☛ Invest the funds.

☛ Start your own business, or try to open a business from home, and sell your special skills.

☛ Plan a budget and stick within the budget. Try to live within your means by not spending more than your reserves can fund.

☛ Take a break, relax, and rethink your next step.

☛ Take a course to improve your skills, or use a hobby, like knitting, making gizzadas or playing the keyboard at school concerts, to generate funds.

☛ Take on a new challenge by looking in the business and career sections of the newspaper to see what deals or investments can create employment opportunities. Try to send in a résumé early to gain employment and sell your skills.

Business blues

✔ Try to salvage what's left of the business and try to sell what you can from it to get funds.

✔ Review your line of creditors to see what cash is outstanding and collect it.

✔ Also review your debts and try to make arrangements for payment.

✔ For loans, try to avoid foreclosure. Make an effort to get loan modification, or extension for refinancing your business.

Salvaging savings

✌ If you have credit cards, don't breach spending limits to avoid mounting interest charges.

✌ Consolidate your credit cards if you have more than one. That way you only repay one annual fee, thus simplifying debt management.

✌ If possible, don't use a credit card; instead, stick to cash until you are back on your feet.

✌ Draw on resources from your friends or family to help you out.

✌ Shift around investments. Judge whether your savings can work for you by investing in stocks. Local stock prices have plummeted, so take advantage and buy now.

✌ You could sell some of your stock investment to get cash to assist you in the interim.

Mortgage bind

Normally there are two to three warnings from the mortgage company of foreclosure. When it is pending, source the funds. If you don't have the funds, try to:

✎ Stay with a good friend or family member until you can get back on your feet.

✎ See what you could have done differently.

✎ Enter into a joint venture when buying a home the second time around to ease the burden of having to purchase it yourself.

✎ Move into a rental house until you can get the funds required to buy back a home.

✎ You could cover the payment for the mortgage by renting out part of the home, using the money to help repay the mortgage.

✎ Look at your property and life insurance to see if there is a savings component which affords you cash payments.

General lifesavers

✍ Network with friends and family members.

✍ If you drive, carpool with other individuals to save on travel expenses, and don't make unnecessary trips.

✍ Shop around for affordable insurance, chock-full of benefits for your car and property.

✍ Get the best bargains when purchasing food and clothing; go to markets and wholesales and buy in bulk.

✍ If you have a gas-guzzling vehicle or one that's costly to maintain because of mechanical or other problems, sell it and purchase a smaller, lower-maintenance car.

✍ Save on electricity bills by using energy-saving bulbs. Unplug appliances when they are not being used.