. If you drop them now, you'll find them difficult to resume later. That said, a word of caution: Don't let organizations and volunteer activities take over your life. You can't afford to spend all of your time on these to the detriment of your personal job search.
Continue with your hobbies and with normal social activities. But keep these in perspective, too. You won't want to indulge in expensive entertaining or take up costly new hobbies. But accept social outings, even if you really don't want to, and spend some time on those hobbies (the inexpensive ones) which give you the most pleasure.
Do take up some new hobby or activity-a free or inexpensive one. Go to the local museums on free admission days. Go to the dollar movie house instead of the seven-dollar-a-ticket first-run theater. Participate in free activities going on in the community. Don't overlook the activities in the religious community of your choice. You need to do these things as stress-relievers. Enjoy them without guilt.
