I lost my job at the end of May and it has been a relative struggle the last few months but one thing that kept me sane is knowing that I had that emergency fund there to lean back on. I have three stages of emergency money and as I near the end of the first stage of my emergency fund and enter a new job I feel the need to describe how having this fund has provided me with so much security.

It is so important to know your minimum spend in a month. Knowing the minimum spend or crisis mode spend rate is so important in planning how much to have in your emergency fund. It allows you to have a clear picture of how much time you have to find a job and what you’ll need to change immediately. In my situation I stopped all extra spending to include Netflix, Hulu, automatic investments, automatic bill pay, reduced hanging out with friends to 1x per week, and tried to stay conscious of all other costs. Having all of these things line gave me a constant pulse of where every dollar was going and was a constant reminder for me as to where I am and how much longer I can sustain myself.

Even though I’m relatively uncomfortable I know I’m still doing okay and I can do things to make myself more comfortable. It’s never a fun time losing a job but today there are many options to keep some money coming in. Ride-sharing apps, delivering food, charging scooters in the city are all options that need to be considered in these moments of crisis. For a while I thought that I was “above” doing things like that but I started listening to motivational videos on YouTube while I was driving to keep my head up and I heard something that really resonated with me. “If you want to achieve different results you need to do something different.” I was sitting at home working on finding a job yes but at the same time I wasn’t bringing in money and I wanted to do things that would keep my spirits up like go on a hike, have an ice cream from the store etc. So I started funding those things with those side jobs. They took up my free time and kept me busy and not sitting in the house while making me money allowing me to do things that I wanted without fear of it eating into my emergency money.