Prepare for the unexpected. That statement is contradictory, I know. How can you prepare for an unexpected situation, something that you don’t see coming? As you may have noticed, the blog has been under radio silence for the past few months. Was that expected? No. Was I prepared? No. Sometimes things happen in our lives that make us evaluate what is important, and what can be set on the back burner.
That happened to my family, and it is why I haven’t been here in months. But every time something like this happens, it can be a learning experience. So let’s dive in and see what we can learn. This week I will be posting thoughts on the Coronavirus, so stay tuned.
Prepare for the unexpected – practical things to do
Think about your daily and weekly responsibilities. You probably have work expecting you or children to take care of, bills to pay, and other obligations for your time. What happens if something comes in and disrupts your family’s life and you can’t bring yourself to leave your family?
Do you have any way of ‘surviving’ if that happens? Can you pay your bills this month, next, and the next if you don’t bring home a paycheck? Will you keep your job? Have you ever discussed with your boss working remotely (if that is an option for you)? How about your other obligations? Do you have a way to stay in contact with them should your normal routine fail? Can you phone into your church group? Have a backup for your bowling league?
Here are some items to consider taking care of now, before something big or unexpected happens:
- If you haven’t already, please Save Save Save until you have an emergency fund of at least $1000, with a goal of saving 6 MONTHS of living expenses. That means you could quite your job tomorrow and not owe on any bill until 7 months from now.
Special Note: It may seem like a dream, but that is just what the world has been telling you. There are soooooooooo many resources out there to help you become a saver and give yourself financial freedom. I will mentor you myself if it comes to that. There is no excuse to living paycheck to paycheck in this age of information.
- Set up backup plans for important tasks that MUST get done. Examples include:
- Someone to drive your child to school/pick them up if you are unable (you should have this done if you have school age children).
- Set up automatic bill payment for all of your bills
- Have backups for your other obligations, including at work. It is just good practice to have someone know your work, because there should never be a situation where you choose work over health or family.
I let this blog sit, for months, because of a family situation. I was not able to dedicate the time it takes (which, granted, is a lot) to keep this blog running. But thinking back, was it necessary to go completely silent? No, I don’t think so.
Here are the things I could have done, if I had something set up ahead of time:
- Have extra posts in a backup queue. I know every blogger out there strives for this, in case they can’t write or need to focus on other things for the website. I failed at this and was writing and posting hand to mouth.
- Have a stand in (like the wonderful Bev) to shoulder the load while I took care of my family. I did not ask Bev to take this on as she had her own obligations during this time. Although it is not a bad thing to have your backup have a blog post queue also.
- Contract another blogger or a slew of guest authors to write posts for SaveyourAce.com. Bring them on throughout the year so if you need them you know you can trust them when it counts.
- Post short updates and links to important news events and analysis. There are plenty of great sites out there that write (almost) as good as Save Your Ace.
How to get through a situation you didn’t ever expect to go through
As I said in the opening paragraph, the reason to be prepared is that you don’t know what life is going to throw at you. In my case, our family went through something that we never expected to, and although it is all over now, it was a situation that just got worse and worse until things finally started to break in our favor.
But there were a few ways of getting through it, besides the #1 thing and that was sticking close (clinging) to my wife for support. No one can do everything alone, and I pray that everyone has someone that they can lean on and get closer to in one of these situations, rather than let it tear you apart.
Now, getting into my list. It’s borne from experience, as each was a learning experience or point of emphasis in our struggle.
- Have a circle (of trust) – when something like this happens, you know these are the people you can count on. They will help you and do things in the background that could make all of the difference, even if you just want to stick your head in the sand (like I did). If you don’t have many, that’s ok. What is important is to have people that trust and support you no matter what, and will ALWAYS advocate for you. Mine was my extended family and close circle of friends. They were rock-stars and I don’t know if things would have turned out in our favor without them.
- Let others help you – If you have a team, but don’t let them help, you are handcuffing yourself. I wanted everyone to keep things quiet and most of all I just wanted to stop talking about the situation all the time. But they continued to work in the background, and it paid off once I let them in.
- Listen to everyone, and ask questions – Even if you don’t agree with one of your group’s opinion, still listen. Their opinion is based on something, and even if you don’t agree you can probably take something away from the conversation.
- Know your options – The people we were dealing with were not very upfront with us, and we had to do a lot of digging ourselves. This included calling 2 lawyers, both to get information and have them ready in case we needed them. Ask questions, and find the answers yourself if you have to. Information is power, and if you are ignorant then you are powerless.
How to Get Through a Difficult Situation
To sum up, getting through a difficult unexpected situation comes down to a few things.
Have you prepared ahead of time so you can focus all of your time and energy on what is most important in an emergency or unexpected situation?
Do you have the resources, both financially and otherwise to do so?
Do you have a support network set up?
In many ways we were extremely lucky in our situation. Yes, it was terrible that we had to go through it. But we also supported each other, had support from the outside, and had resources to see us through. I apologize that the blog was inactive for this long, but I want to end in saying that I have turned this into a learning experience and hope you to do the same when you encounter difficult situations. Hindsight is 20/20 — but what happened in the past doesn’t have to repeat.
Since I missed them, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from all of us at SaveYourAce.com! Stay prepared!
P.S. I wasn’t completely idle over the last few months. I did manage to write and create a children’s Christmas story for my almost 3 year old son. If you are interested, write a message in the comments and I would be happy to send it to you.
P.P.S. Next post will be on the Coronavirus, which is pretty scary. Let’s all get prepared and gain information NOW, before it takes a foothold in your area.
