Survive the Current Job Market by Preparing for Job lose!

Surviving a job Loss is by properly preparing for job loss. If you have a good job and you earn a good living make sure you have 6- 12 months of cash reserve put away in the bank. Don't have it invested just have it sitting in an account.

With news that Microsoft will cut an unspecified amount of jobs,

Pfizer announced that it will layoffs will be folded into a larger round undertaken by the combined company, which expects to shed more than 19,000 workers.

General Motors Corp. (GM) -- will lay off 2,000 more workers.

Home Depot the nation's biggest home improvement retailer said it would shed 7,000 workers.

Sprint said it would cut about 8,000 jobs.

Steel giant Corus Group said it would cut 3,500 jobs around the globe, 000 jobs.

Caterpillar the world largest Heavy Construction machinery will cut 20,000 jobs.

Dutch bank and insurance firm ING (ING) said it would eliminate 7,000 positions.

You cannot control the world but you certainly can prepare for survival. If you have a good job you need to built up an emergency cash account.

If you have equity in your house I would strongly suggest the following,

1. Refinance and cash out some equity, Preferably you should build up a emergency cash account of 12 months of your current income since it can take that long for someone to find a new job. If your spouse works as well you should include her income in the emergency cash account as well. This is what banks do, they borrow money from Uncle Sam for a cheap rate and they are hording cash right now to weather the storm.
2. If you cannot borrow that much at least built up 6 months of living expenses.

The most important thing when someone looses a job is not "Oh thank god I don't have a mortgage" it is how am I going to put food on the table. So if you are currently a high earning individual and you and you can cash out $150,000 you can survive a long time including to pay the mortgage in case of job loss. You have to plan for unemployment just like you plan for life insurance needs.

This what Mortgage planning is all about, planning security with the mortgage, as opposed to paying it off and ignoring all other factors like economy and retirement taxation and cash flow. For now it is all about Survival.

Sincerely,

Joel Silberstein
Certified Mortgage Planner, CMPS

www.joelsilberstein.com