The second item on the notecard that holds all the personal finance advice worth giving is “Get a job!” To that I’ve added “Get a side job if need be.”
Well, obviously unless you’re independently wealthy, you’re gonna have to get a job in order to have anything resembling personal finance at all. Even if you are independently wealthy, get a job: it’s good for your morals.
In America, a job may (or may not) contribute to your savings plan (item 5) by offering matching contributions to a 401(k) or 403(b). In any event, you’ll not be doing much saving unless you have a job.
But what I suggest is that you not stop there. In addition to a real job, you may be well advised to have a side gig, or at least a hobby that can, without much difficulty, be turned into a paying concern. If you’re trying to pay down debt (item 4), a side income is especially useful.
When I was laid off my job at the height of the late Recession-That-Was-Not-a-Depression, I was very glad I had been teaching adjunct off and on. That made it easy to land another gig: two sections in the months before my job ended allowed me to shore up emergency savings, fast. And I also was very glad I’d kept the copyediting business alive on the side. Once I was no longer working full time, it was relatively easy to prime that pump, so money started coming in my home-office door even before I walked out the door at the Great Desert University.
A side gig can be, by itself, a de facto emergency fund. It represents a cash flow source that doesn’t go away if you lose your primary job.
It’s also useful for a working couple who decide to have a baby. A side job may make it possible for one partner to become a stay-at-home parent while the kid is small. And a home-based business could even make the SAHP gig permanent.
Certain kinds of hobbies can be turned into sideline enterprises. I know a woman who makes hand-crafted greeting cards, for example. She’s amazingly good at it, and in turn people pay amazing prices for the things. And really: I was surprised at what people would pay for the beaded jewelry I was making for a time. If you’re willing to work hard enough at it, you can turn almost anything into a paying enterprise.
And you may be mighty glad you did…
All You Need to Know about Personal Finance Fits on a Notecard
#1 Get an Education