Losing a job is rarely a positive experience around the time that it happens but for the diligent savers it has the potential to become just that. If you’ve spend your years of employment saving for the future and all the unforeseen life challenges that might come along with a generous percentage of your pay, you’ve accrued a piece of mind and a chance at a new beginning that may take you where you’ve always wanted to go but delayed action until the moment seemed right. That moment may be now, finally getting your full attention in the form of an opportunity born of misfortune – or at least this is how you should be looking at it. No one ever got anywhere by wallowing in misery and spending all their time agonizing about what can no longer be changed – and it’s a valuable skill to know when this is the case.
“Save you money and one day it will return the favor”
Consider yourself fortunate and wise. Reflect for a moment on the type of financial and psychological difficulties you’ve just avoided: the uncertainty of where your next pay check will be coming from and if it will be in time to cover rent or mortgage, the calls from bill collectors, the humiliation of asking for indefinite loans from friends and family, the rising interest rates on your now maxed out credit cards, the consideration of bankruptcy, the fear of loosing it all. You could have found yourself accepting a job you’d never even consider applying for in the past, at a greatly reduced pay rate and under humiliating terms.
Now take another moment to be proud of your foresight and self-control to start a disciplined savings habit far ahead of detecting any trouble on the horizon. You’ve just passed one of life’s great challenges with flying colors in the sea of those who did not and are going through it all right now. And having taken the time to truly appreciate your current position and pitfalls avoided, now is the time to look over the hidden fruits it comes bearing.
Your options are as big as your savings
If you always wanted to start a business of your own, now is your chance, provided your savings are enough to cover the costs of investment and operation for the first few years. Your newly freed up time translates into the valuable opportunity to self-educate regarding the ins and outs of your perspective new calling.
If you frequently wondered what your life would’ve been like have you chosen that other major back in college, take this opportunity to explore that option now. It’s not too late to re-enter the world of education and earn a new degree. When the time comes, you’ll have an easier time of re-entering the workforce through the new vocational stream as many of your already well established job skills and achievements will translate successfully from one career to the next. You are not starting at the bottom: the 20-something college grads don’t have this and hence you are in a less direct competition with them than you might think.
If you loved your former job and want nothing more than to get one just like that (if your former boss really, really won’t take you back) it’s time to stop stalking the former place of employment and writing the ex-boss the creepy apologetic letters. Just take the time to consider what went wrong, admit to any mistakes on your part, think of ways you can improve and avoid them in the future, and consider how you’ll explain the terms of your recent job loss in your next job interview. If you believe that some extra work-related training will help you along, now is the time to do it: thanks to your nicely padded savings account your have the luxury of stopping to relax and regroup before going out there and rejoining the workforce.