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Sometimes it takes a jolt out of our comfort zone to put us on the right track. Back in 1999, I got a job at a dot com. It was a great place to work and the money was decent, especially for someone who had zero previous work experience doing what I was doing. (Apparently my ability to write out html on paper was enough to get me the job, along with my recent graduate school degree.) But it wasn’t long before I could read the writing on the wall.

By mid-2000 I’d survived 2 layoffs that had reduced the company’s staff by more than two-thirds. I wasn’t about to wait for the final layoff that would wipe out the office, so I took another job before my first one ended, explaining to them that I couldn’t work a full 40 hours at first. Did I mention that during this same time period, my then-husband and I separated, making me essentially 100% responsible for the vast majority of our bills? (House payment, child care, normal living expenses, plus my share of debt of our credit card debt & my student loan…) And I blew out the engine on my car? Talk about stress.

But something very good came of all that. I learned to rely upon myself. I learned to look for additional ways to make money. I learned to cut more expenses. Most importantly, I learned to build up an emergency fund, one that sustained me during 4.5 years of little to no income while I went the strictly self-employed route. I think that sometimes we do things when we’re uncomfortable or stressed money-wise that maybe we should be doing when we’re not feeling that way. But you don’t have to wait until you’re stressed out. You can think now about how you might change if you were forced to due to a stressful situation, and then incorporation those changes that would have long-term positive benefits now.