Set up temp motorhome parks until the housing crisis is over. Happened in the 1950s, during that housing crisis.
Have free 'bootcamps'. Want to change careers and be a mechanic or welder? Take an intense 6 month course. That's what happened in WWII, people stuck in crappy depression era towns all of a sudden got retrained in a few months.
Networking and contacts are hugely important, good relations with others will buffer you through bad times (and be sure to support others).
Investments are also wise, however they can go bad in ways that "bricks and morter" that you can touch won't.
So, you can't afford a house (yet) - one decent way to get a leg in is to put a solid deposit down on undeveloped land on the outskirts of an are that will grow over the next decade .. preferably within half a day or so of where you live | work.
You can pay that off over time, you can build a solid (slab floor) lockup prefab shed for ~ $10K that can act as storage space and a fall back space to camp | work in the worst case.
It's an investment you can trade up on for a starter home down the track, etc.
It's real estate baby steps with cheap storage included.
* Move to a city that isn't so expensive
* cut the car in favor of a transit pass and save the difference
* get a roommate or partner to split costs with
* Night/online schooling
* self-driven training
* get into a trade/craft job
Probably do the same thing my friends working the oil fields did: work hard, save as much money as possible, and move when done. Like programming, their skills translate fine outside the boom area.
i did something like this. cashed out bought farmland at the beginning of the year. got a job on a framing crew so i could learn to build my own house. made journeyman last month. its fun and exciting. and helped me repair the damage from sitting for 15 years.
Get good at operating your own business, because the corporations need you less and less every day.
Get good at living on 10% of whatever your income is today.
Get good at welding, so you'll be better equipped to repair your shipping container.
Get good at some basic homesteading capabilities in case you have to exit the wider society and provide for yourself.
Get good at finding a way to go live somewhere that is 50-100 years behind wherever you are so you are hopefully able to ride out the remainder of your time here in relative comfort.
Build housing/work in the trades (most likely as an electrician/electrical journeyman). Enough work left for someone middle aged for the rest of their working life.
5. Make sure you also deregulate construction and allow people to build shanty towns so they can work for $1 an hour and actually manage to somewhat survive in your dystopian nightmare.
The strategy here is: solve the short-term crisis first, so you can buy time to find a good job.
Some ways to buy time in the short-term are:
- Get a lower paying job even if you are overqualified. Not necessarily development. Work on ridesharing or delivery if you have to.
- Raise money, ask for donations (e.g.: gofund.me page).
- See if you qualify for welfare benefits.
- Sell things.
Remember, all of the above is just a temporary, short-term compromise.
Then, once you are stable enough, take the time to look for a better job, but do it in a less committed way, e.g.: your wife first then yourself, or something like that.
If you don't need to work for money and are able-bodied, go build something with your hands. Buy a remote plot of land and build a cabin. Buy an inner-city plot and build an affordable house that you could rent out at below-market rates. Do Habitat for Humanity. The list is endless.
There's some bad stuff coming down the pike in a few decades so use your good fortune to prepare yourself and our family.
Buy a bolthole somewhere that will have a good microclimate/rainfall even as things hot up. You don't need to go all prepper but build some kind of house there and start your integration into the local community, it will be good to have friends. Plant some shade trees. Get some solar, water tanks, etc. Go over capacity so that you can help out others.
Spend time with your kids, that's one thing you can never get back. Travel - slowly and considerately - by yacht, not be jet. Learn about the world first hand. Help them become adaptable and resilient, they're going to need it.
Who knows what the world of work will hold, so think of the money as having to not just see you out but also one or two generation after you. Then it won't look like quite so much, and you'll be able to make wise choices.
Work 3 jobs. Get a mortgage for a low income home. Double up your mortgage payments. Build up equity. Sell it. Use it as a down payment for a nice home. Get a promotion and quit one job. Not that difficult.
The real problem are people around you. Not environment. More like locking up one person for a petty crime, and you find out all these arsons and murders suddenly stop.
With Covid you can even find Staff jobs remote now. Pick a spot with good schools for your kids that's rural. Move and reduce expenses to less than $100k/yr. Buy or rent a cheap place and read kindle for entertainment.
Do that for 3-4 years. Congrats! You're flyover country retired now. From here you can move somewhere else, keep working for FAANG, do startups, volunteer, start a band, write a book, goof off, teach people to code, attempt things people insist are impossible.
Have free 'bootcamps'. Want to change careers and be a mechanic or welder? Take an intense 6 month course. That's what happened in WWII, people stuck in crappy depression era towns all of a sudden got retrained in a few months.
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