How to Survive the Recession Financially
People may experience a "dead-end" feeling when trying to survive harsh economic times during a recession. However, today's modern world offers numerous ways in which to survive a recession that previous generations were never privy to.
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Go back to school. Government funds have been made increasingly available for people needing student loans to pay for their education. Although some people see student loans strictly as harmful debt, these loans can serve as a source of provision during financially dry times while helping you prepare for a brighter occupational future! Most people struggle to pay rent, utilities, food and gas during a recession. Using student loans or Pell Grants to pay for graduate or undergraduate education school is a creative way to have your daily needs met while expanding your future vocational career. Employers offer to pay for continuing education for their employees. Businesses offer various discounts to students from everything from car insurance to movie tickets. Maximum student loan amounts for full-time students, and Pell Grants, pay for housing and living expenses in addition to tuition and books! Student loans are not based upon credit rating. If you have never had a student loan or have paid off previous student loans, this may be a realistic option for you.
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Electronic book publishing. Publishing books used to be a costly expense. From printing and layout to cover design, it could cost thousands of dollars to publish one book. As electronic devices such as Kindle gain popularity, websites like Amazon.com make it easy and cheap to publish a book electronically without any upfront costs. You do not have to be an expert writer to sell a great book. Maybe you are a great plumber, hairdresser, childcare provider or chef. As long as you are good at what you do, you can ask a friend or colleague to help check the grammar, structure and flow of your book, make the necessary changes and upload it onto the web source. As Kindle users download your book onto their reading device, you get paid!
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Online teacher or trainer. There are many people who are excellent teachers and trainers but cannot find open positions at local schools or businesses. Maybe you do not yet have your credentials to teach professionally, but you do have plenty of referrals from professionals who will vouch for your talent. A few years ago, a former graduate student who speaks fluent German and French became proficient at offering advice to students who needed to pass language proficiency exams. He decided to open his own online language training center offering an 8-week prep course for passing proficiency exams. He used referrals from his former university professor and colleagues to vouch for his talent and now makes quite a lucrative living out of his trade. With programs like Skype, you could even hold visual demonstrations and talk with your online students around the country.
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Start a community outreach. The tendency in a recession is to only think of "receiving" in order to survive. Yet working to help others can quickly open a door to receiving what you need for yourself. If you live in a house, you can use your garage to collect clothes and canned food for people in need. Ask a friend if you could use their empty office as a distribution center. Have your outreach listed in local church bulletins so members will donate. If you do not live in a house, solicit a local church or college to set up an outreach center where people can drop off donations. Some churches and entities like United Way will pay you for operating an outreach where members can go to receive assistance. There are private entities that offer grant monies to people helping the poor which do not require you to have a non-profit status. A woman in a small U.S. suburb began helping the homeless by collecting donations from her local community. Someone directed her to a private financial source which donated a hefty sum to her work, from which she was able to pay her own rent, utilities, and expenses!
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Learn a language. Contrary to popular thinking, it no longer takes years to learn a language. One of the highest demands in today's job market is for bi-lingual employees. You can now learn to speak a language in a matter of months, even possibly weeks depending upon time commitment, via reputable and proven online courses or software programs that teach a functional knowledge of a language within a concentrated period of time. There are job listings on the internet, from computer companies to shipping companies, begging for bi-lingual speaking candidates who are not required to understand the technicalities of the industry but simply to translate written materials such as phone scripts and instructional manuals.
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