Budgeting for Layoffs? 186
The Waxed Yak asks: "After reading the Slashdot tech worker unionization story, I started wondering: What are other IT workers doing to prepare for potential layoffs?"
"We're all at risk of it, be it from actual layoffs or loss of employment for other reasons. My personal approach has been to live off about 1/3rd of my earnings and bank the rest, even though that means living in a hovel and driving an older car. Worst case scenario, I get to retire early.
I recently became completely self employed, which has made it all the more important to save. I understand many Slashdot readers have families to support, so they don't have the same option for savings that I currently enjoy. As I hope to have a family to support in the near future, I would be interested in tips or techniques to prepare for this situation. Judging by the posts in the unionization thread, many of you are dependent on a steady income to provide for their families. Hopefully this thread can provide some ideas for them as well."
Question or Comment??? (Score:4, Funny)
If you're self-employed, you're not laid off. (Score:2)
I'm also self-employed. You budget just as you would if you were employed
Re:If you're self-employed, you're not laid off. (Score:2)
Avoid the simple-IRA, because it's not simple and the SEP is usually a better deal.
Roth IRAs are a great way to save your post-tax income for retirement since once you retire, all the returns remain untaxed.
Both of these are better than doing just C
Re:If you're self-employed, you're not laid off. (Score:2)
Re:If you're self-employed, you're not laid off. (Score:3, Informative)
Saving/Investing is, in that sense, a bit like engineering. You do your best to make a good decision with incomplete information. There's no way to know what will happen in the future, so you make the best decisions you can and try to recognize the various risks and account for them somehow.
Another quote I like: Making pred
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
What?!? 'cheap jabs' on Slashdot, one wouldn't think of such a thing. Seriously, 2/3rd of your submission details how great you are, now, 70% of your reply does the same. Good for you, like many (but not all) Slashdotters, I'm very happy for you.
You know I've heard the stories about 3 year layoffs, frankly I've always thought "what the hell were they doing for THREE YEARS". Th
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
It's good that you have savings, but also consider diversifying your portfolio. If it's all in dollars, your might be screwed by the people in charge -- massive budget deficits, trade imbalance, outsourcing manufacturing... The dollar may not be worth as much in
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
I've never understood people who get laid off for 3 years... they've got to have either unrealistic salary expectations or
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
Dude, it just happens. I graudated college in 2002, just after the tech bust and just after 9/11. I had a *LOT* of job experience already due to working through college (3 and a half years), and I did not get a *real* job until 2005. Almost all of my friends were in the same boat. I knew fully accredited teachers delivering pizza... Once a friend who tried to help me get a shitty sysadmin job at a bank -- he said there was nothing he could do
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
Oh, it's one of those guys, who the hell talks like that?
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:3, Interesting)
I had a bit over 13 years of experience as a programmer/analyst when I was laid off in January 2002, mainly weird languages like Fortran and assembler and various macro languages, but also with some decent experience in C, Perl, Pascal, REXX, and a number of other more mainstream languages, experience with RDMSs like Sybase, as well as a LOT of medium- and large-scale applications design and high-pressure support experience.
I got nothing at all except one 8-m
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
The best thing you can do to make yourself recession proof is to keep your skills sharp, and make yourself extremely valuable to your customers. I am a "Software Architect" and I do consulting on the side... What I *DON'T* mean doing, is being an ass and hiding source code, and trying to lock in customers and what not... What I do mean is, become the guy that the VP calls whenever theres trouble.
Yes you still need
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
Not much one can do about that.
Re:Question or Comment??? (Score:2)
From the perspective of the people making the budgets, that's true of everyone. It's just that from a cost perspective, it's easy to say the entire company needs to lose 10% of their people and let someone else fi
Me personally (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, no matter how automated a plant may get, there still needs to be a person to fix the machine when it breaks.
Okay so my point is to always have a back up plan to fall on. You have more interests, I'm sure, than just computers. Capitalize on them. Wheather it be mechanics or landscaping or whate have you.
In the last James Bond movie to feature Q: "Never let them see you bleed, and always have an escape plan."
Re:Me personally-Maytag. (Score:2)
If the machines start looking for broke things to fix, and they happen
to take a look at some of the things humans have done to each other in
the past . They may chose to fix the human race .
If we ever get bio-genetic nanites that re-route neurons and brain memory,
The machines could end up programming us
Makes some sci-fi a little less surreal .
Other fields (Score:5, Funny)
Sure, pimpin ain't easy, but that don't make it hard.
Budget (Score:4, Interesting)
However, as such, that money is invested quite aggressively. I make stock purchases that tend to be risky. Of course, it has paid off even in the short run, with the 30% savings pushing near 45% annual gain (not including additional cash put in).
I'd rather live modestly for a long period of time than live well and spend a lot only to lose a job and have to risk moving back to a frugal lifestyle.
Re:Budget (Score:2)
This has been my approach, pretty much my whole life. Even though my family had a pretty good income when I was growing up, my parents both grew up as WWII-era working-class kids with stereotypically frugal Dutch parents. So they taught me not just to live within my means, but within within my means.
At times I've made pretty good money myself, but I've
Re:Budget (Score:2)
In other words, you are fooling your
Re:Budget (Score:5, Informative)
Look into how a bank makes loans, and what it does with your money when you "save" it with them. They don't keep it locked in a vault for you, like money under a mattress; they loan it back out to people, and pay you out of their fractional reserves when you come calling.
In essence (and I'm glossing over a lot of my Monetary Policy class in college), the bank is making an investment on your behalf. They charge a higher interest rate to the loan recipient than they pay you to keep your money "saved" with them -- this is how banks make a profit.
I mentioned being paid out of the bank's fractional reserve. Because the bank has loaned-out money to people (businesses and individuals), it doesn't have everybody's money at the bank -- it's out being spent by somebody else who thinks they can turn a profit and pay back the bank with the money they make. What happens if everybody goes to the bank and demands their money back, and the bank doesn't have enough available -- i.e., what happens if you see a bank run? Your bank borrows what they need from other banks. Worst-case scenario, they go to the "bank of last resort", a.k.a. a Federal Reserve bank. The Fed waves a magic wand (seriously, it is not transparent enough for anybody besides the Fed to know precisely what they are doing), buys/sells bonds through "open-market operations", and as necessary, creates new money -- which causes inflation. In essence, if the Fed can't handle a bank run (the last time this happened was just prior to the Great Depression, and in fact, is considered by most economists now to be the reason the Depression was as bad as it was), we're all hosed. That said, since the Depression, it has handled some monstrous ones (including Russia's failure to repay its bond commitments, which led to the decline of the Ruble, causing the collapse of some big-name financial firms like Long-Term Capital Management [wikipedia.org]). (OK, I'm not glossing-over as much Monetary Policy as I thought I would...)
Here's a dirty little secret about the FDIC, which insures the money you "save" at the bank: the FDIC only insures about 1-2% of the nation's fractional reserves. Hence, no matter how you slice it, If another Depression-style bank run occurs, we are all fucked.
In truth, savings and investment are considered more-or-less the same thing by economists today, because in the end, they *are* the same thing.
Yours,
A youngster who "saves" in mutual funds... (and in a high-rate savings account, and only what is necessary for paying bills from a checking account. Most of my savings are in my 401k for retirement though...)
Re:Budget (Score:2)
In truth, savings and investment are considered more-or-less the same thing by economists today, because in the end, they *are* the same thing.
Point taken, but there's still a difference between savings and investments; with investments, you can l
Re:Budget (Score:2)
That's the whole point of diversity. Losing everything in a diverse portfolio without major economic trouble is extremely unlikely. (It boils down to the law of large numbers)
Re:Budget (Score:2)
No, no financial professional considers them to be the same. (The slicker elements of the of the financial profession like to blur the line - because they make commissions off of investment churn, and none off of savings.) The risk v. reward ratio is, to put it mildly, extraordinarily different. (Not to mention tax issues.)
Re:Budget (Score:2)
If you invest in equity, sure. There are fixed rate investments, like bonds - they have a very predicate return. There is a risk of default, but that's just equivilent to the risk of your bank not having enough money to give you yours back (the risk is higher, certainly, but that's true throughout the spectrum of investments - higher return requires higher risk).
A savings account is just a l
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Don't keep your savings in a bank, buy gold and other precious metals and hide them behind lots of nasty traps. Then draw a map and mark the na
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Certainly - I've never debated that, nor engaged in the semantic games that others are doing.
What I am doing is refusing to call Red just a 'low frequency Blue'. We have different names for thing for good reasons - in this case, because the risk, liquidity, and tax implications are dramatically different between savings and equities or securities. Even though, in the abstract, they are the same thing - real world financial planning does not take place on t
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Of course. You can factor in inflation too to determine whether you're really making a real return on your investm-- err, "savings".
As Tango42 notes, what is generally thought of as "savings" is really just a low-risk, low-return investment. Perhaps it makes sense to classify them to the broader public as two different things, so that understanding the risk/reward ratio is simplified for the
Re:Budget (Score:2)
No they don't. Pray tell, how much *value* *will* the bank give me 35 years from now if I put $10.000 in the bank ?
First, interest-rate over that period is pretty hard to predict, and fixed interest over those timespans are rarely offered.
Second, even if the interest *WAS* fixed, that still wouldn't answer my question, because what interest me is what *value* I get out, no
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Re:Budget (Score:2)
I think it's a misnomer to say that the banks are making loans on your behalf.
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Re:Budget (Score:2)
If you're refering to a current account, that's a completely different story - they exist for convenience and security, not for making money on. Most banks make money on current accounts from charging fees, not from using the money in the account - if you have more than about one month's pay in a current account, you're wasting money.
Re:Budget (Score:2)
* Stock market
* Mutual funds
* Treasury bonds
* Fifty shares of GOOG
* Fifty shares of SCO
* Bank account
* CD
* Real Estate
* Blackjack
* Under the mattress/buried in the backyard
* Paying down debt
* Gold/Silver/Yttrium
As of now, you've done nothing to clarify the distinction between savings and investments, except to imply that any m
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Only to one who massively clueless to start with. To those not clueless, I'm enjoying a fascinating discussion/debate.
'Financial Planning for Dummies' and 'Investing for Dummies' are both excellent books for those seeking to understand the difference. I
A warning to investors ...... (Score:2)
as the standard currency for oil . The intend to switch away from
fiat currency, aka monopoly money for lack of a better analogy to gold
If they switch to gold it will seriously impact the US
The USD is not backed by anything of physical value
Some members of OPEC have come to realize this, an plan to
take advantage of the vulnerability
It reminds me of my time in the military in Italy buying a beer for $10,000 Lira
Ex-MislTech
Re:A warning to investors ...... (Score:2)
A scaremongering claim that's been bandied about since the Oil Crisis - over thirty years ago. (Mostly because switching to a currency your customers don't use is generally a bad idea. OPEC is vain, self centered, etc... etc... - but they aren't stupid.)
OTOH - they is the very real possibility that they
Re:Budget (Score:2)
What would be "saved" in your book ? Bank-account ? What if the bank goes bankrupt, or the dollar falls sufficiently that the money loose substantial value, or inflation goes higher than interest ? Gold ? What if the purchasing-power of gold falls by 75% over the next 3 decades ?
There's absolutely no way to make
Re:Budget (Score:2)
You'd have a point if the portion of the OP that I quoted and discussed dealt with retirement vice short term savings.
Certainly. But the OP boasted of how proud she was of her savi
Re:Budget (Score:2)
Besides, I enjoy my jo
Give up (Score:2, Interesting)
W-4 employment, along with nearly all IT "skills" is obsolete. Companies and the people who manage them no longer have the huevos to employ people. They would much rather shirk their responsibilities to the communities they insist on shoving their products at. They want it all for free. They want free access to free markets with free labor and free equipment, free buildings, free services and free use of all the infrastructure necessary f
Psst (Score:2)
Re:Give up (Score:2)
The eggs to employ people??
Re:Give up (Score:2)
Re:Give up (Score:2)
We also tax the baJEEZUS
That's hardly off topic (Score:3, Interesting)
Hell, I've got mucho karma, so I can afford to tell it like it is.
The whole reason people have to save up so much money is exactly because of what cubicledrone said.
And to the idiot who said all cubicledrone wants is a Government guaranteed job, that's horse shit. I'm a Reagan Republican, I believe a man should work not live on welfare. You Johnny come lately laissez-faire rabid dogs that call yourselves Republicans today, want to snatch every job known to man
Re:That's hardly off topic (Score:2)
Social responsibility is communism, or at the very least socialism. Communism and socialism are not evil, some of the regimes that were/are or claim(ed) to be communistic o
Re:That's hardly off topic (Score:2)
But one thing you may not know is that in Europe - Poland, I believe - cigarette manufacturers were encouraged by the Government to drag down people's health to soften the blow of a retiree explosion crisis: by killing them off.
By God I wish I had that news article.
Re:Give up (Score:2)
I myself have been employed at several places where if they could have chained me to the desk, they would have. The only reason that they didn't is because those pesky laws regarding wage and working conditions kept them from doing it.
The US isn't run by the federal government. It's run by the people who get the government elected.
Re:Give up (Score:2)
Land of the free??
Re:Give up (Score:2)
A little secret for you: the HR department's primary purpose is to weed out
Re:Give up (Score:2)
And I guess "uncertain" was probably the wrong word. "Not sufficiently determined" would probably be more suitable. Yes, it's normal to not know if you want to work somewhere. However, you are far more likely to get hired if every interviewer comes away thinking that you are familiar wi
Re:Give up (Score:2)
If you know 8 languages (presumably fairly well, that's about the number I'm at, depending on how you count the C derivitives), why don't you go into business for yourself. I realize it's the new ma
Re:Give up (Score:2)
Re:Give up (Score:2)
It seems that most companies weed most candidates out well before the interview stage, so I only had a half-dozen or so interviews all told. Actually, I think the number of interviews that weren't consulting firms or job-hunting agencies numbered precisely five, though I may be forgetting one or two. I don't think so, though.
That's five interviews in 33 months. Out of over 1000 cover letters and customer resumes se
Re:Give up (Score:2)
Re:Give up (Score:2)
I doubt you'll read this entire post, given your response, but I'm going to give it a go regardless:
It's obvious that you've got some bad feelings about your employment experiences. Your words sound very much like my own did and still do from time to time, and I can understand where you're coming from. There is a notion within geek subculture that only the "stupid jocks" are successful, and that there is a network of handshakes and back-scratching that perpetuates this success.
What I've found is that vi
Re:Give up (Score:2)
I am not a religious person, but every major theology has a theme of temporality running through it. I think that's a reflection of our innate desire to make sense of an entropic universe. Nothing is safe or secure -- no combination of morality, planning, or playing by the rules can shield you from the fact that life is unpredictable. I don't mean to sound callous. I have lost things that I wanted and thought that I deserved, and I know the pain, if not under the same
Re:Give up (Score:2)
Yeah, it sucks.
I personally had just bought a house a year before my layoff, and we had just gone into a little bit of additional debt to buy various household things, something that shouldn't have been a big deal (I figured it'd take us 2-3 years to pay it off and we'd be gravy).
All of a sudden the airline industry hid a little bump, which wasn't that alarming by itself, but then the happenings of 9/11 sen
Cynicism, meet reality (Score:2)
Hi, my name is Dan, and I'm a programmer and sysadmin.
Right out of college, I got myself hired by an insurance company--yeah, laugh, it's not exactly what I wanted, either. But y'know what? It's been nearly 2 years, I'm making $40k, I've got great health insurance, and they still need me--in fact, they need me even more now that they know what I can do for them. I've seen a bunch of people leave this company--a couple were fired for incompetence, a few left for greener pastures, and one or 2 retired--an
we IT workers are the most advantageous (Score:5, Insightful)
Especially programmers, designers, web developers, or any information technology service or counseling / technical support, anything that can be performed remote :
We have the internet.
When you get laid off, even in the u.s., you have the chance to put your resume & experience in a post titled 'experienced
Sure wages are not that high, comparable to when you work full time on-site.
But then again, a hourly $15 should be enough thinking you are working from home ? or from a remote site on vacation - hell, practically anywhere in the world.
Our professions are the most suitable for the internet - no surprise, as we are the ones that built it.
That might not seem enough, a mere $15, however there is no limit as to how many projects you can take on or at the same time how many hourly paid jobs you can manage - handle 3 simultaneous work, get $45 in total - no contractor will object to you as long as you handle their work fittingly. That is something you cant do while working on-site : work on someone elses stuff for an hour, get busted, youre in trouble.
I understand that many have families and people to support, and quite a many have become accustomed to rather high living standards.
So what ? if we lower our standards a bit in such times, we can work anywhere, anytime.
And note that, not having a profession that is required to be registered, unionized, guildized etc nowhere in the world, makes us capable of working ANYWHERE.
Too high taxes in u.s. ? Move to some other country where you are allowed to live in, just start working there. Its that simple.
On top of that, many countries will be pleased to have more it workers.
Unionization, regulation and etc are not to our advantage, but to our disadvantage. Keep in mind that organisations always fail to represent the masses they set out to represent - because only the rich, powerful & influential enough can spare enough resources to get on the helm of any of them. Then the result leads to manipulation and molding of the related masses to some other power's interest, and that generally becomes the industry bosses.
So far so good, were not mine workers, we can easily find ways to sustain ourselves, heck, even prosper (we are always free to use our skills to set up our own job, and we can do it with minimum capital) whenever we get laid off.
Maybe we are not that safe always, but, for the first time in the world history maybe, we have more freedom than any profession member had on the face of the world.
Re:we IT workers are the most advantageous (Score:5, Insightful)
A quick look at the history of the 20th century as compared to the the rest of human history would instantaneously prove you wrong. The 20th century saw the most regulation and unionisation in human history. It also saw the greatest period of social and technological growth the human race has ever seen.
Too high taxes in u.s. ? Move to some other country where you are allowed to live in, just start working there. Its that simple.
That may be possible for a multi-lingual 25 year old with no family or friends. How about the other 99% of the population? I've lived in 3 other countries apart from the UK and I'm telling you right now, it's not "simple" at all, and I didn't have a wife and children to relocate as well.
Re:we IT workers are the most advantageous (Score:2)
As for families, having a family and roots is ALWAYS hard whether you are unionized or not. What will happen if a plant closes and union gets a deal elsewhere ? Youll move, as a family and thats it. Whats the difference ? At least , in it field, you do
Re:we IT workers are the most advantageous (Score:2)
You have a weird idea of unions if you think you have to answer to them, and being a union member would have no bearing whatsoever on how many jobs I would be able to take, not that I would want to take MULTIPLE jobs when one job should pay enough in the first place. I do have a life, family and friends, I've
Re:we IT workers are the most advantageous (Score:2)
As for multiple jobs, having a union that FORCES the industry to make them pay more for a job does not mean that you will be able to get the job. In such situ
May I suggest a subscription to... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:May I suggest a subscription to... (Score:2)
[OT] your sig (Score:2)
"Be prepared." (Score:3, Interesting)
While one can't go wrong with having money in the bank (or a fund) earning interest, my family's philosophy is to reduce monetary need first then put money away. I recently downgraded my job from $45k/yr to ~$17k/yr, and our standard of living hasn't suffered.
One poster on this thread has mentioned she doesn't wish to "risk" being forced into a "frugal" lifestyle. Our take on things is live frugally by default and you live with much worry in the long run.
Re:"Be prepared." (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"Be prepared." (Score:2)
Many times, it is not 'luck' that leads to financial success, but hard work and sacrifice.
We spend money on what we want and what we need. A few people want savings, so they "spend" some of their money on savings (to varying degrees).
A few key things (Score:3, Informative)
- Know what's going on in the job market. For me, that includes jobs in my hometown and network management (netcool, concord, cisco, etc) jobs anywhere in North America.
- Apply for jobs even if you think that it may not be a good fit for you. At least it provides good experience in writing a resume and cover letter, and possibly interview experience as well.
- Keep a minimum balance in a bank account, say $7000. These are emergency funds, and I think being laid off counts.
- If your company has a share ownership plan, get out if it, or at least make routine transfers out to another account. If the company is considering layoffs, there is a good chance they are not performing well, and that includes stock price. The last thing you want is to be hit with a double whammy of being unemployed and seeing your retirement income evaporate.
- Whatever training you can get at your current job, take it.
- Lastly, try and stay positive. Enjoy life to the fullest outside of work.
Re:A few key things (Score:2)
For the love of god, please stop wasting your time... and mine... with this.
My boss and I are are trying to hire someone, and the majority of the resumes we're getting are for people who obviously don't fit what we're looking for. They don't even bother lying to us to make it look like they are. Listen: We're not that desperate. We're not going to hire someone who just might theoretically be good at what we need after several mont
Re:A few key things (Score:2)
Maybe that utter cluelessness is why no one will hire you. The beginning of wisdom is understanding what you don't know, and it sounds like you're not there yet. The irony is that it usually takes experience to grasp why experience is important.
Sorry, kid, but there are a lot of jobs where just being well educated and highly motivated don't cut it. I'm no
Re:A few key things (Score:2)
I'm the person who read your adolescent whining in other messages and the sadly ignorant comment above that the only jobs that REALLY require experience are brain surgery and astronautics. That statement demonstrates that you don't know what you're talking about. Stop wearing your stupidity like some badge of honor and maybe people will stop calling you on it.
Yeah, and they all have one thing in common: they are all supervised by a lying dumbass. Any hiring manager that actually b
Re:A few key things (Score:2)
Good. Now get someone with an 8th-grade (or better) reading level to explain to you what it means. Seriously: You don't understand what I'm saying, and I don't know how to dumb it down any further for you.
I didn't ask for a job.
No, you just spend a lot of time stomping your feet like a petulant 8-year-old and whining (like an 11-year-old who just learned a new swear word) that no one will give you one.
Get back on your meds, kid. If you don't have any... go find a mental health co
Re:A few key things (Score:2)
But you're wrong. It's not everyone else's fault.
Your problem is you.
Re:wasting time (Score:2)
I wish that were it. Our current job posting says that applicants need experience working with Macs (because our users have that, and it doesn't work to have a tech support guy who knows less than they do); we keep getting resumes and cover letters that detail experience with Windows and other software, but don't even contain the 3-letter sequence M-A-C or the
Re:wasting time (Score:2)
Re:wasting time (Score:2)
Again, only someone who's never developed software for OS X would think that it's fundamentally the same as developing for Linux. OK, they both use GCC on the back end, but OS X has its own proprietary GUI framework and APIs. So FYI: if you see a job posting that asks for for OS X development experien
wasting time, indeed (Score:2)
You probably shouldn't. About all OS X has in common with OS 8 are a few GUI design standards, some shortcut keys, and an emulator built into the former that runs the few remaining apps coded for the latter. Very little of what you might know about OS 8 will be of use today, whether the job involves programming, operations, or even helpdesk.
Re:A few key things (Score:2)
I like to follow the general rule of thumb: first accumulate six months easily-liquidatable assets. That is, six months of your current salary. Then, acquire two years of non-retirement assets--of your current salary. When you get fired, you won't continue to consume income at the same pace. However, you will have a rough guess as to how long you can coast . .
Some would consider $7k one-month's assets. It's probably good to have a month in your primary
Over here, it's mandatory (Score:3, Interesting)
Usually, plenty of time to find a new job.
Retirement is taken care of, too, so that's, at least in theory, no issue either.
Still, I try to spend no more than 1/2 of my income. Being able to rely on the system is nice. It gives you a sense of security. Not relying on it gives you a feeling of independence, though.
Re:Over here, it's mandatory (Score:2)
Here in Georgia it's US$300/week max (gross before state/federal/FICA which you will owe on that) for six months, and you may or may not have gotten any severance depending on your circumstances (most programmer severance packages I've seen are roughly 1 week of pay per past year of service).
Investment (Score:2)
Re:Investment (Score:2)
He has a lot of general consumer advice, but he often talks about investments and saving for retirement.
In general:
1) save in your company 401k/403B, etc up to the point where your company matches
2) then save to the max you can in a ROTH IRA
3) then save more in your company 401K since it's pre-tax
4) invest additional money in something like mutual funds. Pick ones with no-loads. You'll probably do well with an indexed fund like an
Never take vacation (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Never take vacation (Score:2)
2. paying vacation time is a leagal requirement. (in canada at least)
Always have enough money to walk away (Score:2)
Someone smart once told me that in addition to savings, you should always have enough money spare to be able to walk away from your job and last you until you get a new one. This ranks as some of the best advice ever given - it gives you, especially while you're young, just that little bit of extra confidence to stand up for yourself and to push back on management, which I've found leads to a better feedback loop between you and your managers, removes 'silent grumbling', and has (in the past) lead to a far
Re:Always have enough money to walk away (Score:2)
Re:Always have enough money to walk away (Score:2)
Re:Always have enough money to walk away (Score:2)
Here is another perspective (Score:3, Insightful)
Been there, done that (Score:3, Informative)
When you're unemployed, you need to lower your (cash) burn rate. We reduced unnecessary car trips, eating at restaurants, and most entertainment. We also shopped for food bargains and used coupons. We had several services we subscribed to on a monthly basis. Only those that were absolutely neccessary stayed. We kept internet access, as that was needed for my job search.
We substituted free entertainment for the movies, trips, etc. That included bicycling, local parks, and books and DVD's from the library. One unpleasant surprise expense was health insurance. Companies are required to offer COBRA coverage (i.e. you get company health insurance for 18 months, but your pay. They set the price). Family coverage cost $900 per month! Had I continued to be unemployed, we would have had to switch to a (non-employer) cheaper 'hospital only' plan.
I'm working now (ironically at the place that layed me off). My wife has re-trained (outside of IT) to provide some employment diversification. My daughter has changed her career objectives to avoid IT.
If you're in IT, accumulate sufficient savings, prepare a contingency plan, keep your resume up to date, monitor your cash burn rate. Don't over-invest in your company's stock. Don't live beyond your means, or paycheck to paycheck. If you're thinking about entering the IT field - don't do it.
Re:Don't enter IT? (Score:2)
Yup, you found me out. All that news about foreign outsourcing, H-1B's, downsizing, etc. is propaganda designed to reduce competition in the IT field. Feel free to ignore it.
I keep my resume up to date (Score:2)
Keep your skills up-to-date (Score:3, Interesting)
It also doesn't hurt to have a hobby that you can turn into a job. An old manager of mine used to do woodworking as a hobby. When he got laid off from a 200k/year job, he decided to retire from tech and be a professional woodworker. Needless to say, he's quite happy.
Re:prioritize-future proofing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:prioritize-future proofing (Score:2)
Many geeks actually think collapse of civilization, or events of a similar catastrophic scale, are likely. For people who a bit cynical and can see patterns (both traits of most any professional programmer), it's easy to see current trends leading to a Great Depression II, the U.S. becoming a third-world country because of racing to the bottom, the U.S. middle class becoming extinct (and since few of us a
What is your real savings? (Score:2)
If you expect the axe to fall in a few months, you might have time to fatten up the checking account by cutting back or delaying expenditures but certain things will always get you, as certain as the grass will grow, such as:
Car Expenses: Waiting to get that odd noise or that check engine light dealt with can leave you stranded on the way to a job interview, and stuck with a big towing and repair bill. Learn to do your own car maintenance, and have some basic tools. Fixing worn stuff before it leaves you st