E. T. Ande, Feb 21, 2009, 1:27PM EST

This page is an excerpt from my book 'How I Became a Millionaire Bushman' available at www.createspace.com/334542 or Amazon.

On the radio, I heard one of the victims of the Hollywood writers' strike of 2007 say, "I was living from paycheck to paycheck and now, I stopped receiving a paycheck and I am still receiving a lot of bills. I don't know what to do."
To such a complaint, I say, "You've placed yourself into such a predicament because you did not prepare yourself by building a financial cushion." The bigger the cushion, the better off you will be. The financial cushion is the nest egg for a rainy day; it is the money equal to - the value of your assets minus your financial obligations. Such a cushion should carry you for six months at a minimum, and preferably for a couple of years without earning a penny more in employment.
My statement above may sound harsh and uncompassionate directed at a person in financial trouble. Of course, I sympathize with such a person. My intention here is to be honest. We all know that we count on our jobs and monthly incomes. Our jobs and incomes are never guaranteed for the rest of our working lives. Knowing that, how can we start to relax before building our financial cushion? If we don't build our financial cushion, then our financial predicament is like an accident waiting to happen. We cannot say, "I didn't see it coming". All the facts are always in front of our eyes, but we are choosing to ignore them. There is a saying, "When your neighbor's house starts to burn, you do not have the luxury of not doing anything."
I am sure that the woman I mentioned above has heard about other people losing their income for whatever reasons. At that moment, she should have asked herself - "What if I lose my income, how am I going to survive?"
The honest answer to her question would have been - "I will not be able to survive any loss of income." To change her answer to - "Sure, I can survive for six months or more without any income or with unemployment income," she would have needed to evaluate her lifestyle by questioning all of her expenses.
(If you, the reader, are in the same situation, you owe it to yourself to start questioning your lifestyle and expenses, even if your are in a more comfortable financial situation.)