Survive, Adapt, and Thrive

Welcome to Goodbudget 911: Crash Course. It’s very possible you’re here not because you want to be, but because something is forcing you to make emergency changes to your budget. That might be a pay cut, a job loss, or a hefty medical bill that needs to be paid soon. Whatever that thing is, it’s shaking your foundation. You might be thinking, “How can I get food on the table? How can we pay bills this month?”

It makes sense to ask these questions. More importantly, it’s okay (and even good!) to acknowledge that a situation like that can be overwhelming and even scary.

You might be in survival mode right now, and that’s okay! This course is all about helping you find your footing in the short term so you can adapt to your new situation and even thrive down the road.

You’ll walk through three distinct stages in this course, and each stage contains two parts. The first part of each stage tells the story of a fictional family who have also hit a bump in their financial road. You’ll see how they:

• Survive the start of their crisis by making a plan to help them pay bills on time and put food on the table.
• Adapt to their situation by developing a lean budget and making other habit changes. They figure out how to pay for necessities indefinitely while also building an emergency fund to shield them from future financial emergencies.
• Thrive, or at least hope to thrive, in the long term by creating a plan for when their next normal starts.

The second part of each stage contains homework: you’ll take what you’ve learned from the fictional family and apply it to your own situation.

P.S. If you’re not in the midst of an emergency, but you’re struggling to get ahead because you’re living paycheck to paycheck, GB 30: Break the Cycle might be a better fit. In that course, you’ll spend 30 days working to boost savings and begin building a one-month cushion so you can break the paycheck to paycheck cycle for good.