Navigating Financial Hardship: Strategies for Overcoming Difficult Times

There are times when it doesn’t work. You lost your job or you can’t get a job. Your ex-wife takes you to court. Your partner absconds with the money in your business account. Your business fails. Your car dies. Your health takes an unexpected turn for the worse. Sometimes you’re actually just trying to get to the next day — and you don’t know exactly how you’ll get there.

When one of you — our Facebook readers — asked us about dealing with really difficult circumstances, we couldn’t help but be moved. And while we’re all at different levels of financial independence (or dependence), we searched through our articles to find some that discuss what to do when you’re in desperate circumstances and found relatively few.

So we thought, Why not ask the community for help? Let’s reach out to the readers and see if, together, we can give our best advice for what to do when you’re just barely making — or failing to make — ends meet.

We’ll consider the brass-tacks basics of what to do when you’re in survival mode. This isn’t an exhaustive list. It’s just meant to be a starting point. Then, we’ll look at the attitudes that can help someone be successful during difficult times. The first thing is to prioritize your needs and stabilize your income…

Prioritize your needs

1. Housing — Your safety is the highest priority, and that starts with having a roof over your head.
2. Utilities — Electricity and water are essential too, especially considering that extreme weather conditions can be deadly. (It’s also important for the next priority.)
3. Food — Clearly a necessity as well, but consider how you can bring your costs down.
4. Transportation — Depending on where you live, investigate public transportation and consider walking and/or getting a bicycle.
5. Health Maintenance — Maintain necessary prescriptions such as insulin, etc. (Depending on your health, this may appear higher on the list.)
6. Phone — You only need simple phone service that amounts to about $20/month (not a smartphone with Internet).

Stabilize your income

Do whatever you can to maintain (or *secure) income that will meet the prioritized needs at least. In certain circumstances, some of the items mentioned above, such as food and utilities, can be subsidized if necessary. If at all possible, secure a second job to help you get ahead faster. If you have an emergency fund — and you should — carefully budget your needs against it to see how long it will last.

(* Another reader provided her solution to when there isn’t enough, which entailed making some hard choices such as moving out of state to find work.)

Your mindset when barely making ends meet

There are so many people desperately trying to make ends meet and failing at it — whether because of their own failures or because of terrible misfortune. And it’s hard. Still, the problem remains that we must get through it, get past it, so we, and everyone else in our lives, ultimately succeed. It’s a problem made more difficult by our own inability to corral negative thoughts, change unproductive attitudes, or embrace new beliefs that could help improve our situation. Sometimes, it’s just not that easy to shake familiar habits and replace them with untried methods that have unknown results. Sometimes that’s exactly what is necessary. Sometimes it takes being pushed against the wall.

We want to look at what has to happen inside to make it through such a difficult time. Do you need encouragement, or do you need to be pushed? What thought process guides someone out of these situations?

• You’ve lost your job
• You are living on the street
• You’ve been out of work for years
• Your health is compromised

Recognizing that it’s never enough to simply pat someone on the back and offer a phrase or thought, how would you encourage someone in this situation? How did you manage your thoughts, change your attitudes, and find new beliefs that improved your situation? Do you have any ideas on housing, food, or income for anyone who is facing extreme financial hardship? This is a broad topic, so as you comment, please indicate at the beginning of your comment what aspect you are addressing so it will be easy to search and find comments on topics that interest future readers… and thank you. Thank you for your generous support of other readers who happen to be struggling.

Linda Vergon

Linda Vergon was a Managing Editor for Quinstreet and Get Rich Slowly for over four years. With more than two decades in the court reporting profession, she also has a deep understanding of legal issues and process.

View all posts by Linda Vergon