What Financial Health Means to Me

The main reason I started this blog was to help other people find jobs since I was so adept at landing new ones so easily for myself. Yet, I understand that for most people, especially those outside the world of Information Technology, finding a new job is very tough. It is even harder when you’ve been laid off. I’ve been there… three times.

Even though I am in IT, just about everyone was affected by the down turn in the economy around 2009. The work at my consulting firm was slowing down and I realized I would not get too far spending my entire day on Twitter. I joined a small startup with less than ten employees, eager to help build a company from the ground up, but unfortunately, the funding for my position did not go through. After only a month, they had to let me go.

A stable shoe company looking to hire someone who was unemployed seemed to be the perfect fit as they were developing a new website platform. This was probably my most favorite job I have ever had since I totally believed in the company’s products and all my friends asked me to place orders for them. So it was very painful when they brought the team together for a meeting and explained that headquarters had decided to go in a different direction and eventually tore down our work.

Since then, I’ve been job hopping from position to position trying to relive that “dream job” feeling and recently, I found myself at a digital marketing agency where technology is the focus. Once again, the software platform we were using was bought by another software company, which led to the platform being dropped from future projects. I knew exactly what it meant when another Vice Present flew in from headquarters that morning.

So getting back on your feet and finding a new job is very important when it comes to your financial health. To me, it means peace of mind. In addition to paying your bills on time, having a job to go to everyday gives you that stability to provide for you and your family and for planning long term such as for vacations, children’s college education, and retirement. Not to mention making it easier to obtain health insurance. Having been laid off so many times, I also encourage everyone to set up an “emergency fund” just in case it should happen to you.

Once you no longer have to focus on finding a job, you can then turn your attention back to keeping your financial health strong. Create a budget, automate saving in addition to taking advantage of a work 401k plan, and meeting with a financial services professional are all healthy steps to take.