Your Hard-Times Plan

The story: A calm night to plan for a hard one

Ana and Marcus write a hard-times plan at the kitchen table, with a bare-bones budget and a meter showing how long their savings would last.

1. Narrator: Nothing is wrong today. Ana and Marcus are using a calm evening to plan for a hard one.
2. Ana: If one of us lost a paycheck, what would we keep paying, and what would we pause?
3. Narrator: Start with a bare-bones budget: only what keeps a roof overhead, food on the table and the family safe.
4. Marcus: Our emergency fund covers about four months of bare-bones costs. That’s our runway.
5. Narrator: If a paycheck stops, apply for benefits like unemployment on day one. Most can’t be backdated.
6. Narrator: Then use resources in order: the emergency fund, then cuts, then selling unused things, and borrowing last.
7. Ana: Let’s write it down and share it with my sister, just in case.

What you’ll learn

1. A bare-bones budget

   List only what you’d keep paying in a hard stretch: housing, utilities, food, insurance, transportation and minimum debt payments. Everything else can pause. This smaller number is what your savings would need to cover each month.

2. Know your runway

   Your runway is how long your emergency fund would last on the bare-bones budget. To find it, divide your savings by your monthly bare-bones costs. A longer runway buys time to find the next paycheck.

   Example: $12,000 saved ÷ $3,000 a month in bare-bones costs = 4 months of runway.

3. Apply for help on day one

   If a paycheck stops, apply right away for benefits like unemployment, Medicaid or CHIP for health coverage, and SNAP for food. Most can’t be backdated, so waiting can cost money. These programs exist for exactly this kind of stretch.

4. Use resources in order, and share the plan

   A common order: the emergency fund, then cuts, then selling things you don’t use, and borrowing last. Write down who you’d call, like lenders and your landlord, to ask about hardship programs. Share the plan with your partner or a trusted person.

Key words

bare-bones budget

a budget with only the costs you’d keep paying in a hard stretch

hard-times plan

a written plan for what you’d apply for, cut, keep and sell if a paycheck stopped

Common questions

Where do I find which benefits I might get?

USA.gov has a benefit finder and links to each state’s unemployment office. The fact cards link to both.

What if my runway is short or zero?

That’s common, and the plan still helps. Benefits, cuts and early calls to lenders all buy time.

Remember this

Write the hard-times plan while times are good.

Try it: Build your hard-times plan

1. Write your bare-bones monthly budget.
2. Figure your runway: savings ÷ monthly bare-bones costs.
3. List the benefits you’d apply for and who you’d call.
4. Share the plan with your partner or a trusted person.

No account needed: write your plan on paper, or try it on the sample household in the demo.

Live facts

Numbers that change over time, with when they were last checked and where they come from.

• Find your state’s unemployment benefits

  Source: USA.gov(opens in a new tab)

• Find government benefits you may qualify for

  Source: USA.gov(opens in a new tab)