The Time I Got Laid Off

COVID came.

It came for me—but not in the way you might be thinking.

Funny enough, I didn't actually catch COVID for the first year or so. Every time I got a sore throat, I thought, "Well... this is it."

But that's not what changed my life.

In the early days of the pandemic, businesses shut down overnight. Some reopened.

Some didn't.

Mine made a difficult decision.

They let me go.

It's funny... I've spent more time writing about my recent salary cut than I have about the time I actually lost my job.

Maybe it's because that was over six years ago, before two of my kids were even born. One of them arrived just a few weeks after I lost my job.

Thankfully, I found another job within a few weeks.

It paid less, but it was enough.

My wife stayed home with our newborn for a few months, we tightened our budget, and we even picked up free meals that the local schools were providing to families during COVID.

We made it through.

But looking back now...

I realize something.

I never actually knew how much time we had.

If I hadn't found another job in a few weeks...

What then?

Would we have made it two months?

Six months?

A year?

Would my wife have had to go back to work sooner?

Would we have sold something?

Would we have gone into debt?

I honestly had no idea.

That uncertainty was almost as stressful as losing the job itself.

Today, I never want to wonder those things again.

That's why I track one of my most reassuring Freedom Numbers:

Emergency Fund.

Not just how many dollars I have saved...

But how many months my family could continue living if all of our income suddenly stopped.

The calculation is simple:

Emergency Fund ÷ Core Spending = Months of Freedom

Now, if something unexpected happens, I already know exactly how much time I have before we'd need to make difficult decisions.

I hope I never have to rely on that number.

But knowing it's there helps me sleep better.

🛡️ FREEDOM NUMBER #4

Emergency Fund

Definition

The number of months my family could continue living using only our emergency savings.

Why It Matters

It replaces uncertainty with a plan. If I lose my income, I already know how much time I have to respond instead of panic.

Long-Term Goal

Maintain enough savings to give my family plenty of time to recover from an unexpected setback.

Knowing how long my emergency fund would last answered one important question.

But another question still remained.

How can I make that timeline even longer?

That's where Income Without My Job comes in, and it's the Freedom Number we'll explore next.