In 2008 I got laid off for the first time and I had nothing but debt. Pretty much straight outta post secondary. I had real income for the first time in my life, so naturally I abused my finances with LOC, credit cards, truck payments and students loans and living pay cheque to pay cheque. It was horrible. While I was suffering, other people I knew that were laid off were fine, living life, even travelling. I was like, WTF?
That's when I learned about having healthy personal finances through one of those friends. So the game was on. Pay off debt, and then start saving money. Took years of discipline!!!!! I still remember the day I crossed the threshold of paying off debt to saving money. It's like a new chapter started, with all new emotions, goals, skills and attitudes.
Fast forward to 2014 oil crash in Ol'Burta. I had money in the bank, living well within my means. Sure it was stressful watching everyone around you getting laid off and going through what you once did. But I had planned for and was ready for another layoff. But it never came. I ended up getting a new job back home in BC that had nothing to do with O&G.
Right now, I'm sitting on a healthy emergency fund, and a healthy lifestyle and it's all well within my means. So financially I'm not that stressed, I can take a couple years off without skipping the necessities of my lifestyle. I'm still working full time, and who knows if that will last much longer (work at a pulp mill, so prospects are looking like staying gainfully employed) So I can empathize with people who have lost their jobs and have no income. Been there. But I learned from my pain and misery and I hope most of the current people in that situation learn through their trial by fire as well. My parents always told me to save money and I always ignored them. 2008 took my feet out from under me and fucking humbled me. So now the lessons have been learned and I've prepared for this. Hopefully others do to.
Now I know a lot of people will say I'm an asshole and not everyone can save money because they have low paying jobs and cost of living is expensive. Yup, my sister is in that boat and just lost her job. But she chooses to live in Van where rent is sky high. She chooses to have a fun social low paying job. She chose not to take school seriously and never got anything out of it. She's made a lot of choices that put her in her exact spot. So my sympathy is kinda non existent for those scenarios. But I do know there's a lot of people that don't get to make a lot of those choices to begin with, and those are the people who are really going to suffer. I feel bad and hope everything comes out alright at some point, and soon. And like the whole debt vs savings lesson, I hope a lot of these people can come out of this with a better understanding and maybe make it so they can make these decisions in the future.
Anyways, I'm just rambling on. I hope people learn from this and come out down the road stronger and wiser to face the next hurdle the universe throws our way.