You've worked all these years looking forward to the day when you could retire. Now you are able to actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. You figured you could work for eight or ten more years and then relax. The job is good, the investment in the 401K and IRAs are reliable and moving up.

Piece of cake, right? WRONG! Important things have developed and you have just realized that the light at the end of this tunnel is a train coming straight at you. Suddenly details aren't as secure as they had seemed. All of a sudden individuals around you are getting laid off and there are actually rumors that the business will probably be moving out of state. Your conviction that the business cannot do without you is unraveling. Senior employees are being asked to train junior employees as their own backups ("just in case you can't work") and you know there isn't sufficient work for the junior employee as it is. Is there a message here?

Your retirement fund is in disarray with values 50% less than they were a couple of years ago and you have little hope of full recovery in the near future. And if you could possibly be laid off that fund might be a primary earnings resource until you discover another career. Yet another career, you say? The LA Times says it could take years for employment levels to reach pre-recession levels. As the years go on you will find your self competing along with a bigger and larger replacement pool, most of whom are younger than you.

That million dollar equity you had in your home is now 300K and it will take quite a few years to recover.

What if the ax has already fallen? Exactly what are you going to do? You can collect unemployment benefits, but with the State of California when you are laid off these days you may only collect benefits for 26 weeks except if Congress passes another extension. The previous extension barely passed by a couple of votes so it is not probable that a new extension will probably be enacted.

Should you be 62 or older you may apply to Social Security for early retirement. The payments will be greatly reduced depending on just how many years you've remaining until full retirement and while in this interval you are restricted on exactly how much you are able to earn in a job or company.

You can begin eating into that 401K or IRA but if you're under 59-1/2 you actually will probably be paying a penalty. And also remember, you will be drawing on these funds at significantly decreased values and those funds may need to really last a lot longer than you initially thought.

Exactly what are your options at this point? Clearly, there aren't a great many. You can tough it out, cut back on your way of life and hope some thing comes along. You are able to become a consultant. You think? The way it occurs, the market for consultants has dried out because businesses try to retain their regular employees. Or it is possible to consider starting your very own company.

I speak from experience. I quit the corporate world years in the past with a truly good skill set. I functioned as a consultant, acquired a lot of knowledge and hardly ever experienced a week pass between jobs. My past three assignments collectively lasted for almost 10 years so I thought if I could hold out for just a few more years I would be set for retirement.

That's till this past December 2009 when I ended up being replaced by a newly laid-off permanent employee. No problem, I will simply begin searching for yet another assignment. And checking, and checking and checking.

Now, eight months later I'm still checking but I have got a great edge over the numerous people in the same situation. Several years in the past My spouse and i realized that it was foolish to count on a single earnings supply and decided to discover some thing my wife and I could do jointly from own home as a backup and create a second income. We "drilled our well prior to we were thirsty" and thank heaven we did. The money we created from our business did replace my wife's job income and she was in a position to stop working. Because of that decision although we aren't wealthy, we are in a position to make it, purchase groceries, pay health insurance and the mortgage and not dig into our personal savings.