RECESSION PROOFING YOUR FAMILY POST 2/6: MAKE A PLAN

The next step in recession proofing your family is to come up with a plan to protect your family. Benjamin Franklin wisely tells us “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” 
Any good protection plan starts with figuring out how much money you need each month to cover your Four Walls. Sit down as a couple or family and decide/calculate how much you need each month to cover your food, your housing, transportation costs, and the basic clothing needs of your family. Finding this number gives you a guideline and helps you know if you have enough coming in each month, or if you need to make some changes. 
Defending your Four Walls should be priority number one. Knowing you have enough to cover these needs each month can bring you and your family peace of mind knowing you have a place to live, food to eat, and a way to get to work each day, and something to wear. 
Chris Hogan said, “By maintaining the Four Walls, you stabilize your situation so you can begin to find margin in your budget...” That margin can go a long way in a time of need. 
Other essential parts of your plan include, cutting back, building up your emergency fund, avoiding debt, and being ready for job cuts. We’ll talk in more detail about all of these in the next several posts... Stay tuned!