My employer announced another round of layoffs yesterday. Thankfully I am still employed, although it did have me thinking again about how fragile our finances are. Even though we are making strides to improve our overall financial picture, if I lost my job as a software engineer, we’d be pretty screwed. I guess all I can do is keep making those improvements, and continue to be the best engineer I can be, constantly learning and growing as I go.
The whole situation has me in a bit of a funk, so my fist pumps may not be as forceful as usual. But it wouldn’t be Friday without them. So raise ’em up, friends, maybe if you scream loud enough you can help me have my usual spectacular weekend. 🙂
Posts That Make Me Fist Pump
- Top 10 Overlooked Causes of Debt from Debt Roundup
- Getting Out of Debt? Yeah…Not a Goal from Stacking Benjamins
- 4 Ways You’ve Been Paying Too Much to the IRS from Go Banking Rates
- Henrico couple plans free trip to Disney World using reward points featuring Richmond Savers
- Need to Get Out of Debt But Don’t Know Where to Start? 5 Simple Steps to Get Started Right Now from Celebrating Financial Freedom
Shameless Self Promotion
- Can’t Pay Your Taxes? Don’t Panic: Here’s What You Need to Know via MoneyNing
- Do You Tell People You Are in a Debt Consolidation Program? via the CareOne Community
- A Complete Guide To Saving Money On Your Taxes By Cleaning Out Your Closets via My Personal Finance Journey
Weight Loss Update
- 2/28 Weight : 210.1 (+0.2) Booo, gotta keep on workin’ it!
- Total Weight Loss: -3.1
- Goal Weight : 185.0
Travis, I am sorry to hear about the layoffs at your work. I’m in the newspaper industry myself, so I feel your pain. In fact, layoffs are the biggest thing that motivated us to begin getting our finances under control. All I can say is to get that emergency fund built up, and always have a ‘plan B’. Good luck. I love the blog!
Thanks, Sassy Mamaw, it’s giving us an extra “push” to get our finances in the best shape possible. Plan B at this point has to be “be a spectacular engineer, and don’t get laid off. If I do, be SO GOOD that someone else will immediately hire me.” 🙂 Glad to hear you’re still enjoying what’s going on here at EOD….you’ve been a great, long time supporter. Thanks for reading and commenting!
My company has just go through a round of layoffs. Other then continuing to do the best job you can no real way to insulate yourself from things like this. As a SW engineering I’m sure you’d be marketable on the job market. Think good thoughts and have a great weekend!
Thanks Brian…going to try to put it out of my head for the weekend, and come to work on Monday recharged and ready to kick some butt!
There is nothing fun about layoffs. All I can say is that you just need to keep on working hard and if it happens, then there is not much you can do about it.
Thanks for including me this week Travis!
The layoffs have energized me to really throw myself into my job. Hopefully I’ll be valuable enough to stay there until I retire…..I love my job and would love to be one of those guys that spent my entire career with one employer. Thanks for stopping by, Grayson!
Travis, I thought blogging is your full time business. It’s amazing that you could blog and still work full time. Well keep up the good work and have a great weekend!
Both careers keep me very busy, Alex. 🙂 Blogging will eat up as much of my non-engineer, non-family time as I will let it, that’s for sure. Thanks for the well wishes, and thanks for commenting!
Having worked for that company, I was saddened to hear of the recent layoffs. Plan for the when it happens versus if it happens. I know that was the discussion among us each time we were spared. I saw some extremely talented people let go. However, I can say that every single person I know who was laid off and looked for another job found one that was better for them. Every single one of them. Those who didn’t look for jobs were retirement eligible and decided to retire. Myself included. I was on the list 3 times. After the 2nd time & luckily finding another job within the company, my husband and I changed our strategy to when it happens. Good luck to you and your co-workers.
It’s so sad to watch all those talented people walk out the door, Kathy. I understand the business reasons, but at some point it seems like a bad decision to let all that talent go. Maybe one day I’ll get there, but I just cannot get myself to take on a perspective of “When I lose my job.” I just can’t do it. 🙂
I’m glad to hear your job is safe. I obviously don’t know much about the industry, but it seems you have a fairly specialized skill set which would be in high demand.
It’s safe for now, Stefanie. The only problem with my skill set is that the job market in my area has been flooded with people with similar skills given the last 18 months of layoffs at my employer. But, if I couldn’t find a job here (if I would get laid off), I would likely find one fairly easily somewhere else. Thanks for stopping by!
Sorry to hear about the layoffs. There have been quite a few big companies in Minnesota going through layoffs recently. I’d be in trouble too if I lost my job as an accountant.
I hope the economy pics up soon, DC – at some point companies need to start buying stuff again, right??? 🙂
Thanks for the link to our NBC segment Travis!!
It is scary to think about what would happen if one lost their job. Even if you think you’re doing okay financially, it is almost impossible to imagine the financial shock of having zero income.
The best “emergency fund” can only last so long before you’re completely done…
True story, Brad….and that length of time isn’t very long at all when income is at ZERO. It would be the worst nightmare (although there would be unemployment for some time….). Happy to still be employed!