As the famous proverb goes, 'Prepare for the worst and hope for the best'. Recessions come every few years, its a part of the business cycle and hence we should not be surprised at its arrival but rather be prepared for it.

Certain amount of planning, a little bit of work will go a long way in securing your life during times of recession. And you must start them while you are still employed.

1. Keep emergency cash savings which should be equivalent to your three months expense, rather six months is advisable. It should be enough to cover all kind of expenses ranging from rent payment or loan repayment to the bank, even the grocery bills and everything else. Ideally, this saving should be able to cover up-to six month of expenses.

2. After the emergency fund is taken care off, make sure to clear out all your debt from credit card and then mortgage debt.

3. Credit card offers cash back and reward points on purchase but do not get carried away by them if you cannot maintain the discipline of clearing your purchases with the card.

4. If you are middle manager or if your salary is in the top quartile of the industry for the same level of experience then you are most vulnerable. Because you are expensive enough to be fired to reach cut-back targets. If you feel your company can do without you, try to move within your company to a position which will make you less vulnerable.

5. Other than that also take up courses for acquiring additional set of skills. There are two ways to look at it. Either you will end up becoming a specialist in a particular field by continuously upgrading yourself or if you pick new skills from different fields then you would have a diverse set of skills which will provide you with a variety of job options.

If luck goes against you and you are out of job then do not sulk or go on a holiday trip. Rather immediately get to a consultant and try for another job. The focus here is to make sure that some money keeps coming in which in turn increases the lasting period of your emergency cash.

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