How can you survive a recession without any savings? The thought of it might sound a little bit ludicrous, but I think that millions of people in America were more or less forced to do just that. There are ways that you can survive the recession, even if you weren’t allowed to just stop paying your bills as a way to save money. That would be the easy way to get out of a hard situation, but all kidding aside, how exactly can your survive the recession without any savings in the bank?
The best way to survive the recession without any savings is to make sure that you have a job that pays enough to at least cover the bills that you have. While that might not be the easiest thing to do, you can manage to scrape together enough jobs to pay your bills if you really are looking for some sort of employment. Working at a grocery store might not seem like the ideal situation for someone with a degree in medicine, but if it pays the bills, you have to at least consider it.
If you have a job that at least pays the bills, and you are in an industry that is safe, you are going to be OK, as long as you can keep other spending down. Those are the other two keys to surviving an economic downturn with little to no savings in the bank. You have to keep costs down, and you have to make sure that you always have a source of income, and at least some job to provide that. If you can do that it gives you a chance to survive the economic downturn.
If you have no job, hopefully you have something that you can turn to for money. Whether it be a 401K, or some other source of non-savings income, you hopefully can get by with it. Having to borrow against your retirement is never fun, and it actually hurts you twice, but sometimes you have to do it. If you do take money out of your 401K just remember that there are usually penalties for doing so now, and you won’t have as much money for your retirement later on.
Hopefully you are lucky enough to not lose your job, or humble enough to take a job that will hopefully pay the bills. With that in mind, freelance writing is actually a good job. You might still be taking a pay cut, but you have steady work at least. It actually is the one industry that people flocked to when the recession was at its worst, and seems like a good bet to provide steady income in the future. As long as you are willing to keep at it, it can help you out.
Always save if you can. If you cannot though, and there are many people who cannot, just make sure that you have some sort of plan. Keep some sort of income coming in, and just do your best. The economy has to turn around sometime right?