Just because you made a certain wage before doesn’t mean you’ll get it now.

One of the problems that keeps cropping up with why employers don’t want to hire older workers is salary expectations–or so they say.  Taking the time to look at where you are on this issue is important whether you are in the hunt for a new position or not.  Keeping your current company afloat may also be a matter of getting creative–taking additional flexibility in lieu of payroll dollars for example.

All too often, salary is a matter of ego.  “I am a success because I make a six figure income.”   (I’m convinced that’s why CEO’s get the ridiculous salaries they do, especially when they get in front of Congress to explain their company’s bad decisions and claim they knew nothing about what was going on.  A leader who’s out of the loop isn’t worth a damn.)  So let’s get rid of this baloney right now.  We are not ranked by salary in terms of our worth as human beings.

Some people think that just because they “need” a certain amount to live, they should be paid that, too.  That might work in a communist state (which have been pretty much proven not to work well overall).  But it’s completely at odds with how capitalism works.    A fair wage, yes,  but not more than that just because it makes your life work better.

Capitalism revolves around supply and demand.  If you want to make better money, you do the things that are in short supply.  At the same time, whatever you do you need to do well, so you also need to be working toward doing what you love.   When you have it right, you will find yourself saying “I can’t believe they pay me to do this!”

Here are a few dead ends you want to avoid:

• I should be making what everyone else is making at this job.   This is true to a point, but only if you are doing the same amount of work, of the same complexity, with the same amount of supervision to get it done,  in the same amount of time.  If you are being paid less, find out why.  Don’t assume it’s just because your boss–or HR or “the Company”–wants to be unfair.
• I should be making at least as much as I made at my last job.  What’s going on in this job has no relation to what you did before.  And in this market, even if you are a superstar, you are likely to see salary cuts.
• I should make more because I’ve been here longer.  Nope…not if you are doing the same work as everyone else.  But you probably do because seniority has been a union issue for at least half a century.   In this economic climate, that higher salary is like painting a bull’s eye on yourself.    If you can afford it, let the decision makers know you’d be willing to take a salary cut if they start talking lay-offs.

The “Great Recession” has pushed the reset button on salary growth.  It’s also given us a huge chance to use other things as elements of a compensation package.  Free time is often more valuable than the cut in pay to go to a four day (8 hour ) week.  The chance to cross train may be worth more to you than the raise you are suppposed to get.

With cities and states cutting budgets to make ends meet, it’s obvious we aren’t out of the weeds yet.  One of the ways to keep your own path clear is to be willing to flex on salary when needed.  You’re worth as a human doesn’t rest on what you make.

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Mary Lloyd is a speaker and consultant and author of Supercharged Retirement:  Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love.  For more see her website www.mining-silver.com.

Staying employed is as much about attitude as talent.

Virtually all of us have been affected by the current unemployment situation. If we haven’t personally lost a job, taken a pay cut, or ended up on reduced hours, we have friends and family members who are dealing with any and all of that. Keeping a job has become a far more serious concern of late. Be sure you aren’t setting yourself up with your attitude.  Here are three things to think about:

Are you excusing yourself from doing the work?  Yes, all this doom and gloom is demoralizing, but that doesn’t give you a free pass.  The longer you are in a job, the easier it is to tell yourself “I’ve done this a long time, I deserve to throttle back a little.”   You don’t have to go full bore all the time, but you do have to do the work. 

One of the most frustrating comments I hear from employers about older workers is that “they don’t want to work.”  We’re talking real estate professionals and scientists with graduate degrees here–at least in terms of where I’ve heard the comments.  Deciding that you’ve earned the right to slow down is okay of you take less pay to slow down.  But if you are still holding the same job and claiming the same salary, that “right” you think you deserve could land you in the unemployment line.

Are you part of the solution?  It makes no difference if you are eighteen or eighty, you have things to offer that can help the company thrive.  The probability that those talents have become highly polished skills increases with experience.  Use yours with intelligence, grace, and collaboration.

This is not a case of insisting that the old ways are better.  This is a commitment to dealing with the current challenges well by bringing everything you can to bear.  In particular, learn to build alliances with those who understand what you don’t.  Together, the difference you can make will be huge.

Are you gobbling benefits?   Just because the company offers health insurance doesn’t mean you need to head for the doctor’s office every time you get a cold.  Many of us have gotten far too accustomed to solving our problems with pills.  The resulting skyrocketing health insurance costs has become a horrendous burden to most employers.  This is big piece of why ”older workers are more expensive.”  Keep yourself healthy instead of expecting doctors to do it for you.  (They can’t anyway.  They just figure out why you are sick–sometimes.)

The same is true for taking more than you really need as sick days.  It’s wiser to stay home if you have something communicable, but taking a sick day to coach a baseball game is neither honest or smart if you want to keep the job.

For those of you grumbling about how miserable your job is, here’s one last bit of advice.  If you don’t want it, someone else would be ecstatic to have it.   Suck it up, turn on your smile and do the very best job you can.

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Mary Lloyd is a speaker and consultant and CEO of Mining Silver, a company focused on using the talent of those over 50 more effectively.  She’s the author of Supercharged Retirement:  Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love.  Contact her at mary@mining-silver.com.

Being certain about what’s supposed to happen can be a major obstacle–on the job and in your personal life. 

There’s a big difference between being ready for what comes next and deciding you know what comes next.  The former is like returning the ball in a tennis match.  You need to do what you can to be ready to deal with what comes, but you are well aware that you won’t know what’s coming until it’s on the way.

Assuming you know what’s coming next is like deciding your opponent is going to lob the ball and positioning yourself for that before the shot.  You’re out of position for every other possibility that might come once the ball is on the way.  That’s far less effective–in tennis and in life. 

When you decide you know something you really can’t know, you’ve essentially decided all other possibilities don’t exist.  They become part of the “background noise” that your sensory system filters out before you even realize they’re there. You don’t decide on what they actually might offer because you’ve already decided they aren’t coming.

Ellen Langer puts it well in her 2009 book, Counterclockwise:  Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility :  “Certainty is a cruel mindset.”  She makes the point relative to medical care and illness, but it’s equally true for career planning, interpersonal relationships, and romance.

We get a lot of advice to “ask for what you want” and “visualize your ideal” but there’s a downside to that approach.  If I ask for a chocolate chip cookie and the person to whom I made the request is both capable of and willing to give me a glorious box of handmade chocolate truffles instead, I will never know what I missed out on.  If I write down that I want “a regular fulltime job with good benefits,” the chance to do something with an unconventional work schedule that suits me better will never hit my radar.

Yes, we need to know what we need and want.  And we need to be effective in expressing it.  But do the specifics make a difference?  If not, don’t use them.  ”A meaningful job doing challenging works with pay that covers my needs” leaves a lot more room for positive surprises than “a senior level accounting job in a Fortune 500 firm.”

To give yourself direction, be specific about what you need rather than what kind of clothes you’re going to be wearing when you get it.

In that same vein, stay open to being open.  Don’t rule anything out until you really look at it.  It’s easy to say you’re open to new directions, but it takes a concerted effort to get your mind to go to those unfamiliar places.  Look for the unusual possibilities and look at them when they appear.

Life is an adventure.  None of us know what is going to come next.  The better you get at dealing with what does (instead of deciding what should have) the more enjoyable the adventure will be.  And the better you will set things up for the next positive surprise.

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Mary Lloyd is a consultant , seminar leader, and speaker and author of Supercharged Retirement:  Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

With the current economic challenges, having a job is a big plus and keeping it is a must.   But sometimes, the wrong job can be even more emotionally destructive than having no job.   What do you do then?

Those of us who can at least see retirement on the horizon are legitimately even more skitterish.  When an older worker loses a job, it takes longer to find a new one.  Plus, once you are on the sidelines for a while, being older means being more vulnerable to losing confidence in yourself and letting go of work by default.  So we hunker down and keep the job we hate. 

We need to get smart about finding that next thing instead of remaining a victim of the lousy economy and horrid work situation.

The first step in a good job transition is knowing where you want to go.  If you need to find something else, be sure you are clear about why you need to change things.  Assuming that the reason work is bad is the boss or the company, when you hate that kind of work altogether is a ticket to a repeat of the job angst.  Take some time to think about what doesn’t work about this job and what’s behind that.  You may think your boss is the Ultimate Bossilla until you listen to what you friends and peers are saying about their bosses. 

Learn all you can about yourself so you have some certainty about what would be a great job for you.  Also be sure you’ve gotten to the actual core of why the current situation isn’t working.  If it’s just that the economy has slowed things down, planning an exit is a case of “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”  But if you have lost interest in the work you are now doing, maybe you need a new direction to get your mojo back.  Check this stuff out–and don’t just make a bunch of assumptions without getting real information.

The next step is to identify realistic options for working elsewhere.  Be forewarned, if you need to jump ship, you might end up starting a whole lot farther down the ladder with the new outfit.  This may be the best thing you ever did, but take the time to think about it.  Also think in terms of where you might be able to move within  your current company if it’s really a matter of bad boss or co-worker chemistry.   

This step has an unexpected and immediate benefit.  Sometimes when you take a close look at what else you could realistically do, the job you are doing becomes a whole lot more appealing.

Then figure out how to be really good at doing what you want to do next.  This may be by taking classes on your own.  It may be by talking with people who are already doing that kind of work.  It may be by applying yourself on your current job more diligently so that you develop skills needed for the next job.  As Thomas Edison said, “When opportunity arrives, many people miss it because it’s wearing overalls and looks like work.”  Do the work to get good enough to be valuable in the new arena. 

Build your network to include people with that interest and expertise.    Networking is not about collecting business cards from people you don’t know.  It’s about getting to know people–as friends–who are doing what you want to do.   You don’t have to like them personally or have the same politics to become good business buddies. 

The smartest thing anyone can do in a down economy is to be helpful in the business context.  If you see an article that someone else would appreciate, send them the link.  If you note a problem developing that a business friend needs to know about, give them the heads up (unless it involves a conflict of interest to do so).  Being kind is always in vogue, regardess of what the Wall Street stereotype is played like in the movies.

As a strategic capstone, keep doing your current job to the very best of your ability.  That is called integrity.  It doens’t make any difference if the whole rest of the world has lost it (which it hasn’t), operating to the best of your ability will keep you saner, happier, and more appealing as an employee–and a person

No matter how old you are, if you want to work, you can find work.  The best way to set yourself up so that you call the shots with that is to do what you love and be good at it.  So if your current job doesn’t give you that, you may need to change long term.  If you do, doing these things can make a big difference.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

Right now, having a job is, in and of itself, a reason to be thankful. Very very thankful. But gratitude is one of those things that easily gets lost in the stress and bustle of actually doing the work and having a life simultaneously.  Try not to let that happen.  By happy about the work you do.

Why? 

Well, for starters, it’s just plain dumb to take a negative attitude toward anything.  There’s plenty of research to support the claim that thinking positively keeps you healthier.   It’s a better way to live.  Period.

But thinking positively about your job no matter what you’re doing on it is also an important part of your overall strategy for staying employed as long as you want to.  Being positive about your job means you will do it better.  And in this economy, the better performers are the ones to keep.  Better performers are the ones other employers snatch up if they do get laid off, too.  Grateful people are easier to work with and to have working for you.

So if you want to stay employed, put some effort into being positive and upbeat, even if  you do have a heavier work load than seems fair.  Even better:  Don’t start telling yourself it’s “not fair.” That kind of judgment is just negativity in a self-righteous wrapper.  It doesn’t make any difference what’s “fair.”  It’s your job.  For the time being, you want it, you need it, and you need to do what you can to keep it.

The cornerstone of that is being happy you have it.

I can hear your “yes but’s.”   The “You have no idea what I have to put up with” rebuttal seems so justified.  But it isn’t.   How awful the job is or isn’t is not the deciding factor in whether you can be grateful for it.  Deciding to grateful is.  Your attitude toward your job is 100% up to you.

There are offices who manage to do the impossible day after day because the people who work there believe in what they are doing and are happy to be doing it.  There are other offices with more flexibility, pay, and perks who are full of complainers and unmet business goals.  Which kind of place are you creating with your own attitude?  How much negativity are you buying in on without realizing it?

That’s another piece of this you need to pay attention to.  Getting sucked into a negative group mind set at work happens so automatically that you don’t even know it’s happened.  You just end up going home grumpy every day and start to dread the next one–unless it’s the weekend.

Work is never perfect and there will be days that don’t go at all well.  You can still be pleased and grateful you have the job.  You can still be cheerful.  You can still do your best to do the work as well as possible. 

Even if we don’t need money, we end up working at something.  It’s a basic part of being human.  If you are doing work as a job, make sure part of how you approach it is to be grateful.  It’s easier to hold a job when you have that attitude.  And easier to keep one.  Or find another. 

Work is good.  Be grateful.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO,Mining Silver
 
Norman Vincent Peale was promoting positive thinking way back in 1952.  Motivational speakers have been proselytizing about it for decades.  These days you’ll find it in “The Secret.”  But even with all that, our focus now is most often on the negatives—what to avoid, be afraid of, or worry about.  That’s not so good.  Negative thinking has some really nasty side effects. 
 
Take nutrition, for example.  We’re supposed to avoid trans fats.  And high fructose corn syrup.  And genetically altered food.  To get rid of free radicals and reduce our cholesterol.  We avoid red meat and bottled water and anything that came from Mexico—or is it Timbuktu this week?  Fresh greens are the road to certain death as is peanut butter—or whatever has been most recently found to have something nasty in it  SOMEWHERE. 
 
Be careful.  Be VERY careful.  Be afraid of what you might eat by accident. 
 
There’s so much more joy in eating gorgeous food that you meet raw and cook with love.  Beautiful food is good for you. How about doing that instead of trying to avoid what isn’t.
 
Food is just one arena.  There’s stuff to avoid in every facet of life.  Scams. Toxic personalities.  Sunshine–at least without sunscreen.  Binge shopping. Crow’s feet.  Traffic jams.  Weeds.  Spam.  Mean people. Burn out…  The list goes on and on and on.  Persuasive content these days is aimed at getting you to NOT have something happen, be it identity theft or erectile dysfunction.

We pay a huge price doing it this way.
 
Negative thinking puts you on alert:  There is danger–something that’s not good for you that you need to do something about.  Something to fear.  Something to worry about.  Your entire body stays on alert, waiting for further instructions on whether to fight the thing or run like hell.  These are other words for “stress.”  By worrying, we increase our odds of a heart attack, stroke, or some other health problem. 
 
Most of what we are afraid of isn’t even real.  It’s projections of a future that hasn’t happened—and probably won’t.  If you’re afraid of the pit bull that’s snarling at you, that’s smart and it’s time for action.  But being afraid of what you might eat is silly.
 
Trying to avoid all future risk is futile.  Why not enjoy what’s going on right now, instead?  Doing that increases your immune levels, reduces your stress, and, of course, makes life more fun moment to moment.
Being happy provides an energy boost that makes life easier.

So how can you be positive in this negative world? 
 
Choose it.  Consciously search for the positive in whatever you’re dealing with. 
 
Be grateful. When you acknowledge what you have, the wisdom to see that specific blessing links to an overall sense of wellbeing.
 
Ignore the naysayers.  Even if they are people you love and live with.  Imagine an invisible wall of positive energy between you and that toxic thinking, keeping you from falling prey to the worry and woe.

Yes, it’s easy to get caught up in the negatives.   Try not to.  The benefits of being happy far outweigh this unachievable effort to be 100% safe.  As long as you’re alive, there will be risks.  They will be no greater if you choose to be happy–and may actually be far less.  Regardless, life is sweeter when you see the pluses—and there always are some.

By Mary Lloyd, CEO. Mining Silver

There’s an old story about a farmer in South Africa who sold his farm so he could become a diamond prospector. He never did find his mother load. But the guy who bought the farm, who was paying more attention to what was going on around him, did—in the creek bed that the would-be prospector had crossed every day he’d owned the farm. If you’re not paying attention, you can miss seeing treasure that you already have.

For many companies and the culture in general, this is true of older workers. They are a gold mine of experience, knowledge, and well-honed skills, yet we politely move them to the sidelines—and then out of the picture entirely and into “retirement” simply because they’ve reached a certain age. Why do we keep doing that?

I can hear the clamor of defense already. Older workers don’t want to work as hard. Older workers want to retire and are just treading water until they can leave. Older workers get sick more often. None of these things are true across the board. What’s even more important to realize is that even if they are true for your company, you may be causing them.

If senior employees aren’t offered new challenges, if their experience isn’t appreciated and relied on, if they aren’t given effective opportunities to learn new technology, you’re stacking the deck against the company—and them. Without positive challenges, appreciation, and a viable chance to learn, it’s hard to enjoy your work no matter how old you are. And when you don’t like your work, you think about leaving, especially if you can retire.

You may be applauding this exodus. It “makes room for fresh blood.” You’re reducing salary and benefits expenses. But that’s like using a gold mine for cold storage. You’re not really getting the best use out of what you have. And when you “throw them away” for younger workers, you lose a lot that the company needs to know.

Why not be smarter about how you use them?

LEVERAGE WHAT OLDER WORKERS KNOW AND CAN DO. The “old pro” who can calm the most irate customer should be the role model for new hires. She might make a great mentor or even a trainer. Even if she doesn’t want those roles, concrete examples of how she handles things make it much easier for younger workers to learn how to do the job right. And she just might perform even better for being noticed.

ADD A SEASONED PERSPECTIVE TO DEVELOPMENT TEAMS. Get your older talent involved with projects that will be enhanced by their viewpoint. What are you trying to do that might run into trouble for lack of a reality check? What needs to be linked carefully to what you are already doing to be a success? Cross-generational teams should be our “secret weapon” for business success. We think of them as battle grounds. Yes, there are generational differences. There always have been. Effective managers—both of companies and projects–capitalize on them.

USE WHAT SENIOR EMPLOYEES KNOW STRATEGICALLY. Too often, we tell older workers how valuable they are and then relegate them to work that doesn’t take advantage of it. This isn’t a matter of “making them feel good.” This is about getting the most bang for your payroll buck. Even so, higher motivation is a usual side effect. And that, in turn, leads to even better performance. From them. From the company.

TEACH TECH IN WAYS NON-GEEKS CAN LEARN. All too often, technical training for older workers is a geek speaking Greek and a jumbled effort to remember stuff that never did make sense. This is not the learner’s fault. This is bad teaching. But older workers are quick to belittle themselves about their inability to learn this stuff. So poorly designed training stays in place and needed skills remain unlearned. If you were teaching your Russian subsidiary how make widgets, would you do it in French?

STOP THINKING “40-HOUR WORKWEEK”. If a senior worker wants to throttle back, explore whether they can get the essential work done on a less-than-fulltime basis. Thinking of full retirement as the only alternative to a fulltime position makes as much sense as thinking the only place you can get to from Chicago is Cleveland. Explore the possibilities. If your company has a defined pension plan especially, include HR. You may create a part-time or project-based slot that gives you more than you would get from a fulltime new hire for less money.

What we are doing with older workers is a senseless waste—to the culture, the company, the person. Grab the competitive advantage by using them to their fullest potential. You will probably be amazed.

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Mary Lloyd is the author of Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love. She offers seminars on how you can create a meaningful retirement for yourself and consults to help your business attract and use retired talent well. She is also available as a speaker. For more insights on how to better use the talent of those in the last third of their lives go to => http://www.mining-silver.com.

By Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

This article appears in the April 2009 issue of Barbara Morris’s online newsletter Put Old On Hold.

The current stresses have a lot of us feeling like we’re pushing bus-sized boulders up the Matterhorn. The trauma of having so much change so fast for so many is truly numbing. But we still have to live it. So the question becomes: How do I do this well? What can I change about the way I’m going at it that would make it easier?

Well, I’m not sure a major upheaval can ever be “easy.” But the thing I most need to change–and am least inclined to alter–is the idea that “this should not be happening.” So that’s a first step. Let’s work on getting past that. It doesn’t make any difference whether it should be happening or not, it is happening. The first step is to accept that.

That leads to the next question: If it’s happening, am I doing what I can to deal with the new situation? Your answer may be as simple as “I’m eating at home more” or as extreme as “I’m living in my grandmother’s basement while I look for another job.” But in every case, the change you make needs to be on target with your changed situation.

But is it? Sometimes we change things just to feel like we are doing something. When we do that out of panic instead of based on a planned effort, we waste time, money, and momentum at a point when we need to conserve all three.

This week started for me with a string of losses. Nothing from which I can’t recover, but quite a load for one morning. I’ve put a lot into getting people to value the talent and experience of older workers. I’m committed to this mission and passionate about the need for change. But as I struggled with my Monday disappointments, my thoughts suddenly turned toward going back to school. To study nursing!

That might be a great strategy for some of you. But I don’t do well with the sight of blood. I do not belong in nursing, even if nurses are in such short supply they can find a job in a day. But the “sure thing” seemed like the right call for a few hours there.

Don’t do it. Don’t grab at something just because it seems like the “sure thing.” Especially if it’s got nothing to do with who you really are. Sure things don’t stay that way. Just ask the bankers. Or the folks who were relying on Enron pensions.

What should you change? Change your strategies. Maybe it’s time to take it up a notch at work so people know how valuable you are. Maybe it’s time to spend less of your evening in front of the TV so you can work on things that can help your dreams take flight. Maybe it is time to take well-developed skills into a new industry or new direction in the same industry—or to learn new skills.

You’re the one who knows where things are starting to pinch personally. But to see a better way to address them, you need to stay calm. It’s hard to be calm when they’re announcing layoffs like they usually to announce Saturday night football scores on the ten o’clock news in September.

Be calm anyway. Prayer helps on this. Or meditation. Or just listening to your breath.

It also helps to regularly brainstorm other ways to deal with your current situation. Do this often. I’m always surprised with what comes up. And even more surprised with what comes up when I do it again a few days later. Once I started brainstorming, nursing disappeared from the radar, incidentally. I found some new ways to approach the challenge that I’m so passionate about. More options to try. More “next things” to get to.

Does that solve the problem? No. Having more to do is just, well, more to do. But Edison’s 1000 attempts before successfully inventing the light bulb does hold strong truth. Looking for another way is the way to get through this gracefully.

Learning how to do that gives you something you could never have gained with uninterrupted prosperity. You will gain resilience. And that’s priceless because it will serve you every time something doesn’t go your way. Being able to bounce is a very good thing.

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Mary Lloyd offers seminars on how you can create a meaningful retirement for yourself and consults to businesses on how to retain, attract, and use older talent well. She is the author of Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love, released April 2009, and is available as a speaker. For more on better ways to use the last third of our lives go to => http://www.mining-silver.com.

From Mary Lloyd, Mining Silver

This is the third of our year-long series of questions.  And this month’s comes as March goes out like a lion for a lot of us.  Flooding, snowstorms, and other nasty weather are worrying us all over the country.  And globally, we are all still stuck with this mess of an economy.  That’s a lot to get stressed about.  And most of us know all too well what stress feels like.
This month, let’s flip that and look at the opposite.  Let’s consider what “relaxed” feels like.  For April, please give us your comments to the following question:

How do you know when you’re relaxed?

Please take the time to register and leave your opinion.  We’d love to hear what you think!

By Mary Lloyd, CEO Mining Silver

Most of us have spent our careers looking forward to the day when we don’t have to actively work to have money. The pension. Social Security checks. Investment dividends. Money that comes without us having to continue the daily grind. Just a nice steady income stream whether we spent the week at the beach or working on a Habitat house or helping the oldest grandchild move into a new apartment half way across the county.

Well, that’s the way it was supposed to work anyway.  Right now, this kind of income is probably one of the most terrifying sources of cash flow imaginable.

Because it is, well….passive.  Since what we do isn’t tied to what it does, we don’t have a whole lot of room to make it go in a better direction when the current one is looking downright dire.

Right now it’s so bad that a lot of us are afraid to spend money on anything because the value of our passive sources of income is so wobbly.  This is not comfortable, but it’s important to know.  If we are aware that this possibility is part of the range of performance for passive income, we can build in ways to help ourselves cope when we get to this bumpy part of the road in the future.

We need to know this little secret about passive income as we plan what we want to do with the last third of our lives.  So this downturn has given us another unexpected gift–the chance to feel really deeply the helplessness of not being able to get our money to do a better job.  And feeling that feeling will help us build ourselves some escape routes from here on.

For some of us, it will be a matter of looking for a way to earn again.  For some of us, it’s teaching ourselves to stay calm in the midst of the economic cacophony.  For some of us, it will be refocusing on what’ s important and finding ways to keep going on that with a leaner budget.  And for some of us, it’s an adventure in how to cut costs.

You think I’m kidding on that last one, right?  Nope.  If the passive income situation is leaving you anxious, the most important thing you can do is act.   Taking action to cut the amount of money you need to live on is a good thing to do every once in a while to make sure that you are truly focused on your authentic needs.  So this is a good time to do that.

Notice I did not suggest you suck way in and not do things.  I said evaluate.  I said find a cheaper way to get what you want.  But just plain retreating?  Bad idea!

That makes you feel deprived as well as afraid.  And that’s an invitation to depression and poor health.  This situation is a test of our mettle, individually and as a culture.  The better we are at facing it,  acknowledging the scary feelings, and doing something to improve our situation, the bigger it is as a blessing.

Having investments lose value is awful.  Letting it intimidate you into not living your life is worse.