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Making the best of a bad situation

March 12th, 2006 at 06:16 am

This is just a little thought for the day.

One thing I haven't seen discussed often in the blogs is making the best of a bad situation. Usually it is on the lines of how to save, where/what to invest, how to get a better paying job, and so on. All excellent things to know or do. And some of them have helped me in the past year.

But what do you do when something bad happens? For me that happened a few years ago when I was laid off one day. Of course the first thing I did was apply for unemployment benefits. Next was start scouring the papers, employment centers, etc... looking for a job. But its not like you can be out trying to get a job every day 9 to 5. After a while there isn't that much you can do, but plug along and keep trying.

After a month or so I got to the point of asking "now what"? I looked at what I had available (extra time) and thought how could I make the best use of that. While different answers can come up for different people (classes, research, projects,...), I noticed my house needed a new roof. For the next four months I took my time and re-roofed my house by myself. Thankfully I had some money saved up for a rainy day, and while I would have liked to have kept the money in case something really bad happened, I looked at this as making an investment. Even if I needed to sell the house and move, I knew the ability to sell a house with a new roof would give a excellent return on the cost. It turned out to cost about $700 versus many thousands from various contracts. And by the next year I was able to get a new job (lower pay, but thankfully only a ~15% pay cut)

I guess this is just a little reminder to step back when you think something is bad and say "OK, now how can I make this work for me?"

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