Unemployed, there is an increasing chance that you will be too. The financial crisis is affecting more and more people. But being unemployed isn’t the end of the world. It even has advantages. How do you live in your new situation, what are you going to do? Looking for a new job, or becoming an entrepreneur, updating your knowledge, doing social things? Losing your job is not nice, and it has enormous consequences. The changes are so enormous that you may overlook the possibilities, because the new situation that you did not choose yourself also has its advantages. It’s a shame if you don’t use it wisely. In this article we assume an average income, which is the income that is most common in our country.
- Financial emergency plan
- Daily schedule
- Do social things
- Own personal site as a business card
- Update knowledge
- Brainstorming
- What do you do when money is no object, what is your dream job
- Balance is everything
- Self-employed: self-employed without employees / freelance work
- Temporary contract or temporary work
- Enjoy
Financial emergency plan
For most people who lose their jobs, the biggest blow is financial loss. You go from a salary back to a benefit. An unemployment benefit is currently 70% of your last earned wage. You will receive 75% for the first two months. For higher incomes, there is a limit to your benefit; you may receive less than these percentages. That’s called daily wages. This percentage still seems like the largest part of your original income. You will still be able to make a living on this: living and eating and paying your fixed costs. But the top of your income is the part that you previously saved and that you could still do fun things with.
So your income will certainly decrease considerably, certainly by several hundred euros. That means you have to come up with a contingency plan. What can you do to live on less money? First make an overview of all your fixed costs. This gives you a clear idea of what you pay every month in rent or mortgage, insurance and other contributions. Then look at what else you spend on money. You can probably save a lot on subscriptions, mobile calls and things like that. You can also save a lot of money by handling your belongings wisely. Do you have a spare room in your house? Then rent that room to a student.
For lots of tips and ideas to save money, check out the following specials:
- Save money in everyday life in a simple way
- Save money with your finances and your home
By carefully examining your financial situation, you will find out how you can change your spending habits so that you have more money left at the end of the month. This allows you to partly compensate for the decline in your salary.
Daily schedule
Now that you have no work, you have the day to yourself. You can largely organize your day yourself. That’s very nice, endlessly watching TV and lounging. You should enjoy that for a while. But it also quickly makes you very passive and you quickly start to feel lethargic and therefore tired again. Therefore, think about how you are going to organize your day. When do you do job applications or other activities to look for new work? It is best to do this in the morning. When are you going to do some extra sports or exercise? Something social in the afternoon, and do some chores that you would otherwise never have gotten around to. In short: come up with a global program that is nice for you and that pays attention to all these matters. Doing something gives you satisfaction. And satisfaction gives you more energy. And that feels nice. Also read the tips on how to get motivated again when you don’t feel like doing anything.
Do social things
You now also have more time for social dates. Look around you, who haven’t you seen in a while? Meet up with people more often and make some contacts. Besides being fun and social, it is also a form of networking. Also tell people you are looking for work, who knows someone might know something for you. This way the knife can cut on both sides! Are you having some trouble making friends? Then get some ideas on how to make friends.
Own personal site as a business card
You probably have your own LinkedIn profile. This provides information about your education, jobs and skills. But it is difficult to create a striking and visually appealing LinkedIn profile. With your own personal site you have complete freedom, both in terms of layout and design. You can go as wild as you want. This is not difficult to do with free open source programs such as WordPress. There is plenty of information available on the internet about how to do something like this.
Free webinars from Eduvision
Update knowledge
It applies to everyone: keeping up with your knowledge is very important. In your work you keep up with knowledge and skills through certain jobs that you have to perform and that you sometimes have to sink your teeth into to get them done. You also learn your profession by working together with colleagues. Now that you don’t have a job, you also have no colleagues. Yet now you can seize the opportunity to improve your knowledge even further:
- follow free webinars, the internet is full of them, search on YouTube and for example at Eduvision: on Webthings.nl
- take a course, you now have enough time for that
- read a book about your profession, for example from the library, you can often reserve them from another branch
Brainstorming
Don’t know how to proceed? Then start brainstorming, think ‘out of the box’. Your thoughts are often limited by what you have done so far. Think broader. What advice would you give to someone else if they were you? Often there is much more possible than you can imagine, so talk to other people about your situation.
What do you do when money is no object, what is your dream job
Money has a huge influence on our thoughts and plans. So sit quietly on the couch and try to imagine what you would do if money were no object. If you didn’t work for your money, but just because you enjoyed it. What would you most like to do for work? What do you really enjoy doing? Think about what your dream job would look like, then do it