by Laurie Childree

Created on: March 20, 2009

Layoffs are being more and more common as the state of the economy continues to worsen. People that were once financially secure and didn't worry about anything except what color they wanted something in are now beginning to worry about the roofs over their heads. So how do you manage to ensure that you will financially survive a layoff?

Financial survival after a layoff is best ensured by planning prior to a layoff. Having a saving plan in place so that you always have an abundant supply of emergency funds in the event of a layoff is ideal but what if you don't have any savings and you find yourself being laid off from your only source of income?

Hopefully you do have savings that you can fall back on in the event that unemployment funds run out before you find new employment. When you have savings the first thing you do is rearrange your finances in order to make the bills fit below your unemployment. Then you go around the house and figure out which luxuries you can do without to make finances easier to manage.

How to you financially survive a layoff without savings in place? Since you were laid off you're lucky in the aspect of at least being able to draw your unemployment until you can find another job. Although unemployment is going to be less than your wages in most cases meaning that you must learn to make your money stretch as far as it can. You must also find a way to put some of it aside in the event that you don't find a job prior to it running out.

Ideally when you experience a layoff you are in a two income household and one of you has managed to maintain employment. In this situation surviving a layoff is much easier. The two of you sit down together, figure out the monthly expenses and the amount of income that you now have coming into the home. Then the two of you can go over areas where you can cut expenses together.

When you have figured out where you can cut expenses the next step is to put it into practice. Every dollar you save by the reduction of expenses should be put into an account that is going to earn you interest of some type no matter how small. Every dime you have when your income comes to a halt is going to help you pay the bills that much longer.

Then you take a moment to take a breath and realize that layoffs can be amazing opportunities for change. You might not have been truly happy at your previous job. Prior to beginning your job search go over your skills and decide what you really want to do and what areas you excell at. This will help you to rewrite your resume to find a better job than you left.

Save everything that you can in order to make the transition to unemployment to no income as smooth as possible in the event that you dont' find another job before the unemployment runs out. In the event that you find yourself in a one income home due to a layoff turning to things such as recycling and gardening can be a big help. They can both provide you with a small amount of money that if nothing else can get you a tiny bit of gas in the car to put in applications and some food on the table.

Taking advantage of local free resources for your job search can be a huge help as well. When you've been laid off from your job you want to cut expenses and the job search is going to be one of the biggest expenses. Planning for the event of a layoff should be done whether you've been at your job a week or for twenty years. No one is immune to job loss and remembering that will help you to ensure your financial planning is realistic.

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