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Growing up was great. Mom and Dad took care of everything. When we wanted to eat, mom and dad were there. When we wanted clothes, mom and dad were there. When we wanted money to spend, mom and dad were there. Everything we wanted was taken care of by mom and dad. Well, mom and dad need a life of their own. It is their reward for taking care of us all those years. Time for us to move on.

Now we have a job and are quite able to survive on our own; taking care of our needs and working for the life style we want. Nice house, great car, beautiful family. Want to keep it all? Start planning now. Or, if you are not a person who plans ahead very far, maybe what I have to say will help.

So what happens if you do lose your job and everything you worked for with it, or you have already lost it all? Things gang up on you; where to live, what am I going to drive, where am I going to get the money to put food on the table. Chances are, you have already tapped mom, dad and all your friends for whatever they can give – money or their time to help you move or hold your hand while you wonder what just happened. At what point do you reach your lowest point? You get depressed, friends and family avoid you. You are attacked a thousand different ways and after a while every time the phone rings shudder in fear because of who might be on the other end. Worst of all, your family, that you love so much, starts turning against each other. Maybe you are on unemployment or getting some small help from somewhere. When is enough – enough?

Time to start thinking different. Most important of all, you must remember, you do not stand alone in this situation. There are hundreds of thousands of others in the same situation or in a worse situation than you are in now. You do not have time to play the “blame game”.

The first, most important vital thing you must do is to take care of your family. No, they may not be living the great way they did in the past, but, if they are comfortable, they can live. Knowing they are safe will give you more peace of mind than you can imagine.

Finding a new or second job to make your financial ends meet is crucial to your existence. If one job does not bring in the money you need, get two jobs, look around the house to see what you can sell. whatever it takes.

You need some time to think and clear your head of all the problems you are getting hit with. At this point, this seems to be a pure luxury. I suggest you go to someplace very quiet, and take a deep breath, literally, and let it out slow. Take as many deep breaths as you need until the feeling of shear panic you are feeling goes away.

Now, get a paper and pencil and write down all the problems you are facing. No matter how small or big. A problem is a problem. Do not leave anything out, you cannot control or solve what you do not know about.. It does not matter how big the list is. It does not matter how small the list is. Look carefully at your list of “items” and put them in order as to what is most important. Look for things that are really really hot, like water or telephone getting shut off. Make a quick call and ask them for help and extending the due date and ask them to take a partial payment. Shut off’s cost more money. Now, take the problem at the top of the list and solve it. Believe me, the rest of the items will wait for your attention and not go away. They will be there when you are ready to handle them. Focus on the one you decided to work on. Get rid of each problem systematically so it does not return, whether it is getting a payment made on time or paying off something, whatever it is, it can be fixed. Get a budget and stick to it. Don’t forget to put a little money aside, $5, $10, whatever you can afford, and do not touch it. As you get more money, you will add to this fund until you have a good amount for emergencies.

Everyone talks about the “box” and how staying within the guide lines of the box ensures your success. Let me introduce you to the box. It consists of four sides:

1) go to school,
2) get a job
3) work the job and
4) retire.

As we grew up, we all were taught to think inside the box, or we would not be successful. Guess what? Look around, the ones that have stepped out side the box are doing ok. Oh, they have lost, but not what you lost. Time to reshape the box, or just throw it away.

Going back to the original plan of survival (or the box) will not work this time around. First of all, you will not(unless you are extremely lucky) find a job that pays the same as the one that just disappeared, no matter how educated you are, Lets face it, times are tough, the economy is nose diving in quick sand. And, you find yourself applying for one job where 400 others are there to apply.

Making ends meet is getting harder and harder and stretching the income from your steady job seems unrelentingly difficult. You need to look for that extra income that will help you make those ends meet. Have you thought about working from home to make extra money? This is something everyone can do. You do not even have to have a steady job, just the will to live better. Working from home can be done in the spare time you have, even it is only a little spare time. It does not require you to answer to anyone but yourself. You know how much you need to make your “ends meet” financially. You do the bills every month…you do the math. Finding what you need is a lot easier than you think. Obviously, you like the way your current life style is going right now and you want to keep it, or you just want to improve you and your family’s lifestyle. Combining your steady job with working at home could be the answer you are looking for so you can keep the life style you have or get the one you want to have.

People who have steady jobs face the fear every day of walking in and finding that they have been replaced, or worse, the company has decided to move out of the country. What do you do next? Throwing up your hands in despair is not an option. However, taking preventative measures so you do not lose your house and cars to the banks is just pure common sense. That is where working from your home in your spare time needs to be looked at seriously. Finding a second “steady job” only takes you away from your family for longer periods of time. And, you have to ask yourself; “Does (or will) the income from the second job cover the extra money you need for your family to live comfortable, or does the money fall short again, and you will still trying to make ends meet?”

However, if you have already lost your job, look at all the options available to you. Combining a “steady job” with working at home could be the answer you are looking for. You have a chance to restructure your time, income, and way of living. Finding some work that you can do from the comfort of your home in your spare time can turn into something where you can match or exceed your “steady job income’. This, of course depends on how much effort you put forth to accomplish what you set out to do. There are a million things you can do at home to make money. You need to earnestly look for them. And you need to work your plan that you have set up. Remember what I said before, anyone can walk into their steady job and find it gone; on the other hand, the income that you have developed by working from your home stops only when you stop working. Therefore, you are in control of at least that part of your income.

In order to work from your home, circumstances dictate that you start thinking different. Time to step outside of that box and see what is there. Let us get started with brainstorming. How does someone brainstorm? Simple.

Get a pen and some paper. Start by writing down ideas. Just start writing everything that comes to your mind. Do not decide at this point whether or not it is a good idea, just write it all down. Everything silly, far-fetched, outlandish, down to earth, serious, if you can think of it, write it down. For example, write the things you like to do, your work experience, what kind of vacation you would like, whatever you can think of, write it down. It does not matter how crazy the thought sounds, it is an idea, write it down.

When you are done, look it over your list. Pretty long. Now you have to sort through the list to see what you came up with. Start another page, label this page “master”, and break it down into 3 columns:

1) work,
2) hobbies and fun stuff and
3) dreams.

Go through the list you just made and put everything you just listed into one of the columns on the new page. Set this page aside.

Now, do the same thing, but focus on your hobbies and job experience. What you like to do and what you are good at doing. Again, write down everything no matter if it seem too little to mention, write it down. When the list is done, label this list “experience”, then you are going to make sort this list into two columns;

1) hobbies or fun stuff and
2) work experience.

Set this page aside.

Next, you have one more list to make. This time you are going to focus on ways to make money. Step out of the “box”. Get some more paper, list all the ways you can think of making money. Garage sales, doing landscaping, pool cleaning, typing, accounting, writing, drawing, painting, programming, engineering, where ever you talents lie, what ever you want to do, write it down. Label this page “money making ideas” and make 3 columns;

1) second job,
2) Business from the home and
3) internet.

Sort the list into these columns.

Just a note: Working form you home does not mean you have to work for someone else, you can start a small business and work it from your home. There are things like landscaping, pool cleaning, house cleaning, window washing, janitorial service to mention a few. Maybe this is a good time to clean the garage and sell everything you do not need. It is a short term fix, but it is also a good start to making money working at home. Remember, you can add to any of the lists when you think of something new.

Now take all the pages you just did and line them up side by side. You are going to compare the following columns;

1) work and
2) work experience and
3) hobbies and fun stuff.

Anything stand out to you? Do you see a pattern? Look for the things that fit together. The experience that you get playing with you hobby could well influence your “steady job”. You should see a pattern. Face it, the talents, or skills, we use are not that much different when we are playing with our hobby or working a job. You just enjoy our hobbies better. It is that simple. Think of your hobby for a minute. You do it when you want, how you want, no one is telling you what deadline must be met and so on. While you are working your hobby, you are in a great frame of mind, you are excited and everything is right with the world. Now you must apply what you like doing, really like doing, to making money.

Get you list of “money making ideas” and sort through it looking for the easiest and least expensive ways to make money. Remember, nothing is impossible, especially if you really, really enjoy doing it.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has a specific talent, or skill, or something that they are very good at. Find yours by brainstorming, then use it to make money.

Using the information that I just gave you is how I started making extra money. When I started looking on the internet to find something to do from home, I found so many jobs available, it is unbelievable.

I hope that this has helped you. Good luck and best wishes with your project.



By: Stephie Campbell

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