In this case, the couple wanted to start a family but felt they had to pay down their debt before they changed gears.  Smart!

Photo by Sharon Harvell

Could it be that the long-awaited bluer skies are finally returning?  The stock market, holiday spending, and other economic indicators are up. Most welcome of all perhaps, according to the latest report, unemployment is down. 

If you are one of the lucky beneficiaries of this nascent uptick in hiring, congratulations!  Before you get too caught up in the day-to-day demands of full-time employment, check out my thoughts and others’ on how to make the most of your new job – financially speaking — in this article Newly Re-Employed Need To Revisit Financial Goals by CNBC’s Shelly Schwartz. 

A look at jobs data from The Great Recession suggests — and client experiences corroborate — that there’s a new normal out there, and it reads like some sort of Bizarro Candid Camera episode. i.e. Don’t be surprised if sometime, somewhere, someplace when you least expect it, someone steps up to you and says, “Sorry, your job has gone the way of the dinosaur,” prompting an unplanned, possibly extended career transition with the potential to undo a lifetime of hard-won financial security.

Not pretty. But accepting this shift in the employment landscape is the first important step in making the career and financial choices that better prepare you for this “just in case” scenario. Check out this NY Times article to find out why that’s been even more true for baby boomers: Longer Unemployment for those 45 and Older.  (Anybody remember when experience was a plus for job seekers?)

Fortunately, some of those who’ve been on the job search front lines during this recession are sharing what they’ve learned about how to survive — maybe even thrive — in this Bizarro World. Click here to listen to an excellent New Hampshire Public Radio segment featuring none other than Tammy Hildreth, guest blogger, co-founder of Network for Work (TM) professional networking group, and winner of our recent giveaway of The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed.

First, readers of the blog have probably heard me say it before: I believe that people need to adopt entirely different money management strategies in order to be successful when they make the leap from full-time employee to self-employed.  (See related posts.) But to my knowledge, the Freelance Finance system explained in The Money Book is the first complete personal finance system for “people with not-so-regular jobs”. So I’m thrilled to have a one-stop-shop resource I can recommend to my self-employed clients.

I’m also pleased to have played a small part in the project coming to fruition, and to be quoted in the book (see page 196!) When Joe contacted me about a year ago during the research phase of the book, I was more than willing to share what I’d learned, both as a self-employed and a financial planner, if — I must confess — a tad mystified by the monkey metaphor. (Read the book! Or check out the March 2010 edition of The New Means News, coming soon.)

Finally, it’s especially gratifying to have been involved in a project that made Liz Pulliam Weston’s list of 5 Money Books That are Worth Every Penny in her recent MSN article. I’ve been following — and continually impressed by — Liz since she spoke on credit reporting at the NH Jump$tart MoneySmarts Teacher conference a few years back. Congratulations to Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan on having earned such high praise for their work shedding light on this topic, which grows increasingly important as the ranks of independent workers expand.