In 2001, I was laid off two times one in April and another in October. Though I am lucky found another job within two months, my pay was cut each time with my new job. During those times, my stock holding tanked.
Start spring of 2002, I looked at income properties. I bought one run down apartment building and one foreclosure commercial building. My weekend and holidays are filled with hard working days: fix the roof, floor, pluming or bargain with contractors. At this point, I see my side job is returning more
profit than my day job did.
Originally, I try to make up my lost income from real estate. At this point, I am thinking of retire early or running my own high tech business.
There are many opportunities and success route. Hope my experience will give you different view.
Jack