While you are still in a job, collect all the information you can about it.

Send this page address - CLICK HERE - to a friend !

While you are still in a job, collect all the information you can about it. Take photos if possible. (I'm not advocating industrial espionage here - just collecting useful information). Most people look at a job as just a way of earning money and they do the basic job and nothing more. They are just grunt labour for the company.

But, if you look at it as a learning experience you will realise that you are in a unique position to get information that most people don't have access to. This might include process methods, details of suppliers, details of customers, product catalogues, equipment brochures, training material. This stuff could potentially be used to earn money in the future. For example, with a few suitable photos, you could produce an eBook about how glassware is produced. Maybe you could make it suitable for the home hobbyist who simply has a little gas flame torch and a work bench. (Maybe you could make glass figurines or something and sell them?)

I'm not suggesting this eBook or glass ornaments would be bestsellers but it's a (probably trivial) example of what might be possible in the long term.

A good long term strategy is to have multiple streams of income - each one bringing in maybe a tenth of the total. That way, if one stream fails, you still have 90% of your income. You could base your streams on knowledge and hobbies that you and your wife already have. For example, maybe your wife knows the best way to care for an elderly relative and how to determine if a care home is suitable, or a rip-off "Auschwitz". That could form the basis of a useful eBook. Most people have parents and worry about what will be best in later years.

In the short term this probably won't help. If you need money NOW you need to start selling off assets that you already own. Ebay is a good way. Another possibility is car boot sales.