By Tania Khadder | WomenCo.

I didn’t think it would happen to me. As a news producer for a television network, I reported on unemployment numbers daily. I was detached. Analytical. Objective.

Then one day, without any prior warning, I was out of a job, and the subject of someone else’s news story.

It’s not that I thought I was immune, or somehow above it all. It’s just that, like so many other Americans, I was blindsided; tricked into believing my company was in good health, that my job was safe, and that I would somehow be protected from the global  economic meltdown. In hindsight, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary. I believed I was safe because I wanted to.  

Was I distraught? Sure. Resentful? Of course! But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

And now, nearly five months later, I’m back to work. My days of wrestling with the unemployment office and spending far too much quality time with myself are over, at least for now.

But as I look back on my experiences as a “layoffee”, I can honestly say that I’m better off for having gone through them. Here are ten things I learned:

Unemployment is temporary
Being jobless is kind of like being a homesick study abroad student. You put off doing all the things you want to do because you feel like you’re going to be there forever. And besides, you’re just too busy moping to make any plans.

Get a grip. You will find a job – possibly a lot sooner than you imagined. When you do, you might have to start right away. And then it will be too late to go to the zoo at 2pm on a Tuesday.   

Don’t mess with the unemployment office
Securing your unemployment insurance benefits can be one of the most infuriating experiences in a job loss. If you make even the slightest error on your form, you will find yourself in an unending web of poorly managed bureaucracy. I know I did. It was so preposterous that I might have laughed, if I hadn’t spent so much time crying. 

So, be EXTRA CAREFUL when you fill out the weekly forms (which they send you in the mail – they are not downloadable online). It’s surprisingly easy to make a mistake, and since the whole process is automated (think: Scantron sheets), there is absolutely no room for nuance. If you color in the wrong bubble, your little clarification note next to it will do nothing but further confuse the evil computers. 

To be on the safe side, make a photocopy of each form before you fill it out. If you mess up, they may not send you another one. They may, instead, request that you call the toll free number to nowhere. And if you think there is an office you can visit to work it out face-to-face, you’re wrong. All communication with them is now by phone, fax, email or post. I found this out the hard way. Make photocopies of your forms, and you’ll at least have a shot at resending them.

Now, this may seem like a no-brainer. But I assure you, I have a brain, and it didn’t occur to me to make photocopies the first time around. I never imagined the process could be as archaic as it was. And as a result, I spent two months without benefits, and came dangerously close to a nervous breakdown.

You just can’t spend all day looking for work
It has been said that looking for a job is itself a full time job. It absolutely can be.

When you’re unemployed, it’s easy to feel guilty for doing anything other than job hunting. A matinee or park stroll feels like wasted time – time you could have spent getting an edge on the job boards.  

But trust me on this one. For your own sanity, you have to give yourself permission to do other things. Of course, you wouldn’t choose to be unemployed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the extra daylight it affords you. Besides, you can apply for jobs just as easily at 10pm as you can at 10am.

Choose your daytime television wisely
After countless hours of research, I have concluded that hosted talk shows (like Tyra, Oprah and The Doctors) are more enjoyable (and educational!) than your run of the mill Soap Opera. Whatever you do, avoid Maury Povich at all costs – unless, of course, you have some kind of academic interest in paternity testing.

Don’t take your joblessness out on your figure
When I lost my job, I craved comfort food. Mac’n’cheese, grilled cheese, or just plain blocks of cheese – if it was yellow and/or cheesy, I was game. Four months and ten pounds later, I had finally learned my lesson.

Even if you aren’t prone to eating your feelings, it’s hard to be healthy when you’re unemployed. You’re broke. Health food is expensive. And allegedly, KFC is bailing out Main Street. But there are ways to eat well on a budget. You don’t have to buy organic vegetables, you don’t even have to buy fresh vegetables, but buy vegetables for goodness sake. If a 93 year-old woman can eat well on a Depression-era budget, so can you.

The pity party helps no one
Losing your job sucks. But feeling sorry for yourself is not going to get you your next job. It won’t pay your bills. And it definitely won’t make your former employer regret their decision. So cheer up! If not for your own sake, then for the sake of your friends who are really sick of hearing about it. 

Time is relative
When you’ve got a job, going to the bank, post office or vet are activities you miraculously squeeze into a lunch hour.  You know that you only have a very short window of opportunity to get things done, so you take full advantage of it. But when you’re unemployed, you can build an entire day (or week) around any one of these activities. The fact of the matter is, when you have less to do, you stretch everything else out to fill the time. My retired father explained this phenomenon to me long before I lost my job, and like so many of his pearls of wisdom, it was absolutely spot on.   

Idle hands really are the devil’s playground
I let myself have about one week of idleness, and then I got busy. Busy looking for jobs; busy blogging; busy taking on freelance work, however poorly paid; busy spending time with my family and other unemployed friends.

I always say that if it weren’t for my blog, I would have lost it. It didn’t matter if it ate into some of my job search time, or if no one was reading it – the point is, I had a daily publishing deadline, and I did my best to stick to it. It kept me busy doing something I love, and made me feel useful in some way. I was also working on it with a friend, which helped stave off some of the daytime loneliness that can come with joblessness. Our little creative endeavor stopped me from sleeping the day away or zoning out to day-time  television (except, of course, for research purposes ). I had a reason to get up in the morning. I think keeping busy with things you love is the key to surviving a layoff, sanity in tact.  

A little bit of humor goes a long way
Like all of life’s difficult times, laughter helps a lot. Especially when it comes to dealing with friends and family who don’t quite know how to react to your predicament. They’ll tiptoe around it, or be uncomfortably sympathetic. Which will only make you feel worse.

So keep it light, and hopefully they’ll loosen up. But bear in mind that it’s kind of like making fun of your own brother – you’re allowed to mock, but no one else is.

I am not my job, and neither are you
Is your work important to you? Sure. Should you be doing something you love? Absolutely! Should your work be the only way you define yourself, or quantify your own worth? Heck no. If it does, you will find losing your job that much more devastating. More than a financial crisis, you’ll be facing an identity crisis.

But sometimes by losing your job, you gain bit of perspective. You may find that there are plenty of things you like to do, and that make you who you are, that are not tied to your work. And if you’re lucky, your unemployment might even help bring those things to light, and give you ample time to explore them.

By Lisa Chamoff | MainStreet.com

Just before the start of the Great Depression, Mary Feigenbaum’s father, a builder in Brooklyn, N.Y., lost everything. During that time Feigenbaum, now 95, remembers how she sacrificed. She had to work for the family business and couldn’t finish college, and she and her seven brothers and sisters subsisted on pounds of potatoes.

Feigenbaum ran her family’s lumber business, had three children and, after her husband died, moved to Westchester County, N.Y., where she eventually became the administrator of a mental health clinic. She retired at 75 and now lives in Cambridge, Mass.

MainStreet: How did the Depression affect you and your family?
Feigenbaum: My father never invested in the stock market. He was in the lumber business and he built one-family homes.

There was a great rush to build because they were beginning to build up Long Island. My father owned quite a bit of real estate all over, [in] Brooklyn and places out toward the Island.

When the market crashed, people at that time were able to buy stock for only 10% down and they owed the rest. They borrowed the money from the brokers. When the prices started to go down on the stocks the brokers called for money because there was only 10% on it. People ran to their banks to raise money and the banks raised their interest rates to about 10%. So they used up the money to lend people money at 10%, but they didn’t follow their obligations to give the builders their money.

And my father, the worst thing he said that could happen when you’re building a tract of houses is to stop the job. And so he would borrow money and give up a piece of his property as collateral. And the last project that he had was a six-story apartment building. He finished it up to 90% without one penny from the bank. If the bank had told him that they’re not going to pay him, he wouldn’t have done what he did. They kept telling him, “Come back Monday.” When he came on Monday, they said, “Come Thursday.” The building was about 90% completed, but he had no further property to borrow money on. So, he lost the building and he lost all of his property. All of it. He went absolutely from a millionaire to a pauper.

How did your family make ends meet?
One of his wholesale lumber dealers had taken over a piece of land because he loaned him money on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. He told my father, “Go ahead, use it. Open up a lumber yard, and I’ll send you a couple of truckloads of lumber.” And he started it, and that business remained in the family until my oldest brother took it over after the war, and then he died young and I took it over and I ran it for seven years. It stayed in the family until I dismembered it.

I remember that my father, we had no money, he borrowed $10 from my uncle and he bought 100 pounds of potatoes and we ate potatoes, and I don’t think anybody knew more recipes for potatoes than my mother. And no one dared to complain.

Were there any other ways that your family got by after your father lost his money?
As soon as he was sort of given this piece of property in Brooklyn to start a lumber business, it was almost like instantaneously he had no problems. We did lose our home that my father had built. He lost not only all of his other property, but the home that we lived in. We moved into two apartments above a store because there were no apartments big enough for 10 people that we could afford.

How do you think living during that time impacted your life?
I went to college at night, and then actually didn’t finish. So, it had a big effect. I worked in the lumberyard for my father [and] I couldn’t go to school. I had to work. I might add that my brothers and sisters had kind of high IQs, but they weren’t allowed to go to college.

How do you think the Depression is different from the recession today?
I don’t know anybody who was not touched. Today they constantly talk about the Depression, and they try to say that there are comparisons. It’s not true. There was 25% unemployment at the time.

My best friend’s father killed himself, and my neighbor’s father did the same. The newspapers, they managed to catch pictures of people jumping out of their apartments. It was a terrible time. You couldn’t meet anybody that wasn’t affected. People were begging and some were selling pencils or apples.

Related articles:

• The Rich Are Getting Un-Richer (geezeo.com)
• Is Your Pension Safe? (geezeo.com)
• Got Extra Cash? 3 Better Places to Stash it Than Your Mattress (geezeo.com)
• Cramer: How Much to Save for Retirement Now (geezeo.com)

Learn from your grandparents in the Great Depression. Here are 6 ways to save money and weather this recession.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Has Unemployment Changed Over the Years? (And What Can You Do?) (geezeo.com)
• 3 Ways to Get a Cheaper Haircut (geezeo.com)
• 6 Recession Proof Career Paths (geezeo.com)
• 4 Questions to Consider When Lending Someone Money (geezeo.com)

Money is something that is extremely hard to part with. You put a lot of time and effort into earning your money, so it comes without saying that it should be hard to let go of as well. However, there are times when people might be in need of your help and you will have to consider whether or not it is in your best interest to help them out. I’m not saying that you wouldn’t want to help them, but it may not always work out best for you.

1.) Who Are You Borrowing Money To? – Borrowing to your family can be completely different than borrowing to friends. However, both can lead to serious tensions in your relationships. When it comes to family members, sometimes you need to cut your losses and realize that you might not get the money back (that’s what family is for sometimes right?), but when it comes to friends, it is not always as easy to let go of money. If you are really close with your friend, it may be best NOT to lend them money in order to save your friendship. If for some reason the person is not able to pay you back, this can ruin and end your friendship.

2.) Will You Get the Money Back? – Like I said above, one of the biggest things to consider besides who you are borrowing to is whether you think you are going to get the money back or not. Before lending anyone money you need to decide whether to set a day to be repaid by or whether you are going to need to cut your losses and move on. Setting a date of repayment allows you both to have something to go by. However, be prepared for what to do if this date come and you haven’t yet seen the money.

3.) Will You Need the Money? – Another important aspect to consider is whether or not you think that you will need the money yourself. You do not want to give up cash that you will need in the future, because this could lead to you needing to borrow money from someone else. Take into consideration your family, job, and anything else that will be affected by you borrowing money.

4.) What Will You Be Losing? – Depending on how much money someone is asking to borrow from you, then you should definitely consider how much interest you may lose on it from not having it in a bank account. Although the interest does not always add up to much, with the current economy every little bit counts for everyone. Make sure to take into account the interest you will not be earning when you borrow money to someone. Obviously if it is only a couple hundred dollars the interest won’t be as great as if it is a couple thousand.

Borrowing money takes a lot of time and consideration. You may not always have time to consider all your options if someone needs the money as soon as possible. However, at least run through some of the above questions before making your decision. With your hard earned money and job certainty not guaranteed, it is easy to see why you may not want to borrow money. Worried about losing all your money with the current economy? Check out 10 Money Lessons from the Great Depression.

$6,000 could go a long way toward reducing your debt. Win this or other great prizes in the Great Geezeo Bailout!

Photo: Jane M. Sawyer

This is a guest post by one of my favorite personal finance bloggers, Frugal Zeitgeist. She spoke with us earlier about her obsession with paying off her mortgage. (If you missed it, here’s Part 1 and Part 2). What does Frugal Zeitgeist think of our current economic events? I asked, and she gave us some thoughtful pointers on facing your fears during a financial storm.

The subprime tsunami finally hit home over the past couple of weeks, and September has been a painful month: 159,000 jobs lost in September alone contributed to an overall unemployment rate of 6.1%. Even more disconcertingly, CNN states that the number of underemployed people (which includes people struggling to get by on smaller salaries than they once had as well as those who have dropped out of the job market altogether) is at its highest rate in fourteen years.

These are scary times, to be sure. For me, the fear factor is compounded by the collapse of historic financial institutions and the government’s struggle to patch together a bailout plan that no one can be sure will really work.

Fears about things we can’t control aren’t stupid, but if you let them form the foundation of your financial decision-making, you’re not doing yourself any good. Instead, it makes more sense to master your fears by facing them head-on. In the middle of a financial crisis, that means looking hard and realistically at your total financial picture and getting things in order. Here are a few places to start getting back to basics:

1. Don’t make any drastic changes based on fear alone

Investing requires putting together a sound asset allocation strategy based on your goals, your comfort level with risk, and your time horizon before retirement. If your asset allocation strategy worked for you before the crisis, then don’t change it. All you’ll do is lock in your losses for the short term and raise the risk of missing out on the recovery when it comes. . . and yes, eventually the economy will recover.

But what if my asset allocation strategy isn’t working for me?

If your asset allocation strategy is out of whack with where it should be (for example, if you’re fully invested in stocks and only a few years from retirement), then you need to make some changes. You may want to take a loss and move into safer investments, but you should plan on balancing out your losses another way. For some people, that might mean taking on a second job in your spare time, or even postponing retirement for a few years.

2. Pay down debt

If you have credit card debt, this is the time to get rid of it. With the credit crunch in full swing, you can expect higher interest rates, lower credit limits, or both; many people are already feeling the pinch. Even without the crisis, there is no consumer bargain that’s so good that it makes sense to pay for it over months or years. The aggregate cost of doing so is simply astronomical.

Cutting debt off at the knees means belt-tightening. For some people, it’ll mean a whole heck of a lot, which leads to . . .

3. Rein in your spending

Paying off debt means not only getting rid of what debt you have, but also making sure that you don’t incur any new debt. This means understanding the difference between wants and needs, and structuring your behavior accordingly. In some cases, that means putting off major purchases and socking the money away in savings. You can also take it as step further by assessing your needs and figuring out creative ways to cut the costs. Some easy substitutes include:

–Don’t buy water: take a reusable water bottle with you and fill it with refrigerated tap water. (Bonus: tap water contains fluoride, so it’s better for your teeth anyway!)

–Don’t buy breakfast or lunch: brown-bag it. If you have access to a microwave at work, a really cheap and healthy breakfast is as easy as nuking quick oats for ninety seconds and adding fruit or a dab of honey or peanut butter.

–Don’t toss your holey socks. Darning takes minutes, and unless you take your shoes off in public, no one will ever know.

–Not all professional attire needs to be dry-cleaned. Ironing your own shirts takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it you can do a week’s worth of shirts in half an hour. Over time, it’ll save you a bundle.

A good mantra that helps me is a saying from the Great Depression: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

4. Build up your emergency fund

Most conventional wisdom I’ve heard has said that everyone should have six months’ worth of expenses stored up. In this fiscal environment, I think it would be more prudent to save up a year’s worth. That doesn’t mean that people should stop investing, but paying off consumer debt and kicking up the emergency fund take precedence.

5. Keep your income stream going

If you have a job, do everything you can to keep it, but hedge your bets: keep on the lookout for new opportunties just in case the hammer falls. Networking with your colleagues, friends, and professional organizations is one of the most powerful tools that exists for getting a job or upgrading to a better one. If you’re unemployed, spend as much time as you possibly can looking for a job and networking, but be realistic: if you need to take lower-level temporary work to keep going, don’t let your pride get in the way. If you play your cards right, it could open up opportunities for a completely new career path.

6. Give

No matter how bad you have it, there’s a good chance that someone else is worse off. Helping can take many forms, from making sure that an elderly person has enough to eat to spending a weekend helping out at a food pantry. In tough times, sharing what you have matters more than ever.

Avoiding your fears usually means postponing a reckoning until things are far worse than they could have been, so this is the time to cowboy up and take action. If you want to take care of your future, you must take care of your present.

Thanks, Frugal Zeitgeist! These are excellent tips. Be sure to find more great tips and discussion at Frugal’s personal finance blog.