The day after we made the first payment on our dream house, the unexpected happened. I lost my job after 18 years. Rather than succumbing to panic and despair, this pivotal moment became a catalyst for self-reflection and healing.

Not knowing that losing a job would be in our future, my husband and I had transformed our approach to finances years prior. We had been focused on starting a family, growing in our careers, and had not given our finances the same time and attention.

We knew we wanted a better future with more opportunities, and the way we were handling money wasn’t going to make that happen. As we contemplated having a third child, we realized that our decade-old student loans, credit card debt and minimal savings were holding us back. I dove right in and started reading everything I could about personal finance. We established a “3-Year Plan” that was set to eliminate our debt, build our emergency fund, save up for a down payment, and got to work.

By the time I lost my job, we had extended our “3-Year Plan”, enabling us to eliminate that debt, build a solid nest egg, and moved us into our dream house. As newly unemployed, I felt lucky that our finances had put us into a position where I was able to take the time to think about what the next stage of my life should be rather than just jumping into any job because we were not going to be able to pay the bills.