Take Control of your Finances During your Job Search, or your Finances will Control your Job Search

by Dan Medlin
Originally published at Dan Medlin's Blog.
Reprinted with permission.

In the STAR Career Workbook, I discuss the “Barriers to Launching and Continuing your Career Transition.” Clearly, money is a major issue. And as I listened to Dave Ramsey say “You have to make money behave,” in one of his Financial Peace Workshops, I thought, “Do I control my expenses, or do they control me?” Now as I think through the planning involved in Career Transition, it becomes clear that you can take control of your finances during your job search, or your finances will control your job search.

You have a number of choices to make:

• in which job search resources you will invest,
• which networking events you might attend,
• what opportunities you will pursue, and ultimately,
• how you will negotiate for a fair offer from your next employer.

If you have your finances secure, you will be able to make the choices you want to make instead of those you are forced to make.

Here are 3 tips to start you on the right path:

1. Plan to reduce your expenses.
Career Transition will often require some investment of resources. If you have had an issue in the past with managing your finances or you are strapped with unnecessary debt, take time now to learn about budgeting and managing money. You might consider this a burden, or you might consider it an opportunity. Think about how you can reduce your monthly budget and start cutting those costs NOW, before they mount into your growing debt. In the STAR Career Workbook, I provide a simple worksheet with some suggested expenses you might reduce.

2. Continue the Discipline of Saving.
Dave Ramsey would also start you out on a simple path. His “Baby Steps” start with saving, which is a discipline that begins a harvest of peace. You might not consider a time of career transition, especially if you are in between jobs, a time to begin saving. Consider at least Baby Step 1, to set aside and maintain a minimum of $1000 in savings.

3. Create a Detailed budget.
If you have not worked out a detailed budget, it’s critical you do so during career transition. Every dollar should have a name on it before the month begins. Chart out your fixed expenses, your variable expenses, and your “God only Knows” (unexpected emergency) expenses.

Don’t let all this work go to waste by “pity-party” spending, lonely spending or unexpected emergencies. There are no unexpected emergencies when you have planned for them. Start practicing that beautiful ancient word, “No,” and remember that “it’s not in the budget” is also a perfectly acceptable response.

The STAR Career Workbook will help you get on the path toward a rewarding career. This is a workbook, not a romance novel. Get out your pencil and prepare to spend some time in here.

This is the tool belt for the whole career search lifecycle. Tools for direction, communication, networking, interviewing and negotiation.

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Dan Medlin is a Senior Human Resources Business Partner with 14 years of HR experience, preceded by 10 years in higher education administration and teaching.    He is also author of the STAR Career Workbook, available on Amazon.  Come meet and talk to Dan at the upcoming HR CareerConnects event on September 27, 2012. (http://bit.ly/HRCCtickets) He'll be moderating our 2nd-session panel.