10 Things To Do If You Lost Your Job And All Your Money Disappears Tomorrow

This scenario assumes all liquid money in the form of a checking, savings, money market, or any other financial assets, vanish.

1. Go for a walk or hike in a beautiful area.

The first thing you need to do is breathe, relax, and clear your mind of the anxiety and stress. It will take at least an hour for the cortisol to start clearing out from your system, after which you will feel better and can start making clear-eyed decisions.

2. Stop paying your mortgage (assuming you have one).

Not that you can pay anyhow, because you have no money! More importantly, know that you can continue to live in your home for months without paying your mortgage before a bank can foreclose on your home - which should buy you time to get things in order.

3. Itemize all your remaining non-liquid assets.

Your money may be gone, but presumably, you have other assets, such as a home, car, personal belongings of varying types, and so on.

4. Identify which assets can be sold.

If you can sell your house, sell it. Move in with a family member, live in a vehicle, find a friend who will let you sleep on her couch, anything.

Sell as many non-essential items as you can. Do you really need 40 t-shirts and 15 different cooking pots?

5. Write 10 ideas for ways you can start making money in the next week.

This one step may help alleviate the stress you're feeling more than any other. Simply knowing that you have options feels good...even if some of them aren't great options. Odds are one or two of the items on your list can be started right away.

6. Sign up to offer a service online to make money today.

This can come in many, many forms, from as simple as taking surveys for $2, providing a transcription service, and reviewing websites, all the way to becoming an Uber driver or delivering groceries.

The point of this exercise is less about making the money and more about the feeling you'll experience knowing that you can make money right away.

7. Reach out to your network for help.

Even if you don't have much of a network, you probably know *one* person in a personal or professional capacity who could give you a lead on a job opportunity (even if it sucks).

8. Help someone out.

Give a friend a hand with yard work, help someone move, anything. The act of helping others produces oxytocin, which will help grow your relationship with that person and make you feel better.

9. Watch Netflix.

At the end of the day, with all the stress and work behind you, sometimes it's helpful to just let the brain check out and enjoy some mindless entertainment.

10. Be grateful for what you do have.

Okay, so you lost all your money and your job. You still have so much! You live in the greatest country in history (even with all its troubles), at the greatest time in history, you are (hopefully) healthy, you probably have someone (maybe a lot of people) who loves you and you love, and there are many options at your disposal to get out of this mess. Most important of all, you are alive in this wild and amazing world!

Bill Bergeman